SACRAMENTO – Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin) and Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher (Yuba City) joined fellow lawmakers, freelance workers and victims of mismanagement at the California Employment Development Department to call on the U.S. Senate to reject Julie Su’s confirmation as U.S. Secretary of Labor. You can watch a video of the press conference here.

Speakers at the event highlighted Su’s record of failure as California’s Labor Secretary, where she:

1. Denied or severely delayed unemployment benefits to over 5 million Californians.
2. Paid out over $32 billion in taxpayer dollars to state prison inmates, international crime syndicates, and other criminals in what was the largest case of fraud in California history. This fraud was entirely preventable and its scale was unique to California.
3. Su championed and enforced AB 5, which destroyed the livelihoods of tens of thousands of workers and effectively banned freelance work in California. Su plans to implement this policy and its disastrous impacts nationwide through the PRO-Act.

“As Chair of the House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, I am urging President Biden in the strongest terms to immediately withdraw Julie Su’s nomination. To say that Su failed in her previous role as Labor Secretary in California’s Labor Department is an extreme understatement. The amount of suffering Su’s Labor Department inflicted on my constituents and millions of Californians should entirely disqualify Su from consideration.” – Congressman Kevin Kiley

“I have a simple message to President Biden and the Senators considering Julie Su’s nomination: stop rewarding failure. From threatening millions of freelancers with financial ruin to her bungled management of the Employment Development Department, Julie Su’s tenure as California’s Labor Secretary was a disaster. She does not deserve a promotion.” – Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher

Other event attendees included Assemblymembers Bill Essayli (AD-63), Joe Patterson (AD-05), Josh Hoover (AD-07), Jim Patterson (AD-23), and Tri Ta (AD-70), Aaron Gayden, a freelancer impacted by AB 5, Lincoln Chamber of Commerce President Tom Indrieri, and California Business & Industrial Alliance President Tom Manzo.