On February 15, Labor-Secretary nominee Andrew Puzder withdrew his name from consideration after it became clear he lacked the necessary Senate Republican support to be confirmed. Puzder had drawn criticism for opposing the minimum wage and expanding overtime eligibility. He once described employees at Hardee’s and Carl Jr.’s — owned by CKE, the company he leads — as “the best of the worst” and said he wished he could replace them with robots, because robots do not take vacation.
Still, what doomed Puzder’s nomination was his past employment of an undocumented housekeeper. Puzder’s withdraw just further delays widely assumed changes at OSHA, which won’t begin to emerge until the Labor Department has its boss. For now, Dorothy Dougherty, OSHA’s current non-political deputy assistant secretary, is listed on OSHA’s website org chart as the highest ranking agency official. New White House regime’s typically take their time finding someone to run OSHA – not the highest priority on any administration’s radar.