Staff Reports
North Carolina Representative Virginia Foxx has taken a bold step to prevent the Department of Labor from dragging its feet during President Biden’s impending lame-duck phase. In a distinctly proactive move, Foxx reached out to Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su to ensure that the DOL remains on track in processing casework. This decision comes from lessons learned during the last transfer of power, when the DOL, under the Obama administration’s watch, effectively slammed the brakes on casework, resulting in a staggering backlog of hundreds of cases and leaving Americans high and dry in their times of need.
The Committee on Education and the Workforce, which Foxx oversees, isn’t interested in a repeat performance. When Trump took office, he inherited a monumental mess from the previous administration, with delays that bogged down essential worker assistance like workers’ compensation. No one wants to see that happen again, so Foxx is calling for some accountability. She insists the DOL must provide regular updates on the status of casework to Congress as the transition nears so that timely support can be ensured for everyday Americans.
The cringe-worthy backstory here is the internal sabotage that the Trump administration faced from government bureaucrats who were apparently more interested in protecting their own turf than helping citizens. A memorable example is when an anonymous whistleblower from the Department of Homeland Security openly bragged about thwarting aspects of Trump’s agenda in the pages of the New York Times. Foxx and her GOP colleagues are understandably wary and are taking necessary steps to prevent a similar episode from reoccurring.
EXCLUSIVE: ‘Avoidable And Unconscionable’: GOP Rep Looks To Thwart Potential Trump Resistance In Department Of Labor https://t.co/EqOq8gMSOY via @dailycaller
— OurVoicesWILLNOTBeSilenced (@cgosselinaikens) November 26, 2024
In another similar move, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky and other Republican lawmakers are addressing the concerning possibility of Biden’s political appointees morphing into civil servants—a sneaky tactic widely known as “burrowing in.” Historically, this has allowed outgoing administrations to embed loyalists in key positions, making it easier for them to gum up the works for incoming administrations. Nobody wants a repeat of an administration that attempts to dismantle the new president’s plans from the inside.
Foxx’s correspondence with the DOL makes it abundantly clear that the horror show of 2016-2017, characterized by inefficiency and bureaucratic bullheadedness, is not on the agenda for this transition. She references the positive example set by the Trump administration, which continued to process cases during their transition, and is insisting that this administration should do the same in order to serve the American people effectively. In a political environment charged with partisanship, Foxx is seeking to keep the DOL accountable and transparent, demanding that essential services to hardworking Americans are not held hostage by political gamesmanship.
