House panel threatens to subpoena Biden’s labor boss over return-to-work plan

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), chairwoman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, threatened Wednesday to subpoena acting Labor Secretary Julie Su for information about the U.S. government’s return-to-work plan. Department.

At a committee hearing Wednesday morning where Su testified, Foxx Said she plans deliver a subpoena to the head of Labor if she does not hand over the requested information by Monday.

“We have 19 hours before this committee hearing, a portion of the material we requested months ago we received last night,” Foxx said. “I would also like to advise the ranking member that I intend to serve a subpoena on the acting secretary if we do not receive, by May 6, the department’s return to duty plan, which the White House Chief of Staff has instructed the agency to prepare and submit by January 26th.”

The threat comes almost two months after Foxx sent a letter to Su on March 6, pressing her about the department’s failure to present its return to office policies after the White House requested the information. The North Carolina Republican asked Su to do so by March 20.

“Despite repeated pleas from the White House, it appears that the DOL has failed to make any meaningful efforts to respect taxpayer dollars and return to in-person work,” Foxx wrote in March. “On September 18, 2022, President Biden declared that ‘the pandemic is over.’ However, many federal government agencies maintained remote work policies instituted during the pandemic.”

Foxx pointed to an analysis of the Government Accountability Office which concluded that the DOL and five other agencies used an average of 23% of their headquarters space. Calling this “unacceptable,” Foxx referenced Office of Budget and Management (OMB) guidance issued in April 2023 that urged federal employees to return to the office full time.

“An accurate understanding of the status of headquarters personnel is necessary for the committee to ensure that the DOL carries out its mandates faithfully and in accordance with the law,” Foxx wrote. “Furthermore, employees who do not return to the office could expose taxpayers to significant waste, fraud and abuse.”

Foxx reiterated his frustrations on Wednesday in response to Su’s request for a bigger budget.

“As long as people only come five days in two weeks, that’s not going to work for me. Bring people back to the office. Then you can come talk to us about more money,” Foxx said.

The Hill has reached out to the Department of Labor for further comment.

Su’s nomination to replace former Labor Secretary Marty Walsh faced several obstacles last year amid backlash from Senate Republicans.

Su was nominated by President Biden last March to replace Walsh, but the nomination never came to a vote in the upper house. In June, it appeared that Democratic leadership had made little progress in convincing holdouts to support his nomination.

She was nominated by Biden to serve as Labor secretary in January, and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee advanced the nomination on a party-line vote in February. This hasn’t been brought yet to the Senate plenary for a full vote.