April 9, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 61 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Pages S2313-S2314]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   Nomination of Cheryl Marie Stanton

  Madam President, President Trump has made big promises to workers in 
Alaska and Ohio and across the country. He has promised workers 
everywhere that he will put American workers first. Yet we know in 
Lordstown and from his court appointments, which have put a thumb on 
the scale of justice as they have chosen corporations over workers, 
that he has betrayed those workers. The people he has put in charge 
haven't looked out for workers. Over and over again, they have put 
their thumbs on the scale for corporations. His Cabinet, frankly, looks 
like a retreat for Wall Street.
  His latest nominee for the Department of Labor is more of the same, 
another nominee who puts corporations over workers. Cheryl Stanton is 
nominated to be Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division.
  This is not an especially well-known Agency to most Americans, but it 
is a critical job for all American workers. The Administrator is the 
person in charge of enforcing overtime rules, the minimum wage, child 
labor, and the Family Medical Leave Act. These are all Federal laws. 
The minimum wage is a Federal law. The overtime rule is a Federal law. 
The Family Medical Leave Act is a Federal law, as is the law regarding 
child labor. These are all Federal laws, but they don't mean much if 
they are not enforced.
  You don't want a fox in a chicken coop. You want to make sure that 
these laws are enforced by somebody who is not on the side of corporate 
interests, as too many in this Senate are and as too many in this 
administration are; you want somebody who is on the side of the 
workers. The job of Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division should 
be to look out for American workers when companies try to cheat them 
out of the pay that they have earned.
  But Ms. Stanton spent a decade defending corporations--that is right, 
defending the corporations against American workers when they stole 
workers'

[[Page S2314]]

wages. So she has been on the side of these companies when workers 
tried to make sure they got fair wages and fair overtime and that child 
labor laws were protected and the Family Medical Leave Act. She has 
taken the other side, that of the corporations. Now the President has 
put her in a job where she is supposed to look out for workers, but who 
knows if she will really do that.
  Let's look at some of her history: a decade defending corporations 
and then she headed South Carolina's workforce agency that manages 
State unemployment insurance. When accounting errors resulted in 
overpayments of unemployment insurance--these weren't errors made by 
workers; these were accounting errors made that the workers didn't have 
anything to do with. When accounting errors resulted in overpayments of 
unemployment insurance to workers looking for jobs, she went after the 
workers, garnishing their wages.
  Maybe worst of all, interestingly, she failed to pay her own house 
cleaners until they took her to court. Think about that. The person who 
is supposed to be in charge of making sure corporations pay their 
workers, whether it is minimum wage, whether it is overtime, whether it 
is enforcing child labor laws, whether it is enforcing the Family 
Medical Leave Act--she is the person who is supposed to be in charge of 
making sure corporations pay their workers, and she didn't pay workers 
at her own house.
  If you want to get a measure of a person, look at how they treat 
people whom they are allowed to mistreat, say it that way. Look at how 
they treat people who have less power than they do; how they treat the 
waitstaff at a restaurant, how they treat the entry-level staff in 
their office, how they treat the person who cleans their hotel room or 
cleans their office.
  My favorite quote from the Bible--one of my favorite quotes--is from 
Matthew 25, when Jesus said as follows:

       When I was hungry, you fed me; when I was thirsty, you gave 
     me drink; when I was a stranger, you welcomed me. What you 
     did for the least of these, you did for me.

  I thought about that, and I know there is no way Jesus or Muhammad or 
Buddha or any of the great religious leaders would say somebody is 
worth less than somebody else, that a page is worth less than a 
Parliamentarian, for instance, or that the Presiding Officer is worth 
less than the person who is sitting at the desk.
  So Matthew 25 is exactly right. No worker is worth less than Ms. 
Stanton. No Senator is worth more or less than anybody else. I mean, 
Matthew 25 speaks to equality, speaks to the sort of way we should be 
treating people who may have lesser titles than we have.
  I think of that when I think about Ms. Stanton and the job she has 
been nominated for. The workers whom she will be in a position to help 
or hurt--her career so far, she has been in positions where she has 
hurt workers, but the position she is in that she can help or hurt 
workers, these workers shouldn't be treated with less respect. Their 
work has dignity. Whether they swipe a badge or punch a clock, whether 
they work for tips, whether they work on a salary, whether they raise 
children, whether they take care of an aging parent, their work has 
dignity.
  If you love your country, you fight for the people who make it work, 
regardless of their kind of work. Whether they are working 
construction, whether they are a nurse, whether they are a housekeeper, 
whether they are a salesperson, whether they work at a counter in a 
fast-food restaurant, whether they are a page, whether they are a 
Senator, all work has dignity.
  I think it is important, when you think about Ms. Stanton and the job 
she has, that these workers have earned this pay, whether it is minimum 
wage, whether it is overtime, whether it is child labor laws, whether 
it is the Family Medical Leave Act.
  When work has dignity, people are paid the wages they earn; they are 
paid a living wage; they have power over their schedules. It is about 
wages; it is about benefits; it is about the dignity of work; and it is 
about a safe workplace; it is about childcare. It is about all of those 
things.
  Workers should not be intimidated into accepting less just because 
they can't afford a fancy law firm. We need people in government who 
understand that. We need people who understand that, when you love this 
country, you fight for those people who make it work.
  The last thing we need is an administration with more people serving 
in Washington who don't value work or respect the Americans who do.
  This is another nominee from the President of the United States who 
will put her thumb or who has put his thumb on the scale to support 
corporations over workers, to support Wall Street over consumers, to 
support big insurance companies over sick people. We don't need another 
one of those in this administration, whether at EPA, whether at the 
Department of Labor, whether at the Federal Reserve, or whether at the 
White House.
  I urge my colleagues, as this nomination comes forward, as Ms. 
Stanton comes forward to be Chief of the Wage and Hour Division--Cheryl 
Stanton--to be Administrator for the Wage and Hour Division, I urge my 
colleagues to listen a little more to the Americans whom we serve and a 
little less to big corporations that always have their way in this 
body--always have their way in this body. I urge my colleagues to 
listen a little less to those corporations trying to squeeze every last 
penny out of their workers and reject this nomination.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cassidy). The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. FISCHER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.