Labor Department

Elaine Chao
Secretary
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When the President's first choice to run Labor, Linda Chavez, evoked loud protests from unions and eventually withdrew amid questions about her employing an illegal immigrant, Bush quickly turned to a congenial, risk-free candidate with a less-polarizing style. Unlike Chavez, Chao, 48, had not alienated organized labor with a paper trail of piercing attacks on the minimum wage and affirmative action. Instead, Chao has a history of pushing a conservative agenda, but without provoking messy fights and making enemies along the way. The first Asian-American woman to serve as a Cabinet Secretary, Chao sailed through her confirmation hearing with no resistance from organized labor or liberal Democrats. Her businesslike, diplomatic style led the AFL-CIO to adopt an essentially neutral stance on her nomination. The communications workers and machinists unions endorsed her appointment. Chao has served in two previous Administrations. In 1983, she was picked to be a White House fellow and plugged away for the Domestic Policy Council. Then-Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Dole recruited Chao to work as a deputy administrator of the Federal Maritime Administration, and she rose to deputy Transportation secretary before leaving in 1991 to head the Peace Corps. After Republicans lost the White House in 1992, Chao spent a frenzied four years as president of the United Way, helping the charity dig its way out of a deep pit of ethical and financial scandals. Shortly after taking over United Way, Chao married Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Chao holds an undergraduate degree in economics from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass., and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

D. Cameron Findlay
Deputy Secretary
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A lawyer and veteran of the George H.W. Bush Administration, Findlay says his goal at Labor is "to try and give a big-picture look to what the department is doing-in terms of regulation especially." He and Secretary Chao have similar approaches. "We both tend to come at issues from a free-market perspective," says Findlay, 41, an Indiana native and a former partner at the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin Brown & Wood. He adds that Chao "expects me to be a point of contact with the White House, because I have a relationship over there." First in his class at Northwestern University and a Marshall Scholar at Oxford, the Harvard Law graduate started his career in the late 1980s with two high-profile clerkships: for Judge Stephen Williams on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Findlay was special assistant to Transportation Secretary Samuel K. Skinner from 1989-91, when he first got to know Chao, then-deputy Transportation secretary. When the elder Bush tapped Skinner to run his staff, Findlay became deputy assistant to the President and counselor to the chief of staff. After Bush lost re-election, Findlay returned to Chicago to practice law but kept active political ties to Washington.

Patrick Pizzella
Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management
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If Labor operated trains, Pizzella, 47, would make sure they ran on time. He's responsible for developing and implementing department-wide administrative and management policies and programs, in areas ranging from the budget to human resources. A former lobbyist with the Washington law firm Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds, Pizzella also served in both the Reagan and George H.W. Bush Administrations. He was special assistant to the head of the General Services Administration, then did a stint at the Small Business Administration. From there, Pizzella went to the Education Department in 1986. Pizzella spent five years as director of administration at the Federal Housing Finance Board before going to the private sector in 1996. At Preston Gates, he advised such corporate clients as Microsoft and Pitney-Bowes. Although confirmed unanimously by the Senate, Pizzella has already received some negative press. The New Republic reported in June that Pizzella "provided `general lobbying representation' for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands." It adds that the islands "have become a notorious haven for foreign-owned sweatshops in recent years." Pizzella dismissed the work for Preston Gates as "ancient history." Before joining Labor, he headed the GSA team for the Bush-Cheney transition and was acting chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management. The New York native is a 1976 graduate of the University of South Carolina.

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