Senate confirms Sonderling as labor secretary, 47-41

Keith Sonderling will lead the U.S. Department of Labor, the agency that processes the seasonal work visas Alaska seafood processors depend on each year. The U.S. Senate confirmed him Wednesday, September 30, by a vote of 47-41, with Alaska Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan both voting yes.

The Senate voted 53-47 earlier Wednesday to invoke cloture, the procedural step that limits debate on a nomination. Both Alaska senators voted yea on that motion, the cloture roll call shows.

Murkowski raised the seafood workforce issue at Sonderling's July 16 confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. She asked him to help exempt seafood workers "so that we don't have to go through this scramble every year wondering if our workforce is going to be able to meet the salmon runs."

"It's very important that the Department of Labor, from a service provider, is being able to process those applications immediately and getting the workers on time, because it's processed late, it's over," Sonderling said at that hearing.

At the same hearing, Murkowski acknowledged the fix is not entirely within Labor's hands. She noted that getting workers on H-2B visas, the temporary seasonal work visas employers such as seafood processors use, to Alaska on time also depends on the Department of Homeland Security, and that the two agencies have traded blame in different years. Murkowski told Sonderling she needed assurance he would keep working across both agencies, whether the issue is salmon season, the ski resort tourist season, or North Slope exploration hiring.

Democrats challenged his record that day. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington said at the hearing that confirming him would mean more efforts "to strip overtime protections for our workers, to undercut our unions, and to let giant corporations get away with robbery."

Associated Builders and Contractors, a national construction group, applauded the confirmation Wednesday.

Sonderling had served as acting secretary. Murkowski's request for a seafood worker exemption now goes to a confirmed secretary, though she has said the real fix requires alignment between Labor and Homeland Security rather than action from either agency alone.