Trump nominates new labor secretary

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump on Thursday announced his selection of lawyer Eugene Scalia, son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, for secretary of labor. If confirmed by the Senate, Scalia would replace Alex Acosta, who resigned last week amid scrutiny of his involvement in a 2008 plea deal for billionaire financier and accused sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein. Scalia served as the Labor Department’s chief legal officer and as special assistant to Attorney General William Barr during President George H.W. Bush’s administration. He is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, an international law firm.

The president praised Scalia in a tweet for “a life of great success in the legal and labor field.” Senate Democrats are likely to grill the nominee about his history of representing major corporations, including Walmart and Boeing, in disputes over workers rights and labor unions. Trump “is missing an opportunity to nominate a fighter for workers, like a union member,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement Thursday.

Meanwhile, the House voted Thursday to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $15 an hour by 2025, with the minimum rate tied to inflation after that. The measure passed 231-199, with six Democrats voting against it and three Republicans supporting it. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., does not plan to bring the bill to the Senate floor because it would “depress the economy,” he said in an interview with Fox Business.

The White House has said Trump would veto the measure if Congress passed it. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would boost wages for 1.7 million U.S. workers but also cause the loss of approximately 1.3 million jobs as corporations seek to cut costs.