GOP reps call Biden’s waivers for union officials to serve in White House ‘classic definition’ of conflict of interest
House Republicans are concerned about former union officials who were given ethics waivers to serve within the Biden administration, claiming organized labor has excessive influence on government policy.
Top Republicans sent letters Tuesday to the Biden Administration demanding answers on a number of his political appointees who were former union officials and the circumstances all around the exemptions they were given to federal ethics rules. The union leaders were given “special treatment” to both serve in the Biden administration and communicate directly with former union employers to execute policies that might directly benefit the unions, the GOP lawmakers say.
“This is the classic definition of a conflict of interest,” the GOP reps wrote Tuesday in letters first obtained by Fox News.
The letters were written by Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the top Republican on the House Oversight Committee and Rep. Virginia Foxx, the top Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee.
They said teachers unions have already had a lot of influence and access to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on guidance for schools opening and they are now “concerned” the use of ethics waivers is a way for union leaders to invade other areas of the government.
“By appointing former union officials to positions that directly interact with their former employers, unions stand to directly benefit from Biden Administration policies,” the lawmakers continued. “This is alarming considering the devastating effect teachers unions have had on the educational prospects of so many of our nation’s children.”
The GOP members pointed at two Biden officials in their Tuesday letters.
Celeste Drake, a former official with the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, was appointed to become Made in America Director at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The other is Alethea Predeoux, a former official at the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), who became Biden’s Director of the Office of Congressional, Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
Comer and Foxx wrote to Shalanda Young and Kathleen McGettigan, the leaders at OMB and OPM, respectively, asking for all documents and records surrounding the ethics waivers, including communications between Drake and Predeoux and their former union employers.
“President Biden has a pattern of putting unions first and Americans last,” Comer said in a statement to Fox News. “First, he allowed a radical teachers union to dictate scientific guidance effectively keeping children locked out of their classrooms. Now, he’s granted ethics waivers to allow former union officials to wield government power on behalf of the union bosses. This is a conflict of interest, pure and simple. The Biden Administration must provide answers about these controversial appointments.”
The White House had defended the teachers’ union involvement in CDC school reopening guidance in the past claiming it’s a “longstanding best practice” for the agency to talk to multiple stakeholders who will be effected by the public health guidelines. As for the ethics waivers for the union officials, the White House has said these are necessary moves to control connections between government agencies and labor unions.
Urged about the ethics waivers in May, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Biden has stood behind unions throughout his political career.
She said the waivers are granted in “very, very limited” circumstances when is necessary and in the best interest of governing.
“I will reiterate … the president signed an executive order requiring all appointees across the federal government to sign the most stringent ethics code ever adopted by any White House,” Psaki said.
When it is “necessary and in the public’s interest,” the order “authorizes agencies to grant limited waivers and consultation” with the White House counsel’s office, she said.
“The president, of course, has stood strong for unions throughout his career, and he’s proud to have leading labor voices in the White House,” Psaki continued. “And there are circumstances, very, very limited, where it is in the interest of governing and the interest of getting work done for the American people to issue these waivers.”
In March, Predeoux, a senior official at OPM was given a waiver to permit her to control communication between the government agency and the American Federation of Government Employees – a union representing 700,000 federal workers for whom she was previously a top lobbyist.
In April, the White House issued a similar waiver, permitting Drake, who leads the Made In America Office, to communicate with her former employers, the Director’s Guild of America and AFL-CIO.