While millions of Americans struggle to find jobs and pay their bills, President Trump’s already diminished Labor Department is embroiled in scandal and legal issues. As leadership is consumed by misconduct investigations, the department appears to have oriented away from its mission of protecting workers. Oversight from Congress—rather than just from the agency’s scandal-plagued inspector general—is urgently needed.

At a time when workers need support the most, the agency tasked with protecting them is failing to meet the moment. As investigations unfold, the U.S. economy has been losing jobs. The unemployment rate increased to 4.4% in February and average long term unemployment hit 25.7 weeks—the longest since December 2021. For many who are employed, life is still precarious, with 72% of surveyed U.S. workers relying on a second income and 26% depending on a second job just to pay the bills. Workers need a functioning Labor Department advocating on their behalf more than ever.

Instead, the department has moved in the opposite direction. Under Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s leadership, the Labor Department has focused on massive deregulation efforts, rolling back rules designed to ensure that workers have safe workplaces and are paid for their labor. This shift stands in stark contrast to the department’s mission of developing “the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States” and improving working conditions, opportunities for profitable employment and work-related benefits and rights. Unfortunately, the Trump administration reduced staffing in the agency by 14% across the board, and made dramatic cuts in some of the most important offices: the Women’s Bureau shrank by 47%, the Office of Disability Employment Policy by 21%, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration by 13% and the Wage and Hour Division by 11%.

“Under Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s leadership, the Labor Department has focused on massive deregulation efforts, rolling back rules designed to ensure that workers have safe workplaces and are paid for their labor.”

Against this backdrop of weakened capacity, scandals within the Labor Department’s leadership have only deepened the crisis—and raise questions about how the agency could effectively advocate for workers. An internal complaint filed with the Labor Department inspector general in January alleged that Chavez-DeRemer and her closest aides used department resources for personal trips and attempted to use department grants to benefit the secretary’s political career. A complaint also alleged Chavez-DeRemer was having an affair with a member of her security team. In interviews, more than two dozen current and former Labor Department employees described a toxic workplace—characterized by an absentee secretary, hostile aides and a deeply demoralized staff.

In the wake of those allegations, several staff members were placed on administrative leave, further shrinking a department that Trump had already cut by more than 2,000. Those staffers included Chavez-DeRemer’s security team member, Director of Advance Melissa Robey, as well as Chief of Staff Jihun Han and Deputy Chief of Staff Rebecca Wright—who both resigned in March after pressure from the White House. 

The secretary and her staffers are just the tip of the scandal iceberg. Chavez-DeRemer’s husband was barred from entering the Labor Department headquarters after at least two staff members accused him of making unwanted sexual advances. The Federal Protective Service declined to bring a case and her husband’s lawyer called the allegations false, but he remains barred from the department headquarters.

Even the watchdog overseeing the department, and tasked with investigating these misconduct allegations, is involved in scandal. Senator Richard Blumenthal called for an investigation into Labor Department Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito for reportedly preparing to launch a campaign for a congressional seat in New York, explaining that the Hatch Act restricts him from taking an active part in any partisan political campaigns while serving as inspector general. During a congressional hearing, D’Esposito said he was not campaigning, despite recent reporting and printed petitions displaying his name as a candidate for the New York seat. When asked directly if he planned to quit as inspector general and if he had been engaging in campaign activities while serving in that position, he dodged the questions completely. 

Even before becoming Labor Department IG, D’Esposito may have violated ethics rules while serving in Congress, where he reportedly gave jobs to his fiancee’s daughter and the woman with whom he was having an affair, though he denies the allegations. He also was at the center of ethics-related controversies while at the NYPD and on the Hempstead town council. Now, not only is he in charge of investigating the Labor Department’s overall misconduct, he is investigating the allegations against Chavez-DeRemer, whom he reportedly calls a friend—which raises real conflict of interest concerns. 

D’Esposito’s issues illustrate the broader damage caused when a president picks inspectors general on the basis of political loyalty rather than a commitment to stop waste, fraud and abuse. Unfortunately, as part of his widespread cuts to the agency, Trump cut the Labor Department IG’s office by 17%, leaving fewer qualified, nonpartisan staff to investigate the misconduct.

Strong oversight matters, and Congress will need to step up to provide it. As Trump continues to chill the ability of watchdogs to do their jobs and replaces effective nonpartisan public servants with unreliable politicians like D’Esposito, stronger oversight from Congress is the best avenue to address the growing chaos within the Labor Department. 

The House of Representatives Education and Workforce Committee—which has jurisdiction over a wide range of workforce and human services policies—is one of the House committees without a dedicated oversight subcommittee. Oversight subcommittees play a vital role in preventing and exposing misconduct within the agencies they oversee, especially as the independence of inspectors general and other watchdogs within the executive branch come increasingly under attack. It’s past time for the Education and Workforce Committee to establish a subcommittee on oversight.

Workers—and all Americans—deserve a government focused on protecting them, not one distracted by self-interest and scandal. Congress needs to ask serious questions about how the Labor Department is advocating for workers given the diminished staffing and serious misconduct allegations at the agency. 

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