Acosta has received OK in the past
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and a leading Republican are highlighting a key fact about labor secretary nominee Alexander Acosta: He has been confirmed three times by the Senate.
Acosta, who would be the first Hispanic member of Trump’s Cabinet, has won confirmation to the National Labor Relations Board, as the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and as U.S. attorney in Miami. That means he’s already received some vetting — a practice for which the Trump administration is not known.
“Mr. Acosta’s nomination is off to a good start because he’s already been confirmed by the Senate three times,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Senate panel that will hold Acosta’s yet-unscheduled confirmation hearing.
Trump also mentioned that fact during a brief statement on Acosta at the start of a news conference Thursday. Acosta did not attend.
“He did very, very well,” during his past Senate votes, Trump said.
Almost immediately, Acosta’s Senate prospects for the labor post looked better than Andy Puzder’s had after months of attacks on his personal life, statements and career as a fast-food CEO. He dropped out of consideration ahead of his hearing.
Leading Democrats and their allies vowed to hold Acosta “accountable” as the head of an agency charged with enforcing worker protections. But their reactions were muted compared to the scathing response to Puzder’s nomination in December.
“Unlike Andy Puzder, Alexander Acosta’s nomination deserves serious consideration,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a statement. “In one day, we’ve gone from a fast-food CEO who routinely violates labor law to a public servant with experience enforcing it.”
An assortment of Hispanic advocacy groups praised the nomination, including the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. The Hispanic National Bar Association and others described Acosta, 48, as the son of Cuban immigrants.
The Harvard-trained Miami native, now dean of the Florida International University law school, clerked for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“He reminds me of one of those baseball players who can do everything,” Alito said as he swore in Acosta in 2006 as South Florida’s top federal prosecutor.
