President-elect Donald Trump’s landing team for the Labor Department includes a pair of high-ranking agency officials from his first term and a former chair of the federal agency that adjudicates labor disputes within the federal workforce.
Trump’s transition operation recently informed the Biden administration that Virginia Secretary of Labor Bryan Slater, former Equal Employment Opportunity Commission member Keith Sonderling and health care executive Thomas Beck would be helping to lead the handover at the Frances Perkins Building, according to two people familiar with the transition who were not authorized to speak publicly.
Slater served as DOL’s assistant secretary for administration and management under Trump and Sonderling was the acting head of the Wage and Hour Division before being named to the EEOC for a term that ended earlier this year.
Beck is the vice president for labor and employee relations at HCA Healthcare and was a member of the Federal Labor Relations Authority from 2008-2012 — including a stint as its chair. He also worked as an adviser on Trump’s first-term transition, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Additional members of the landing team are also expected in short order, one of the people said. Other agencies that deal with workforce issues, including the EEOC and National Labor Relations Board, will have landing teams of their own, though there could be some personnel overlap among all of them.
“As per the Transition MOU with the Biden Administration, the White House is receiving the names of those serving on landing teams,” transition spokesperson Brian Hughes said in an email. “The landing team members are connecting with their counterparts at the departments and agencies.”
The Trump transition has been gearing up after a protracted standoff over the terms of several key memoranda that outline the terms by which officials can access government offices, documents and other material needed to transfer power from one administration to another.
Landing teams are also important for steering agencies in the early days of a presidency when the White House is waiting for the Senate to work through the initial deluge of confirmations that will allow new leadership to officially take over.
To that end Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.), Trump’s pick for Labor Secretary, on Wednesday began meeting with several GOP senators as part of the confirmation process. Unlike other Trump Cabinet selections, Chavez-DeRemer is expected to have little trouble clearing the Senate — barring any major revelations.
Alice Miranda Ollstein contributed to this report.
