President Barack Obama has withdrawn the nomination of Paul Tiao for Inspector General (IG) at the Department of Labor (DOL), the White House announced yesterday. Tiao’s nomination was opposed by Republicans and the business community for his perceived coziness with organized labor.
Those objections were well founded, given Obama’s demonstrated willingness to push organized labor’s agenda by appointing pro-union partisans to positions where they could influence labor policy.
The recess appointment of former Service Employees International Union lawyer Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is a notorious such case. In his writings, Becker had argued that employers should have no say in the union organizing process.
Tiao’s views appear to be no less radical. As my colleague F. Vincent Vernuccio noted when Tiao was nominated for IG last year:
In a 1993 Columbia Human Right Law Review article, “Non-Citizen Suffrage: An Argument Based on the Voting Rights Act and Related Law,” Tiao argued that all lawful permanent residents—non-citizens—should be given the right to vote in federal, state, and local elections. But that’s not all. In a footnote, Tiao makes the case for illegal aliens being given the vote, arguing that, “suffrage should be extended to other non-citizen groups as well. Tiao notes “Takoma Park [Maryland]’s Charter amendment …. technically extended suffrage to all non-citizens, including undocumented aliens.” He uses this example to argue illegal aliens should be allowed to vote.
Why does this matter? Because, as Inspector General, Tiao would be responsible for monitoring and ensuring the integrity of the Labor Department’s Office of Foreign Labor Certification Program, which is responsible for administering both permanent and temporary visas to foreign workers in the United States.
But that’s not all. Just as troubling is the highly political nature of Tiao’s appointment. Vernuccio goes on:
The Asian American Action Fund received $38,000 from union PACs—or over one-third of its funding for the 2008 election cycle. The unions included the American Federation for State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the National Education Association, Sheet Metal Workers, and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU.)
The Inspector General Act of 1978 is explicit in saying the IG shall be appointed “without regard to political affiliation and solely on the basis of integrity and demonstrated ability in accounting, auditing, financial analysis, law, management analysis, public administration, or investigations.” The Department of Labor’s website specifically says IGs are “non-political.”
For Senate Republicans, the withdrawal of Tiao’s nomination demonstrates the value of holding together. They’ll need to do so again to convince the President to withdraw another recess appointment for Becker, as well as a recess appointment for Lafe Solomon to NLRB General Counsel.
Solomon, as acting counsel, has threatened to sue four states for enacting amendments to their constitutions protecting secret ballots in union organizing elections, as well as Boeing for opening an assembly line for its new 787 Dreamliner in South Carolina, a right-to-work state.
Union leaders, frustrated at failing to see key parts of their agenda enacted (most notably card check), are likely to lobby Obama to appoint more pro-union partisans to positions where they can push their agenda. There are probably more nomination fights to come.
For more on unions, see CEI’s labor policy site, workplacechoice.org.
