INTERVIEW: Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer on her 50 state tour, how to grow the "American pie," and the GOP's evolving relationship with labor unions
Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is charting a new path forward for the GOP and labor unions, and she's visiting all 50 states along the way
Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the Secretary of Labor, is on a mission: visit all 50 states in her first year as secretary.
In her latest role, Chavez-DeRemer — a former small business owner, mayor, and congresswoman — is using all of her previous skills to pitch the Trump administration’s vision for an expanded American workforce.
“We want to grow the American pie so that everybody has a job and can work towards the American Dream, everybody has their role, and we’re all going to keep each other accountable and transparent, and I think that’s what’s important in this administration,” she told the Washington Reporter in an interview after her 33rd state visit. “The president is going to continue to deliver on the promises that he made, and one of those was transparency, so we’re going to keep up the hard work.”
Chavez-DeRemer’s countrywide tour has taken her to factories, fisheries, apprenticeship programs, and everything in between.
During her latest visit — to Newport News in Virginia, she visited an apprenticeship school during their first week of class. This visit was a continuation of what she saw and learned firsthand from her Connecticut trip, where she visited a shipyard that builds submarines; a key priority of the Trump administration is restoring America’s ship-building primacy, and several of Chavez-DeRemer’s stops have that in mind.
As Chavez-DeRemer meets with businesses and unions across America, a trend emerged of support for President Donald Trump’s move to crack down on crime in D.C.
“Everyday people in their respective states need to feel free to move about and feel safe,” she explained. “One of the ways that applies to the Department of Labor is we often have seen that businesses feel concerned that their workers are not protected…Even if it's a small crime, they shouldn't have to fear that they can't protect their workforce and their own businesses that they've invested their hard earned dollars in. So that's why the president has cracked down, not only in D.C., but possibly into Chicago, and we've seen him bring Portland to the top of list.”
Here, Chavez-DeRemer draws on her experience as Mayor of Happy Valley and as Congresswoman for Oregon’s 5th District. “We want to make sure that everybody can feel safe in their own communities,” she said. “It's the number one tenet that a leader has to have. I was a mayor before, and the number one thing that I focused on was the safety of my citizens while I was leading them. And I would expect that all leaders would want that for their communities, and the president certainly does want that across the nation. And if they're not going to do it, he's going to.”
Throughout her career, accessibility has been key. “When I was a member of Congress, I treated that job the same way, where accessibility mattered,” she said. “People had my cell phone. People could call me if they needed to. I considered myself the mayor of the 5th District, and it is no different in this role.”
That level of accessibility and commitment to outreach helps explain why Chavez-DeRemer did something rare for a Labor Secretary in a Republican administration. She spent Labor Day riding with Teamsters in a parade in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Chavez-DeRemer, the daughter of a Teamster, explained to the Reporter that she maintained great relationships with a lot of labor unions in her district during her time in Congress, and “certainly the president built a relationship with labor unions across his entire career.”
Trump, she said, “understands that the people who built this country are in the trades, and we need hundreds of thousands of electricians and welders and pipe fitters and painters; all of those trades need to be honed in. And they've been forgotten, really, over the last 30 years of as we move through the narrative of everybody needing a four year degree, and that's changing.”
“One of the things the president asked when I was nominated,” she continued, “was to bring labor and business together, and I promised him that with my background of having the trades support me, being the daughter of a Teamster, that I could bring that voice to the table and help him grow this economy so that everybody can have a piece of the pie. And the American Dream is alive.”
But it takes two to tango, and Chavez-DeRemer added that in this era, “over 50 percent in a lot of the unions are Republicans.”
Why? She asked. “Because they have conservative values, like faith, family, and freedom, and they just want to be able to have good paying jobs. So I was with them, hand in hand, to honor the work that they've done and to make sure that we're fueling that as well.”
She tied her visit with the Erie Teamsters to the successes for workers in the One Big, Beautiful Bill, her sweeping deregulatory agenda at the Labor Department — which has already conducted 63 deregulatory actions, and the expansion of apprenticeship programs across the country. These all help with the “blue collar boom” in America.
Not everything is going smoothly, however — and Chavez-DeRemer wants to see the controversial Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) overhauled so that it reflects the economy of 2025, not of 1925. Trump recently fired a BLS Commissioner, and the agency recently revised a jobs report by almost one million jobs.
“A question that anybody should ask if they're running an agency at the federal level [is]: how is it working for the American people?” Chavez-DeRemer asked. “Is the information that's being put out to the public accurate? Is it modern information? Is it new information?”
