Chairwoman Foxx Sends Acting Labor Secretary Su Letter On Dog Attacks in the White House
White House tours were reportedly shut down briefly due to blood on the floors.
On Monday, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Chairwoman of the Education and the Workforce Committee, sent a letter to Department of Labor Acting Secretary Julie Su requesting information about workplace safety protocols in the White House following reports that the number of dog bite incidents involving President Biden’s dog, Commander, has risen to 24.
According to a Washington Post article in February, one biting incident involving the President Biden’s dog, Commander, “briefly shut down White House tours because of blood on the floor.”
“Commander, the Biden family’s second German shepherd in the White House, bit people in at least two dozen episodes the agency recorded between October 2022 and July 2023, the newly released documents show,” the Post reports. “That raised enough concern among Secret Service leaders that they began tracking the incidents in a spreadsheet and warning agents to be careful.”
In the letter sent Monday by Foxx, the Chairwoman references two prior letters sent to Su in October and November 2023 regarding safety protocols in the White House.
As I explained in my prior letters, the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) requires the head of every federal agency to maintain an occupational safety and health program consistent with OSHA standards. It also requires that agencies record and report all occupational accidents and injuries to the Secretary of Labor on an annual basis. Since the EOP [Executive Office of the President] falls within the definition of “agency” under the implementing regulations, the EOP is subject to these requirements.
Foxx has been a long-time critic of Acting Secretary Su’s ignoring the Congressional Committee.
Su, who remains acting in the role of Labor Secretary, despite not being confirmed by the U.S. Senate for more than a year, remains hopeful that she will be eventually.
Earlier in March, Foxx wrote to Su, as well as U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Chair Charlotte Burrows, and National Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo as part of the Committee’s investigation into the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) “Workers’ Voice Summit” (Summit).
In her letter to Su, Foxx wrote:
Your failure to comply with the subpoena and the Committee’s previous requests is utterly beyond comprehension. This signals a new low for you and for DOL in not respecting Congress’s duty to conduct oversight. … Beyond merely being a Summit for workers to share their concerns with OSHA and to learn more about the agency, this multiday, closed-door, event was another example of the Biden administration mobilizing ‘all of government’ for the specific benefit of organized labor.
Whether Chairwoman Foxx’s letter sent on Monday is responded to by Su remains to be seen.
Read Monday’s full letter here.