Key Senate Democrats won't say whether they'll back Biden nominee for labor secretary Julie Su
CBSN
President Joe Biden's nominee to be the next labor secretary, Julie Su, will be testifying before the Senate Thursday with key Democrats unwilling to voice support for her confirmation, creating uncertainty about her prospects in the narrowly divided chamber.
A handful of moderate Democrats have not publicly stated whether they'll vote for Su's nomination ahead of her confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Biden in February picked Su to replace Marty Walsh, the former mayor of Boston, as labor secretary.
Su, a civil rights attorney and the current deputy labor secretary, is the daughter of an immigrant mother who arrived on a cargo ship. She would be the first Asian American in the Biden administration to serve in the Cabinet at the secretary level. Biden called her path proof of the "American dream" and said that "she's committed to making sure that dream is in reach for every American."
President Joe Biden said France was America's "first friend" at its founding and is one of its closest allies more than two centuries later as he was honored with a state visit Saturday by French President Emmanuel Macron aimed at showing off their partnership on global security issues and easing past trade tensions.
The Consumer Federal Protection Bureau last week launched an inquiry into what the agency is calling "junk fees in mortgage closing costs." These additional fees, involving home appraisal, title insurance and other services, have spiked in recent years and can add thousands of dollars to the final cost of buying a home.
Retired Maj. Gen. William Anders, the former Apollo 8 astronaut who took the iconic "Earthrise" photo showing the planet as a shadowed blue marble from space in 1968, was killed Friday when the plane he was piloting alone plummeted into the waters off the San Juan Islands in Washington state. He was 90.