WOODBRIDGE, Va. —
In the run up to Tax Day, Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer headed to a series of small businesses in Woodbridge, Virginia, to tout the Trump administration’s agenda for working families, specifically its no tax on tips provision.
The Washington Reporter joined the former Oregon lawmaker on her trip, and conducted what would end up being her last interview as the Department of Labor’s (DOL) top official. In what ended up as an exit interview of sorts, Chavez-DeRemer touted her own successes of bringing small business stories from across the country directly to President Donald Trump’s desk, as well as how her department helped give Americans increased flexibility in their retirement accounts.
During stops at V/O Med Spa and Hand & Stone, Chavez-DeRemer was joined by business owners, workers, and representatives from the International Franchise Association (IFA); she heard firsthand about how Virginians are benefitting from legislation including the GOP’s signature Working Families Tax Cuts (WFTC).
Nationally, Americans are expected to receive approximately $1,300 more due to the no tax on tips provision, which was made retroactive to cover tax year 2025.
But Chavez-DeRemer, a former mayor, took a local angle during her Virginia trip. “This Working Families Tax Cut is going to allow Virginians to pocket more, almost up to $11,000 more a year, because it’s the biggest tax cut in American history,” she explained. “And that’s what this president wanted, and that’s what he continues to do, and he’s delivering on the promises he made to the American people.”
Among her more innovative ideas as Labor Secretary was a 50 state tour, which she accomplished in the first year of Trump’s return to the White House. She told the Reporter that that was important for her to do because “we couldn’t find [solutions] in Washington, D.C. We knew we had to get on the road, so we set out on our 50 state tour.”
“Under President Trump’s Labor Department, it’s been important to talk to the American worker and really understand what it means to not only employ Americans in this country, but what employees are looking for every day, when they get up to go out and do their jobs and provide for their families,” she said. “We’ve been on manufacturing floors. We’ve visited small businesses across this country. We’ve understood from the private sector how we can best be their ally.”
The inspiration for the tour, she added, came directly from Trump. “He said ‘go talk to the American worker. Tell me what they need, what they look for every day in the labor force.’ We spent our time coming back and telling those stories to the president, and now we’re out here again today to talk about not only the Working Families Tax Cut, but all the jobs that he has created by not only understanding what the need was, but when we needed it, how we needed it, and how we were going to translate that to real jobs in America.”
While Chavez-DeRemer has since left the administration to take a job in the private sector, she touted Trump’s successes in revitalizing America’s private sector, at the expense of government jobs.
“Since his administration began, over 600,000 jobs have been created in the private sector. And that was the goal and the promise he made to the American people,” she said. “We saw last month, 178,000 new jobs were added, which is really crushing it. If we add 50,000 jobs, that is great for the American economy. But 178,000 new jobs, lot of those were in construction. We’ve seen 26,000 jobs added last month, 15,000 jobs in manufacturing. Under the old administration, we were seeing that growth in federal jobs. Well, we wanted to decrease that, and we have done that. This administration made sure that we cut the federal government jobs and gave them to real hard working Americans in private sector jobs.”
One of the factors was a switch in priorities of her department, she explained. “The Department of Labor has been increasingly focused on apprenticeship programs and skills training. We’ve been working with our community colleges, our career and technical education, and we’ve deployed hundreds of millions of dollars to make sure that the workforce is skilled and ready to go on day one. And it’s been a testament to this president and the negotiations that he’s made with companies and countries to onshore back here in America and grow America’s workforce.”
Those policies are benefitting all Americans, whether they voted for Trump or not, and whether they live in blue or red states, because, she said, the “president is the president of the American worker.”
“One of the issues that the Department of Labor hears often is about child care,” she said, adding that her former GOP colleagues in Congress have helped address that issue. “Republicans voted this last cycle in order to protect and expand the child tax credit. That is something that is very important to hard working Americans. We want to see more of that. So he leans in with the lens of the American men and women who built this country. And as we celebrate 250 years, it is going to be a testament as to where he laid out these policies; they’re going to benefit the American people and benefit the American economy as a whole.”
Another major shift that Chavez-DeRemer oversaw was the increased flexibility for American retirement accounts. Under her stewardship, the Labor Department allowed for Americans to diversify their retirements with investments like crypto.
“I think it speaks again to the flexibility and the innovation of how we affect retirements,” she said of that rule. “People work hard their whole lives, counting on their retirement that they have worked for. And so when we go through the Department of Labor and rulemaking, we’re talking about the expansion and democratization of retirements and of 401ks. We want everyday, hard working Americans to be able to invest with their financial planners or with their fiduciaries, and able to invest in what they choose to invest in, which oftentimes may have been only for the ultra wealthy.”
“Now,” she explained, “every day, hard working Americans can know that their dollars are invested at their so choosing and the flexibility given to them to earn what they what they choose and without fear of litigation. Oftentimes, their fiduciaries were held up in litigation, and were not able to expand on that. So it’s about innovation. It’s about certainty, and it’s about knowing that if they work hard, they’re going to have a retirement to count on, which gives them a lifetime income.”
