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Also see: Alexander Acosta;
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Undated: The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is a cabinet-level department of the U.S. federal government responsible for occupational safety, wage and hour standards, unemployment insurance benefits, reemployment services, and some economic statistics; many U.S. states also have such departments. The department is headed by the U.S. Secretary of Labor.
The purpose of the Department of Labor is to foster, promote, and develop the wellbeing of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights. In carrying out this mission, the Department of Labor administers and enforces more than 180 federal laws and thousands of federal regulations. These mandates and the regulations that implement them cover many workplace activities for about 10 million employers and 125 million workers.
The department's headquarters is housed in the Frances Perkins Building, named in honor of Frances Perkins, the Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Labor
-- 2017 --
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February 16: Trump unveils new pick to head Labor Department
President Trump on Thursday announced he was nominating Alexander Acosta to be his Labor secretary, less than 24 hours after his first nominee for the position withdrew amid criticism from Republican senators.
"He has had a tremendous career," Trump said of Acosta in a press conference at the White House, listing off highlights of his nominee's resume. Acosta was not present at the press conference.
"I think he’ll be a tremendous secretary of Labor," the president added, noting that Acosta has gotten through the Senate confirmation process before.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/319893-trump-unveils-new-pick-to-head-labor-department
-- 2018 --
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Undated: U.S. Department of Labor Sees 21% Cut in President Trump's 2018 Budget
President Trump’s 2018 budget requests $9.6 billion for the U.S. Department of Labor, a $2.5 billion or 21 percent decrease from the 2017 annualized continuing resolution (CR) level. The president’s 2018 budget proposes and states the following:
http://www.careeractionresources.com/career-action-blog/u-s-department-of-labor-sees-21-cut-in-president-trump-s-2018-budget
June 20: Trump Team Mulls Merger of Education, Labor Departments
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2018/06/trump_administration_mulls_labor_education_merger.html?cmp=cpc-goog-ew-dynamic+ads+recent+articles&ccid=dynamic+ads+recent+articles&ccag=recent+articles+dynamic&cckw=&cccv=dynamic+ad&gclid=EAIaIQobChMImP_D87r74AIVA7jACh3x4gdLEAAYASAAEgLhQvD_BwE
September 19: Trump Stacks Labor Department with Friends of Big Business
His appointees made their bones on the management side of the table.
https://prospect.org/article/trump-stacks-labor-department-friends-big-business
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November 26: Trump Labor Department To Use New H-1B Form Against Tech Companies
On Monday, November 19, 2018, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) began requiring employers to use a new H-1B labor condition application (LCA) form designed largely to inflict reputational harm on high-tech employers. The use of government forms to compel information from companies to encourage negative media attention or other types of retaliation for contracting out services should concern the business community and the public at large.
The key provision of the new form is to require employers of H-1B professionals to name any companies where an H-1B visa holder will perform work on a contract (i.e., a third-party site with the client/customer name). The purpose of this requirement is clear.
“This revision to the labor condition application is nothing more than an attempt to discourage contracting out for services by U.S. companies whose contractors employ H-1B professionals,” said Vic Goel, managing partner of Goel & Anderson, in an interview.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2018/11/26/trump-labor-dept-to-use-new-h-1b-form-against-tech-companies/#6bf45c8a3ef3
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November 30: Lawmakers call for investigation of Labor Secretary Acosta after scathing report
A Democratic group of lawmakers is calling for a Justice Department investigation into Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta after a scathing report revealed decade-old allegations that he granted an alleged serial pedophile the “deal of a lifetime’’ while serving as a U.S. attorney in South Florida.
The still-growing group, led by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., called on Inspector General Michael Horowitz to investigate Acosta's role in a plea deal for Jeffrey Epstein, a multimillionaire financier. Epstein was convicted in 2008 of soliciting an underage girl for prostitution, but a Miami Herald investigation this week said the allegations against him were originally much broader, accusing him of coercing dozens of underage girls into sex acts.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/11/30/lawmakers-labor-secretary-alexander-acosta-should-investigated/2156355002/
-- 2019 --
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January 10: Trump’s Labor Department Wants to Drug-Test Applicants for Unemployment Benefits
What if you lost your job? It could happen to anyone, right?
In 2016, 19.9 million people were laid off or discharged. What if you needed unemployment benefits to sustain you between jobs? That’s not unreasonable either. There were 1.83 million people collecting unemployment benefits last spring. But what if you had to take and pass a drug test in order to collect those benefits, even if you lost your job for reasons unrelated to drug use?
https://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform/drug-testing/trumps-labor-department-wants-drug-test-applicants
February 5: U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta issued the following statement regarding President Donald J. Trump’s State of the Union Address:
“President Trump’s State of the Union address clearly showed that America’s workers are at the heart of his administration. Tonight, our nation’s leaders came together and heard a unifying message full of proposals that will continue the success that the American workforce has experienced throughout the first two years of the Trump Administration.
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“For nine straight months, there have been more open jobs than job seekers; for 11 straight months, the unemployment rate has been 4.0% or lower; and each of the last 16 straight months we have tallied more than 100,000 jobs, including 304,000 jobs last month. With more than 5.3 million jobs created since November 2016, the President’s policies resulted in broad optimism across industries.
https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/osec/osec20190205
February 6: Trump’s administration considers rule that would make it easier for businesses to exploit workers
A rule on worker classification would affect workers' protections against unfair labor practices.
https://thinkprogress.org/labor-department-considers-rule-that-would-make-it-easier-for-businesses-to-exploit-workers-cbe3e381ad07/
February 22:
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March 11: White House won’t say if embattled labor secretary Acosta has Trump’s support
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/03/11/white-house-wont-say-if-embattled-labor-secretary-acosta-has-trumps-support/23689852/
March 11: The White House is seeking to cut discretionary spending for the Labor Department by nearly 10 percent under a new budget proposal unveiled today, a proposal key House Democrats seek to reject.
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/trump-seeks-to-slash-labor-department-funding-1
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