“When you and the market are relying on accurate data, if it's like what we saw [] with the revisions on the jobs report from the Biden era of over 900,000 job revisions, I don't think that that's fair,” she added. “There are better ways. I think that's what the president, independent of the Department of Labor, was asking: are there leaders in this country who want to give the American people what they're asking for, and that's transparency? He's been that president for us.”
Chavez-DeRemer concluded by singling out one of her former colleagues for praise: Rep. Tim Walberg (R., Mich.), the new chair of the Education and Workforce Committee.
“It was certainly important for him to have this role,” she said. “He does a great job for his district and for the committee, and I’ll have the opportunity to work with him on all of the issues that matter, whether we’re talking prescription drugs, PBMs — that’s another executive order, to keep costs down — to get him information from being on the ground.”
Below is a transcript of our interview with Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, lightly edited for clarity.
Washington Reporter:
Secretary, you are en route back to your office from Newport News, Virginia, on a visit that is part of your 50-state tour this year. Tell me about Newport News. What made you select that? And you’ve now been to 33 states this year; what have you learned from this? What surprised you that you weren't expecting to see?
Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer:
This was more of a compounding effect. We were over in Connecticut at General Dynamics Electric Boat, where they build submarines. We were also at Portsmouth, at the Naval Shipyard a couple weeks ago, and those were important visits, talking about apprenticeship programs and national security issues and how we need to be maritime-dominant for the executive order. So this was kind of a continuation of understanding what they're doing here in Newport News with shipbuilding. And you know how many shipbuilders they have? 26,000 right here in America. And I was visiting their apprenticeship school and was learning how they run their apprenticeship program and really train; about half of the 26,000 are tradesmen. And then obviously there’s a lot of innovative engineers and so forth. But we're focusing on the trades and really educating the younger workforce as they come through high school. And so today, I was able to visit with a new starting class. They were in their second day of the apprenticeship program. We covered just how important is this going to be to fulfill that executive order. So this was just a great stop for me to see where we build the latest and greatest warships, submarines, aircraft carriers, and how important it is to Virginia and this part of the country as well.
Washington Reporter:
Just this morning, you were criticizing the Bureau of Labor Statistics for one of the largest ever errors that we've seen; given your new role in government and with the Trump administration more broadly, how do you want to make sure that everything involved in labor — whether it's workers, employers, customers — can trust what they're seeing from these agencies that they need to be able to rely on as they do their day to day jobs?
Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer:
That's a question that anybody should ask if they're running an agency at the federal level: how is it working for the American people? Is the information that's being put out to the public accurate? Is it modern information? Is it new information? When you and the market are relying on accurate data, if it's like what we saw this morning, with the revisions on the jobs report from the Biden era of over 900,000 job revisions, I don't think that that's fair. Maybe this would have begged the question: did we make good decisions based on that information over the course of the year? And I would tell you that oftentimes, that's just not a good way to do business. And I think that there are better ways. I think that's what the president, independent of the Department of Labor, was asking: are there leaders in this country who want to give the American people what they're asking for, and that's transparency? He's been that president for us. So this is just one more data point that says, ‘are we doing it right?’ We should ask those questions. We want a leader in there who who's willing to modernize those systems in place to have accurate information all the time. It’s 2025, we're gathering important information to make market decisions. The country counts on that, and we don't have real time reporting in this day and age, and so for somebody to come in as a new agency head, at the president's direction, that's what they're going to be looking towards: that transparency, modernization of all information that we gather at the federal level.
Washington Reporter:
As you've been meeting with these businesses more recently, how has Trump's crackdown on crime in D.C. been received by America's business community around the country?
Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer:
This is something that we've talked about the Department of Labor as I have visited across the country, and I certainly come from a state where Portland is the epicenter, and really the sister city for so many, we want to make sure that it's safe for every day Americans. Everyday people in their respective states need to feel free to move about and feel safe. One of the ways that applies to the Department of Labor is we often have seen that businesses feel concerned that their workers are not protected. They have to get to and from work as well. They have to be on the streets. They have to be opening the doors and locking up at night and oftentimes they can't leave an employee alone if they don't feel like it's safe. We want all of America to be safe, and that's for our workers to feel safe and for our employers and for our business owners. And we have seen firsthand: a lot of businesses will close due to the crime and they have to report broken windows. Even if it's a small crime, they shouldn't have to fear that they can't protect their workforce and their own businesses that they've invested their hard earned dollars in. So that's why the president has cracked down, not only in D.C., but possibly into Chicago, and we've seen him bring Portland to the top of list. That's for a reason, because we want to make sure that everybody can feel safe in their own communities. It's the number one tenet that a leader has to have. I was a mayor before, and the number one thing that I focused on was the safety of my citizens while I was leading them. And I would expect that all leaders would want that for their communities, and the president certainly does want that across the nation. And if they're not going to do it, he's going to.