Below is a transcript of our interview with Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, lightly edited for clarity.
Washington Reporter:
Secretary, you completed a 50 state tour earlier than any Labor Secretary has before; as you were meeting with businesses and workers around the country, and talking about the Working Families Tax Cuts, what were some of your takeaways from coast to coast?
Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer:
First I want to talk about not only what I took away, but what we were looking for. We couldn’t find it in Washington, D.C. We knew we had to get on the road, so we set out on our 50 state tour, which we finished in the first year of this administration. Under President Trump’s Labor Department, it’s been important to talk to the American worker and really understand what it means to not only employ Americans in this country, but what employees are looking for every day, when they get up to go out and do their jobs and provide for their families. We’ve been on manufacturing floors. We’ve visited small businesses across this country. We’ve understood from the private sector how we can best be their ally. And it was really because of the leadership of President Trump; he said ‘go talk to the American worker. Tell me what they need, what they look for every day in the labor force.’ We spent our time coming back and telling those stories to the president, and now we’re out here again today to talk about not only the Working Families Tax Cut, but all the jobs that he has created by not only understanding what the need was, but when we needed it, how we needed it, and how we were going to translate that to real jobs in America. Since his administration began, over 600,000 jobs have been created in the private sector. And that was the goal and the promise he made to the American people. We saw last month, 178,000 new jobs were added, which is really crushing it. If we add 50,000 jobs, that is great for the American economy. But 178,000 new jobs, lot of those were in construction. We’ve seen 26,000 jobs added last month, 15,000 jobs in manufacturing. Under the old administration, we were seeing that growth in federal jobs. Well, we wanted to decrease that, and we have done that. This administration made sure that we cut the federal government jobs and gave them to real hard working Americans in private sector jobs. The Department of Labor has been increasingly focused on apprenticeship programs and skills training. We’ve been working with our community colleges, our career and technical education, and we’ve deployed hundreds of millions of dollars to make sure that the workforce is skilled and ready to go on day one. And it’s been a testament to this president and the negotiations that he’s made with companies and countries to onshore back here in America and grow America’s workforce. So that’s what we started off doing in the 50 states, and now we’re going to continue to see those promises come to fruition.
Washington Reporter:
What more needs to be done to continue that blue collar boom?
Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer:
For the last 30 years, there has been a belief that everybody has to get a four year degree, and we know that’s just simply not the case. People want mortgage-paying jobs because they want to earn while they learn. We have really been focusing on the pre-apprenticeship program, the apprenticeship program, and in matching the private sector. What is the need here in Virginia? How can we have more of those jobs and work with our education facilities to train that workforce and get them into everyday jobs? And that’s now happening from the Working Families Tax Cut. One of the other things is the workforce Pell Grants. We really saw those go to four year degrees. Now we’re seeing those in the trades and in two year degrees. Anybody has the opportunity to be skilled in America, and this president wants everybody to know that if you can work in America, we’re going to have you skilled and ready to go for the job you choose to provide for your families.
Washington Reporter:
From the Labor Department standpoint specifically, as you think about the Trump administration’s affordability push, you’ve done a lot of work on letting Americans expand 401k access, including to crypto and other assets. How does that fit in with the White House’s push for cost of living to come down in America?
Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer:
I think it speaks again to the flexibility and the innovation of how we affect retirements. People work hard their whole lives, counting on their retirement that they have worked for. And so when we go through the Department of Labor and rulemaking, we’re talking about the expansion and democratization of retirements and of 401ks. We want everyday, hard working Americans to be able to invest with their financial planners or with their fiduciaries, and able to invest in what they choose to invest in, which oftentimes may have been only for the ultra wealthy. Now, every day, hard working Americans can know that their dollars are invested at their so choosing and the flexibility given to them to earn what they what they choose and without fear of litigation. Oftentimes, their fiduciaries were held up in litigation, and were not able to expand on that. So it’s about innovation. It’s about certainty, and it’s about knowing that if they work hard, they’re going to have a retirement to count on, which gives them a lifetime income.
Washington Reporter:
How has this Trump agenda helped even blue states that did not vote for him, like your home state of Oregon?
Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer:
The president is the president of the American worker. That is in every state despite where you live. People want the flexibility to be able to not only provide for their families, but also to choose whatever schools that they want their kids to go, to make sure that they can have an opportunity to open up any business, support any business that they want, and go home at night, be safe on the streets, make sure that they can afford their mortgages, afford their child care, afford their schooling, afford their cars. One of the issues that the Department of Labor hears often is about child care. Republicans voted this last cycle in order to protect and expand the child tax credit. That is something that is very important to hard working Americans. We want to see more of that. So he leans in with the lens of the American men and women who built this country. And as we celebrate 250 years, it is going to be a testament as to where he laid out these policies; they’re going to benefit the American people and benefit the American economy as a whole.