Keith Sonderling has been acting Secretary of Labor since ex-secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned amid a flurry of misconduct allegations ranging from drinking on the job to having an affair with a staff member. Sonderling, though, was reportedly at the helm long before then.
On Thursday morning, members of the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee will vote in an executive session on whether to advance Sonderling’s nomination to lead the embattled agency to the full Senate.
Formerly a Republican labor and employment attorney representing business interests, Sonderling joined the government during Trump I as the first-ever political appointee for the Wage and Hour Division. He went on to help lead the division, and later serve as a commissioner on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission throughout the Biden administration. In every role, he maintained the most conservative views.
As acting Secretary of Labor, Sonderling has wielded himself as a weapon in Trump’s retribution campaign against blue states. If he’s confirmed as Labor Secretary, here is a snapshot of the man to whom Congress will give a rubber stamp.
DOL’s Weaponization of Alleged Fraud to Punish Blue States
In June, the Department of Labor under Sonderling issued a historic threat: to defund federal contributions to state unemployment programs unless states took “immediate action” to root out fraud and waste in those programs. While a release about the effort mentioned all 50 states as well as some U.S. territories, it targeted California, Illinois and New York as the most “glaring” alleged examples of unemployment funds misuse.
“We are officially putting governors on notice,” Sonderling said in a release. “This department is no longer afraid to use every lever available to ensure taxpayer money is protected.”
The Labor Department’s push comes as part of Vice President JD Vance’s anti-fraud task force that Trump has said will target blue states. Sonderling is a member of the task force.
He’s Behind the Big Push to Bring Crypto into Your 401K
Months before the Labor Department proposed a rule that would make it easier for retirement account fiduciaries to invest in risky assets — and while Chavez-DeRemer was still the Labor Secretary on paper — Sonderling promised industry insiders he would deliver on the controversial policy.
Experts told TPM in April that the proposed rule removes legal protections from retirees in the event employer-sponsored retirement plan managers don’t live up to their fiduciary duties. It would allow fiduciaries to pursue riskier investments like boom-and-bust cryptocurrencies and private credit, an industry whose investors sought withdrawals at such a rate they triggered withdrawal caps and couldn’t recoup their full investments.
“We have an industry living in fear … that a judge or a lawyer is going to second guess their decisions,” Sonderling said at a January industry event. “We have to eliminate that.”
In February, Sonderling Would Not Commit to Upholding Federal Union Rights
During a Senate hearing considering Sonderling’s nomination as deputy labor secretary, he faced in-person and written questions from Democratic senators asking his commitment to upholding the collective bargaining rights of the department’s employees as the Trump administration continued working to dismantle federal unions.
Asked by Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) whether he understood the collective bargaining process, Sonderling responded, “I am not a traditional labor lawyer,” an odd response for the de facto leader of a department that handles workers rights.
At the EEOC, He Voted Against Pregnancy and Gender Protections
Confirmed and appointed vice chair of the EEOC in 2020, Sonderling remained on the commission until his term expired in August 2024. While there, he voted to block the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Republicans opposed the rule, which requires companies to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnant people, because it lists abortion as a protected medical condition.
Sonderling also opposed a rule that expanded discrimination protections to include gender interpretations in addition to biological sex. That rule was approved by the Democratic majority but parts of it were struck down by a Texas court in 2025.
While leading the Labor Department, Sonderling has continued to weaken worker wages and protections. In May, the department rescinded time-and-a-half pay protections that expanded overtime pay eligibility for more than four million workers. Under Sonderling, the department has also proposed the roll back of Fair Labor Standards Act protections for home healthcare workers.
He’s Been a Key Part in Pro-Biz Staffing Across Agencies
Far from a quiet Republican bureaucrat, Sonderling reportedly “had to move heaven and earth,” to get Republican Labor official James Macy nominated to the National Labor Relations Board. Operatives told Politico Sonderling was instrumental in selecting candidates for several agencies.
Even if he isn’t confirmed by the Senate, Sonderling can likely lead the department in an acting capacity indefinitely.
