DOL leadership takes shape

Now that the Senate has confirmed Lori Chavez-DeRemer as Secretary of Labor and Keith Sonderling as Deputy Secretary, the Trump administration has announced its choices to lead the Office of Federal Contractor Compliance Programs (OFCCP), the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC), the Wage and Hour Division (WHD), the Solicitor of Labor, and the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP).

Eschbach appointed OFCCP director

The Department of Labor (DOL) announced that former Morgan Lewis attorney Catherine Eschbach would be the OFCCP director. Because the position doesn’t require Senate confirmation, she began her tenure on March 24.

Before coming to the OFCCP, Eschbach had focused on constitutional, statutory, and administrative law issues. She is joining a subagency whose main mission— affirmative action and nondiscrimination for women and minorities—was eliminated when President Trump rescinded President Lyndon Johnson’s Executive Order (EO) 11246 and which is expected to have its workforce cut by as much as 90%. According to her statement, she is “committed to carrying out” the president’s EOs, “which will restore a merit-based system to provide all workers with equal opportunity.” For federal contractors, she was one of the attorneys who represented ABM in the litigation against the DOL that found its administrative law judges to be unconstitutional.

Berry nominated as Solicitor of Labor