{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.scott.senate.gov/media-center/press-releases/senator-scott-colleagues-call-on-president-biden-to-withdraw-nomination-of-dr-david-weil-for-wage-and-hour-administrator/", "Senator Scott, Colleagues Call on President Biden to Withdraw Nomination of Dr. David Weil for Wage & Hour Administrator", "2021-12-29", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "SC", "Tim Scott", "S001184", "www.scott.senate.gov", "timscott", "https://www.scott.senate.gov/media-center/press-releases/jsf/jet-engine:press-list", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) joined Senators Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) in urging President Biden to formally withdraw the nomination of Dr. David Weil to be Administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor\u2019s Wage & Hour Division. In a letter, the senators cited that the Senate\u2019s HELP Committee was unable to report Dr. Weil\u2019s nomination favorably when it was considered this year and listed concerns with actions Dr. Weil took while serving as Wage & Hour Administrator during the Obama administration, including implementing job-killing rules, arbitrarily constricting the standard for who is considered an independent contractor, and presiding over a 93% increase in litigation due to an expansion of the \u201cjoint employer\u201d definition.\n\n\u201cSmall business entrepreneurs in this country deserve a Wage and Hour Division Administrator that will work constructively alongside them,\u201d the senators wrote. \u201cThe Senate has spoken this year that Dr. Weil is not the right fit for this position. We appreciate your responsiveness to this request, and ask for prompt confirmation that the nomination of Dr. David Weil is formally withdrawn.\u201d\n\nClick here to download or read the full text of the letter below:\n\nDear Mr. President,\n\nWe write to urge you to formally withdraw the nomination of Dr. David Weil, of Massachusetts, to be Administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor\u2019s Wage and Hour Division, Department of Labor, vice Cheryl Marie Stanton. Dr. Weil\u2019s track record is hostile to employers, unproductive to the employees served by such employers, and the actions he took at the federal level were mired in costly litigation.\n\nThe United States Constitution divides the responsibility for populating top positions in the federal government between the President and the United States Senate. The appointments clause (Article II, Section 2) empowers the President to nominate \u201cby and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate\u201d. The role of the Senate to give advice and consent is an integral part of the process for populating top officials in our government.\n\nThe Senate received Dr. Weil\u2019s nomination on June 8, 2021. The Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) carefully considered the merits of his nomination, actions that included a full committee hearing. The HELP Committee was unable to favorably report Dr. Weil\u2019s nomination to the full Senate during an August 3, 2021 business meeting, lacking the necessary votes to do so. In the nearly five months that followed this failed business meeting, no action was taken by the full Senate to discharge or otherwise consider his nomination. On December 21, 2021, this nomination was formally returned to the White House, as the Senate did not give consent to hold over Dr. Weil\u2019s nomination.\n\nThe lack of sufficient support for Dr. Weil\u2019s nomination is not surprising considering the actions he took during the Obama administration as Wage & Hour Administrator. Chief among the concerns with his record: promulgation of a job-killing overtime rule in 2016 that overstepped and was therefore struck down by the U.S. District Court; an arbitrarily strict standard for classification of independent contractors in 2015; and a destructive expansion of \u201cjoint employer\u201d definition in 2016 that led to a 93 percent increase in litigation. Additionally, both Dr. Weil and the Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts have refused to provide all the documents regarding Weil\u2019s actions with the Labor Advisory Board in Massachusetts. Requests to both by the Ranking Member\u2019s staff have been stonewalled and public records requests have been unnecessarily delayed. These are not the actions of an individual committed to transparency and accountability in government service. His nomination has raised sincere concerns on behalf of many of the constituencies we represent.\n\nSmall business entrepreneurs in this country deserve a Wage and Hour Division Administrator that will work constructively alongside them. The Senate has spoken this year that Dr. Weil is not the right fit for this position. We appreciate your responsiveness to this request, and ask for prompt confirmation that the nomination of Dr. David Weil is formally withdrawn.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"]], "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.scott.senate.gov/media-center/press-releases/senator-scott-colleagues-call-on-president-biden-to-withdraw-nomination-of-dr-david-weil-for-wage-and-hour-administrator/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.123165875673294, "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"}