{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ContentRecord_id=713db0bc-5b4e-4275-b686-0a064c2df83a", "Alexander Votes Against EEOC General Counsel Nominee Lopez", "2014-12-03", "2014", "2014-12", "Republican", "House", "TN", "Lamar Alexander", "A000360", "www.alexander.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "***\r\n\u201cMr. Lopez has been chiefly responsible for the agency\u2019s pursuit of high-profile lawsuits that have been rebuked by the courts.\" \u00a0\u00a0\u2013Lamar Alexander\u00a0\r\nWASHINGTON, D.C., Dec. 3\u00a0\u2013U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today voted against the president\u2019s nominee for general counsel of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, David Lopez.\r\n\u201cDuring his time as general counsel, Mr. Lopez has been chiefly responsible for the agency\u2019s pursuit of high-profile lawsuits that have been rebuked by the courts\u2014and taxpayers are paying the cost of these rebukes,\u201d Alexander said.\r\nLast week, Alexander released a staff report detailing the litigation missteps the EEOC has taken in recent years. The report found that today\u2019s EEOC \u201cis pursuing many questionable cases through sometimes overly aggressive means\u2014and, as a result, has suffered significant court losses that are embarrassing to the agency and costly to taxpayers. \u2026The courts have criticized EEOC for misuse of its authority, poor expert analysis, and pursuit of novel cases unsupported by law.\u201d\r\nAlexander pointed to five separate EEOC lawsuits brought by Lopez that were so frivolous or mismanaged that the commission was required to pay attorney\u2019s fees to the defendants\u2014at taxpayers\u2019 expense. \u00a0\r\nWhile the agency has pursued high-profile lawsuits without a complainant, in March 2014 EEOC reported almost 71,000 unresolved complaints of discrimination from individuals who filed charges.\u00a0 Further, its litigation has recovered almost $200 million less for victims than under the previous administration over the same time frame.\r\nAlexander also noted that Lopez refused to answer whether he would wait on guidance from the commission on wellness plans before continuing to sue employers over their plans. \u201cThat\u2019s discouraging employers who are trying to give employees cheaper insurance if they lead a healthy lifestyle,\u201d Alexander said at last month\u2019s\u00a0hearing regarding Lopez\u2019s nomination.\r\n\u00a0\r\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ContentRecord_id=713db0bc-5b4e-4275-b686-0a064c2df83a"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.8077560234814882, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}