[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 175 (Tuesday, October 24, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5131-S5132]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Nomination of Jessica Looman

  Ms. SMITH. Mr. President, I rise today in support of Jessica Looman 
to be Administrator for the Wage and Hour Division at the Department of 
Labor. And I want my Senate colleagues to know a little bit about 
Jessica, whom I have had the opportunity to know well and to work with 
since 2011.
  Jessica is from St. Paul, MN. She has worked as an attorney and 
advocate, as a labor leader heading the Minnesota building trades, as a 
public sector leader, and as a lifelong champion for workers. And in 
all her roles, Jessica has earned the reputation for being thoughtful 
and innovative and fair. She is respected for her skill leading large, 
complex organizations and getting results and working productively with 
diverse groups of people to find good solutions and common ground.
  Before I was Minnesota's Senator and Lieutenant Governor, I served as 
chief of staff for the Governor of Minnesota, Mark Dayton. And when we 
needed a leader who was trusted both by business and by labor to be a 
leader at Minnesota's Department of Labor and Industry, we selected 
Jessica, who served both as assistant commissioner and also as deputy 
commissioner. And Jessica impressed me and everyone with her 
leadership, her competence, and her commitment to fairly and diligently 
enforcing the law.
  She led Minnesota's efforts to ensure safe, fair, and healthy 
workplaces and labor standards. And she led our effort to expand 
apprenticeships. Jessica was respected by business and labor alike for 
her commitment to establishing reasonable, effective workplace rules 
and regulations.
  A couple of years later, when we needed a strong leader to take on 
Minnesota's Department of Commerce, Jessica was our first pick. In that 
role, she again showed her skill as an executive leader, leading 
successful statewide initiatives and growing Minnesota's clean energy 
jobs. So I have no doubt that Jessica will be a fair and pragmatic 
Administrator for the Wage and Hour Division, which is responsible for 
enforcing some of our Nation's most important laws governing minimum 
wage and overtime pay and child labor standards.
  As Administrator, Jessica will have direct impact protecting the 
interest of hard-working Americans, like the waitress whose boss is 
stealing her tips, or the building trades' carpenter or laborer who has 
the right to earn the prevailing wage on Federal projects so that they 
can support their families, or the worker who isn't being paid for the 
overtime hours that they have worked. Ms. Looman's values are rooted in 
fairness and the promise that all work has dignity and should be 
respected.
  One of the things that I have learned in my time in public service is 
that, if you understand both sides of an argument and you really 
listen, you can usually find a solution that works. Jessica exemplifies 
this approach. In all of the years that I have worked closely with her, 
she always approaches issues with that keen desire to understand what 
both sides need and what they want and then to find a solution that 
both sides can agree is fair.
  And let us be honest, sometimes regulations can seem subjective and 
hard to understand. And Jessica gets this, and so she is always looking 
for a path that is reasonable, that protects people's rights, and that 
follows the law but that is reasonable. I think that this is why she is 
respected both by employers and by labor, first in Minnesota and now at 
the U.S. Department of Labor, and it is why she will make a strong, 
respected, and trusted Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division.
  I urge my colleagues to support her confirmation. Her reputation as a 
respected, effective leader has been built over years of hard work, 
fighting for working people, and she has a track record of successfully 
building coalitions and consensus, even when there are real and 
difficult challenges to bridge.

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