Lori Chavez-DeRemer was confirmed Monday as secretary of labor, taking the reins of an agency already struggling to enforce employee rights — and grappling with new outside attempts to access confidential data about the nation’s workers.

The Senate voted 67 to 32 to confirm the one-term Republican House member from Oregon— among the stronger showings of bipartisan support for one of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees. She is one of eight women out of 22 Cabinet nominees in this administration.

Chavez-DeRemer was one of the president’s more unconventional picks because of her pro-labor voting record. Some fellow Republicans criticized her for previously supporting the PRO Act, a bill that would have repealed state laws that allow workers to choose whether to opt into a union and pay dues. She faced questioning from Democrats over issues like the minimum wage and paid leave, as well as her potential willingness to break with Trump’s demands.

Despite doubts about her nomination, she moved out of committee 14-9 after three Democrats voted to support her.

The labor secretary oversees a department in charge of setting workplace regulations and policies, including those on unemployment and retirement plans, as well as creating standards for wages and overtime. The agency has been hit hard in recent years with staff shortages and investigation backlogs, and has functioned without an official leader since 2023 — Julie Su, Biden’s pick for labor secretary, worked in an acting capacity after facing Senate nomination challenges from both sides of the aisle.

DOL has recently come under review from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is primarily a cost-cutting effort that has also edged into sensitive data collection, including information housed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). 

DOGE leader and tech billionaire Elon Musk says he wants to access the bureau’s data, which includes statistics about national employment and the Consumer Price Index. Experts say interference with BLS data would jeopardize the government’s ability to produce accurate, transparent and confidential reports that are crucial to domestic and global economic health.

Last month, a judge declined to block Musk’s attempts to access Labor Department systems in a temporary ruling against the AFL-CIO — and DOGE had previously received approval to use software that could be used to export the agency’s data, though it is unclear if Musk’s subordinates have already accessed sensitive information. The department is supposed to operate under a strict confidentiality standard, allowing potentially vulnerable workers to file complaints without fear of retaliation. 

DOL also houses the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which is meant to protect workers from hazardous conditions through investigations and accountability measures. Should Musk’s group further slash an already depleted workforce within these branches or further open up sensitive data, the department’s ability to investigate and create new rules would plummet.

During her confirmation hearing in February, Chavez-DeRemer deferred on specifics about how she would deal with DOGE and other attempts to view private data, saying she had not yet been confirmed and fully briefed on the situation.

“If confirmed, I will support the Department of Labor,” she told Sen. Patty Murray, the Washington Democrat who pushed her on her willingness to break with Trump’s administrative orders. “I would protect the private information. On this issue, I have not been privy to those conversations with the president.”