Hearing for labor secretary nominee delayed; group sues to open St. Louis divorce files

Feb. 02--WASHINGTON -- The confirmation hearing for labor secretary nominee Andy Puzder, a former St. Louis lawyer and fast-food CEO, has been pushed back to an indefinite date because of lagging background paperwork.

"The committee will not officially notice a confirmation hearing with Mr. Puzder until the committee has received his paperwork from the Office of Government Ethics," a spokesman for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee said Thursday.

The hearing had been tentatively set for Tuesday. But Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the HELP Committee chair, after hearing Democrats complain about a lack of access to background checks and other paperwork in the consideration of other Cabinet nominees of President Donald Trump, decided to move it back to an undetermined date.

Puzder is the CEO of CKE Restaurants Inc., the parent company of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's restaurants. He is a 1978 graduate of Washington University's law school and was for years a lawyer in St. Louis.

He represented Missouri anti-abortion rights activists and for several years practiced commercial law in the St. Louis law offices of Morris A. Shenker, a lawyer for Teamsters union boss Jimmy Hoffa.

Puzder's advocates say he'll be a job-creating labor secretary whose blue-collar background -- he worked his way through law school -- makes him uniquely qualified because he has seen the job market from the entry level on up through to CEO of a major corporation. Puzder is also credited with pulling back CKE from bankruptcy.

But Puzder has also been the target of attacks from union leaders, who characterize him as hostile to wage earners; from feminist groups offended by his company's ads showing scantily clad women eating hamburgers; and from some who have seized on 1989 divorce allegations that Puzder had abused his wife, Lisa.

She appeared on "Oprah" to talk about the allegations, but she has since recanted them, saying in a statement released by the Trump transition team that she had "impulsively" filed for divorce and that she "withdrew those allegations more than 30 years ago."

"You were not abusive," Puzder's ex-wife said in the statement, which she sent to Puzder in late November. "I will most definitely confirm to anyone who may ask that in no way was there abuse."

But on Thursday, a Washington-based nonprofit watchdog group said it had filed in St. Louis a lawsuit to open up the Puzders' divorce records. The nonprofit, the Campaign For Accountability, frequently sues lawmakers or others over ethics issues. It does not disclose its donors.

"President Trump has nominated Mr. Puzder to head the Department of Labor, where he would oversee efforts to combat workplace harassment and violence. Before the United States Senate votes on whether Mr. Puzder is qualified to lead an agency charged with protecting the safety of American workers -- including millions of women -- the public is entitled to full information about Mr. Puzder's record," Daniel Stevens, the group's executive director, said in a statement.

Puzder, who before his nomination was very active on social media and on the interview circuit, has been largely quiet in the lead-up for his hearings. Those who have helped him prepare for the nomination say that he is eager to answer his critics but that he is adhering to long-standing tradition in staying out of the public eye as the Senate ponders and debates whether he should be confirmed.

But a spokeswoman at Banner Public Affairs, a major Washington public affairs group that is handling queries, issued a statement condemning the lawsuit as "a shameless attempt to smear an individual who has shown nothing but dedication to creating jobs, growing the economy and providing opportunities for workers to achieve the American dream."

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