New Labor Chief Previously Sidelined as No. 2 (Corrected)

The Labor Department’s new leader Patrick Pizzella will get a chance to put his stamp on workforce policy after being iced out of substantive policy discussions when he was second-in-command to outgoing Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta.

Excluded From Decisions: Acosta’s chief of staff often barred Pizzella from policy discussions related to wage and workplace safety enforcement, labor union financial oversight, and job training.

‘Headache’ Neutralized: “Our understanding at the time was that Pat was more ideologically aligned with the White House and the president than the secretary would want him to be. So they didn’t need the headache of someone ...