The U.S. Senate confirmed Boston Mayor Marty Walsh to be President Joe Biden’s labor secretary on Monday.
Lawmakers voted 68-29 to confirm Walsh. The nomination needed a simple majority to be confirmed.
Walsh, 53, who has been the Democratic mayor of Boston since 2014, previously led the Boston Building Trades Council, a union group, before entering elected office. He also served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1997 to 2014.
Walsh’s confirmation puts the Biden administration closer to filling key government posts and Cabinet positions. As of Monday, the Senate has confirmed nearly two dozen of Biden’s nominees.
Walsh had received bipartisan support in a procedural vote last week and is expected to resign as mayor on Monday. While on the campaign trail, Biden made promises to be “the most pro-union president.” He also made empowering workers a key tenet of his labor agenda.
The president and Walsh have close ties — Biden spoke at Walsh’s second inauguration in 2017 — and the mayor was on a shortlist of picks for the post. Union leaders praised the pick when it was announced in January.
Walsh will oversee the $12 billion agency, which has over 17,000 employees, during a time when there is growing pressure to increase the federal minimum wage and workers in dozens of industries, including at tech giants, are fighting to unionize and for better safety protections during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
