'Just A Yes Or No': Katie Britt Grills Julie Su On Being In The Presidential Line Of Succession

4 months ago

During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing Thursday, Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) spoke to Secretary of Labor Julie Su about being in line for the President.

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Transcript

00:00 I'll give her a moment to get adjusted and then I will recognize Senator Britt.

00:11 Thank you very much.

00:13 Just got finished with banking and headed down, so thank you.

00:15 I appreciate it.

00:17 Acting Secretary Sue, thank you for being here today.

00:20 I wanted to begin by expressing my concern about the length of time the Biden administration

00:24 has allowed the Department of Labor to operate without a Senate-confirmed secretary at the

00:30 helm.

00:31 As you were aware, your nomination to be the Secretary of Labor is opposed in a bipartisan

00:35 majority of the Senate, and you will not be confirmed to this position during this Congress.

00:41 Despite that reality and repeated requests to the President to put forth a nominee who

00:45 can receive adequate support to be confirmed, the Biden administration has instead left

00:51 you in place as Acting Secretary on an indefinite basis, with no current plans to put forth

00:56 another nominee for Secretary of Labor.

00:59 You've also been listed on the White House website as a member of the Cabinet, "in order

01:04 of succession to the Presidency," signaling that despite having never been elected to

01:09 any office nor confirmed by the Senate to any Cabinet-level position, the White House

01:14 believes that you are eligible to assume the Presidency pursuant to the Presidential Succession

01:21 Act of 1974.

01:23 In October, I led a letter to President Biden along with 29 of my colleagues, urging that

01:28 the White House clarify its position on this very issue.

01:32 I've yet to receive a response to that letter, and so I want to raise that question with

01:36 you today.

01:38 Do you believe that if the need were to arise, that you are currently eligible to assume

01:43 the Presidency under the Presidential Succession Act of 1974?

01:48 Senator, it is the honor of a lifetime to have been nominated by the President to serve

01:54 in his Cabinet.

01:55 Absolutely.

01:56 And do you believe that you are in the line of Presidential succession?

02:00 So prior to being nominated, I was confirmed as the Deputy Secretary of Labor in 2021.

02:09 And then when my predecessor left, I became the Acting Secretary through the normal...

02:13 Yes, ma'am, I'm aware.

02:14 And my question is, do you believe that you should be in the Presidential line of succession?

02:19 It's just a yes or a no.

02:21 I mean, Senator, I put it this way.

02:23 I serve at the pleasure of the President.

02:25 I appreciate his confidence in me.

02:26 We've spent some time here today talking about the work of the Department and the important

02:30 ways that we are...

02:31 I guess this is my...

02:32 My question is specifically about the Presidential line of succession.

02:35 Do you believe, yes or no, that you should be in that, having not been confirmed to this

02:40 position by the United States Senate?

02:43 So just, yes, you believe you should be able to secede in the Presidential line of succession

02:47 if that were ever to happen, or no, you believe you are not actually in that line of succession?

02:54 Let me...

02:55 Can I say two things about that, Senator?

02:56 The first is that...

02:57 Well, I...

02:58 You know what I actually...

02:59 The question of...

03:00 Yeah, I actually have a lot of questions I wanna get to on this, but I thought that

03:04 that would be a really easy yes or no.

03:06 And to me, it's no.

03:07 You haven't been confirmed and therefore should not be in the line of succession.

03:10 I mean, this is a big deal and I think that's a simple answer, and unfortunately, I didn't

03:16 get that from you.

03:17 Like many other of my colleagues, I've been very concerned about a number of rules that

03:21 have been issued by the Department of Labor during your tenure, starting with the new

03:24 overtime rule, and I know we've discussed that a bit today.

03:28 The new rule increases the minimum salary threshold for the executive, administrative,

03:33 or professional overtime exemption by 65% from the 2019 rule and increases the minimum

03:38 salary threshold for a highly compensated employee overtime exemption by 41% from the

03:45 2019 rule.

03:46 I've heard from numerous stakeholders in Alabama about the huge detrimental impact that this

03:52 rule will have on them.

03:54 As an example, many of Alabama's small colleges and universities, which include HBCUs, we

04:00 have more HBCUs in Alabama than any other place in the nation.

04:04 And as I hear from them about dealing with this, it is going to have significant ramifications.

04:10 My office has spoken to schools that don't have large budgets or endowments but are facing

04:16 hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional costs for the upcoming academic year, having

04:21 to implement this rule and reevaluate salaries across the board due to this rule's provisions.

04:28 At the same time, those schools are unable to lock down their incoming freshman classes

04:32 or fully make informed decisions and budgetary choices about the upcoming academic year.

04:40 And if you look at that, you know, this rule is obviously having a huge impact in addition

04:46 to all of those things in small businesses in Alabama.

04:49 And to me, small businesses are the heartbeat of this country.

04:52 They're what make Main Streets go.

04:54 They're what allow people to achieve the American dream.

04:57 And given these realities, do you at the very least envision the department granting additional

05:03 flexibility with respect to the timing of this rule's implementation across the country?

05:10 So Senator, I agree with what you said about the importance of small businesses in our

05:14 economy.

05:15 There's no question about that.

05:16 And we engage with small businesses in all of our rulemaking, but also in our overtime

05:21 rule.

05:23 In terms of the timing, actually -- And they're supportive of that?

05:27 We got comments on all sides.

05:28 We got -- I think I said this, over 33,000 comments in overtime.

05:31 I believe that's the right number for that particular rule.

05:35 But -- And we do hear from small businesses who rely on the Department of Labor to create

05:39 a level playing field on which they can compete, especially in a moment where they need to

05:44 recruit and retain, you know, keep workers by making sure that their working conditions

05:49 are competitive.

05:51 But let me just address the timing, because that is one of the things -- And the ranking

05:56 member and I already talked about this -- is we heard comments about the need for some

06:01 time to come into compliance.

06:04 So our overtime rule goes into effect in two phases.

06:08 The first is on July 1st.

06:10 It will go up -- It's a bump based on the current methodology, not the new methodology,

06:16 but the current rule multiplied by current wage levels.

06:23 The other bump, the bump of the 35th percentile in the new rule is going to go into effect

06:31 on January 1st of 2025.

06:34 I hope you'll take these things into consideration.

06:36 And I am obviously out of time, but I heard my colleague from New Hampshire mention there

06:40 is a big cost of living difference, as she mentioned, from -- in New Hampshire and Boston.

06:45 When you look at the low cost of living in Alabama, there is a detrimental effect that

06:49 occurs, and I hope that you will take all of those things into account.

06:53 So thank you very much for your time today.

06:55 If I could just also say, the way our formula works does take that into account, and I'm

06:59 happy to follow up if you want to hear more about that.

'Just A Yes Or No': Katie Britt Grills Julie Su On Being In The Presidential Line Of Succession

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