Washington Reporter:
Take me back to your 50 state tour. How did this idea come up with you? Has the Labor Secretary ever done this? And how has your experience, both as a as a locally elected official and as a federally elected official, helped you do the retail salesmanship of your new job?
Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer:
I’ll work backwards from your question. Being a mayor, you're on the ground. Everybody knows who you are in a community. They see you at the schools, they see you at sporting events, they see you the grocery store. They want access to that. When I was a member of Congress, I treated that job the same way, where accessibility mattered. People had my cell phone. People could call me if they needed to. I considered myself the mayor of the 5th District, and it is no different in this role. As I was confirmed and came to the Department, the first thing I thought of was that we should go on a 50 state tour and visit with the American workforce. Let's do that by the end of the year. It didn't make sense to me that you would go and talk to the American people over the course of four years. We want to know what the issues are today so we can work on those and deliver results. And the president's direction was to all the secretaries, really to get on the ground, don't stay in Washington, D.C., go find out what the American people want and help me deliver on the promises that I made to them during the election. So it only made sense to me that I would go out and talk to the American business owner, the American worker, and bring everybody to the table to grow the economy. I told my team that we should do a 50 state tour, and we should do it by the end of the year. Well, when you say that in public, you have to deliver. And it's been great, because I can take these stories back to the president, I can tell him specifically, ‘I was here in Virginia, I was in California, I was in Oregon. Here's what they're doing. Here's what they need help on.’ I've been to Louisiana again, and with these 33 different states, they are all different industries, and they all want a healthy workforce. My part of the equation is to deliver that skilled workforce to them at a timely manner that is affordable, and then make sure the systems that the Department of Labor already have in place work. Oftentimes, navigating any system at the federal level can be cumbersome. We wanted to break down those barriers, and build a team around that at DOL that has helped with with that. We want to make sure we're answering the call and being a partner and being the best federal partner we can be.
Washington Reporter:
Are there already results from this tour, based on what you've seen, and therefore wanted to implement within the Department of Labor, or stories that you've told the president that would not have happened had you been staying at the D.C. headquarters the whole time?
Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer:
Oh, my gosh, absolutely. One of the things that the Department of Labor works with on other agencies, like the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of State, is our foreign labor certification, our visa programs, our age programs; we hear the concerns of a workforce. We want to make sure that we're supplying the American workforce, but oftentimes there is a migrant workforce that needs to be enforced within the law that's already in place. We're not here to expand it, but we want to make sure it works. One of the things that I did was bring the Office of Immigration Policy right into the Secretary's office for more of a concierge-style approach to answering the call of getting those visa programs and making them more efficient, more modernized, more timely, and more affordable. That's just one little thing that we can do within the law now and then let the president know that that we're working hard for our farmers, ranchers, and producers in that regard. Some of the other things are just the systems in place. I'm working with Department of Education through an MOU, as well as with the Small Business Administration. We also have a memorandum of understanding that we can share data points, we can share information to streamline a lot of the grant dollars that are going out to our states. So as of yesterday, the Department of Education and the Department of Labor are consolidating a lot of those programs and we are receiving the opportunity to deliver those grant dollars all now through the Department of Labor, so the one-stop-shop where communities and other states might say, ‘hey, we don't have to apply to both. We can work together to make sure that our workforce and our education system is a better fit to get those workers to those small businesses as they need them.’ So it's just a different way of looking at it. We're all secretaries and are working together. Here at Newport News, we're talking about veterans who are going to go into the civilian workforce and allowing them to have accessibility to what's available out there in the trades, and what their next career can be, and mitigate a lot of those barriers that get in the way. Those kind of conversations can only happen if you're on the ground and really hear it firsthand.
Washington Reporter:
You know this yourself firsthand, but you are, in many ways, the face — along with Trump — of the GOP’s evolving relationship with labor unions and organized labor. To that end, you spent Labor Day obviously riding with the teamsters in a parade in Pennsylvania. What made you want to do that? And where do you see the GOP relationship with these unions that had previously been quite hostile to your party?
Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer:
There are a couple of different aspects of that. Certainly, the president built a relationship with labor unions across his entire career. He understands that the people who built this country are in the trades, and we need hundreds of thousands of electricians and welders and pipe fitters and painters; all of those trades need to be honed in. And they've been forgotten, really, over the last 30 years of as we move through the narrative of everybody needing a four year degree, and that's changing. They were forgotten. One of the things the president asked when I was nominated, was to bring labor and business together, and I promised him that with my background of having the trades support me, being the daughter of a Teamster, that I could bring that voice to the table and help him grow this economy so that everybody can have a piece of the pie. And the American Dream is alive. And as long as we invest in our workforce and made sure that they knew that we wanted them to have good-paying jobs, mortgage-paying jobs, family benefits, safety, that the focus would always be on the American worker. I promised him I could do that, and that's exactly what we're doing. So going to Erie, Pennsylvania, and be in the Labor Day parade as a Republican is a testament to the membership. You'll know that over 50 percent in a lot of the unions are Republicans. Why? Because they have conservative values, like faith, family, and freedom, and they just want to be able to have good paying jobs. So I was with them, hand in hand, to honor the work that they've done and to make sure that we're fueling that as well. Again, for the business owner, we all can be at the same table, because if we're going to be have American dominance and be the leader in the world, we need to make sure that we have all hands on deck. So it was a great honor to ride with them in the parade and understand what's important; as we celebrate our 250th anniversary of this country, we're not going to forget that we need more of a skilled workforce, and that's not going to be a four year degree, and the president has really been the president of the American worker, and I said that more than once, and I'll continue to say that, and then we can put that into practice by leading; he essentially led Congress about why this is so important, and that's why they passed the One Big, Beautiful Bill, the working families tax cuts, that's going to keep more of their money in their own pockets. I've talked to many service industries, and no tax on tips is going to matter; if you go talk to law enforcement or firefighters, no tax on overtime is important, and that's why they're asking now for the apprenticeship programs to have a pipeline of the workforce with the private sector. They haven't always done apprenticeship programs, at least to the extent that the trades have and the unions have, but now they're doing it now because they need that pipeline. And so we want to get those grant dollars out to AI for AI purposes, to be AI dominant. We want to deregulate a lot of the policies that have been in place that don't really work anymore, and we want to be getting rid of the red tape, and that's why we cut back. We've had 63 deregulatory actions at the Department of Labor already, because that's important to grow the economy. We're seeing the blue collar boom. We're seeing real wages go up, and we're going to continue to grow the economy and increase these jobs numbers so that America is number one.
Washington Reporter:
The Ed and Workforce Committee is having a hearing on anti-Semitism in labor unions. As you've been working with this community even more in your new role, how do you ensure that things like that get rooted out while still keeping the benefits of these groups like you were just laying out?
Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer:
Congress is going to do their job with oversight. We never want discrimination to happen in any sector of this workforce, and that is their job: to have the oversight and root out that type of evil. It should never happen. This is the workforce that we want to protect. We want to make sure that we are promoting education and that we're protecting our retirees all the way through to the end. The Department of Labor really touches all aspects of Americans as they move through their lifetime, and so it is incumbent upon me to enforce the law and then certainly work with my colleagues who I miss all the time you know I was able to go and talk to my colleagues on the Hill last week when over 50 of them came and we did a roundtable on some of the issues that matter. One of the roles of the secretary is to give them the information they need to know to promote good policy. While I don’t make the laws, I enforce the laws, and it’s important for them to have an ally at the agency to do the hard work. It’s been important to me to have continuity of those relationships as I go across the country, I pop into many of their districts to help them convey the message of the president and to let them know that I am here as their ally. This was an easy transition for me, I love to see with them, I visit with them often, and we want to keep making sure that we are working together for the American people. It’s an honor to do this job, I feel grateful to do it. It’s an honor to work for this president and I’ll keep doing my job. It’s going to take hard work, but the American people deserve it.
Washington Reporter:
Finally: how is Tim Walberg doing as Ed and Workforce chairman?
Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer:
It was certainly important for him to have this role; he does a great job for his district and for the committee, and I’ll have the opportunity to work with him on all of the issues that matter, whether we’re talking prescription drugs, PBMs — that’s another executive order, to keep costs down — to get him information from being on the ground. Labor unions are important, right to work is important for a lot of states. We want to grow the American pie so that everybody has a job and can work towards the American Dream, everybody has their role, and we’re all going to keep each other accountable and transparent, and I think that’s what’s important in this administration. The president is going to continue to deliver on the promises that he made, and one of those was transparency, so we’re going to keep up the hard work.