Over the last week, the Trump administration has made several personnel moves in the principal agencies responsible for labor issues, namely the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Department of Labor (DOL).
On April 13, the White House announced the nomination of James Macy from the U.S. Department of Labor to be a member of the NLRB for a term expiring on August 27, 2030, to fill the seat vacated by Marvin Kaplan in August 2025. Macy started his career as an intern at DOL and has practiced labor and employment law for over 40 years, and he currently serves as the Director for the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP).
In addition to Mr. Macy, the White House further announced the nomination current NLRB Member David M. Prouty, a Democrat, for the term of five years expiring August 27, 2031.
Since their confirmation in December 2025, the two current Republicans have held to the tradition that the NLRB does not overturn precedent with just two votes. If confirmed, the new nominees will increase the Republican majority on the NLRB from 2-1 to 3-1 and, one hopes, provide a sufficient quorum for the majority to revisit some of the Biden-era decisions from the Board.
In addition to the NLRB nominations, Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer on April 20 resigned from her position. In her absence, Deputy Secretary Keith Sonderling has been named as Acting Secretary.
Acting Secretary Sonderling is a well-known figure in the area of labor and employment policy with prior experience at DOL during the first Trump administration. From 2020 to 2024, he served as Commissioner of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and from 2017 to 2020, he served as Deputy Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division of DOL, during part of which he served as Acting Administrator.
It is not unusual to see significant personnel changes at this point in a presidential administration, and as always “personnel is policy.” For its part, the NLRB has a large backlog of cases to work through from the first year of the administration when it lacked a quorum, and the new majority will have to assess its priorities on precedent-setting decisions. Meanwhile, at DOL the regulatory agenda seems well underway and despite changes at the top is expected to continue moving ahead.
About the author
Sean P. Redmond
Sean P. Redmond is Vice President, Labor Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
