President Trump’s Secretary of Labor nominee Alexander Acosta was confirmed in the Senate by a vote of 60 to 38.
During the Senate HELP Committee confirmation hearing, Senate Democrats grilled Acosta on numerous Department of Labor (DOL) regulations, including the final overtime rule that was blocked by a Texas federal judge just days before it was to go into effect on December 1, 2016. The Obama administration did appeal Judge Mazzant’s order, but it is unlikely that the Trump administration will continue the appeal.
Acosta noted that the overtime rule has not been updated since 2004, and many in the room seemed to believe that the DOL would rescind the final Labor Department rule and issue a new rule that would gradually increase the salary threshold. Acosta stated that the DOL overtime final rule, which would have raised the salary threshold for receiving mandatory overtime from $23,660 to $47,476 a year, went well beyond a cost of living adjustment. Acosta later suggested an inflation adjusted threshold of $33,000.
