The White House said it will release a new pick “very soon” to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics after Trump withdraws EJ Antoni’s nomination.
Trump defends BLS Chief shooting in a tense CNBC exchange
Trump fired BLS commissioner Erica Mantelfer, causing a tense exchange with CNBC’s Joe Kernen on “Squawk Box” over the integrity of employment data.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 (Reuters) – The Trump administration has withdrawn the nomination of conservative economist Eji Antoni as director of Labor Statistics, the White House said Tuesday.
President Donald Trump last month nominated Antoni to lead a department that is part of the Labor Department to fire the director and then criticized her without manipulating the department’s figures before generating closely monitored statistics in the market.
“Dr. Eji Antoni is a great economist, an American patriot and an American patriot who continues to do good work on behalf of our great nation,” a White House official said in a statement, pledging the president to “announce a new candidate soon.”
The Senate Committee, which oversees the Labor Bureau, had no plans to make a confirmation hearing, so on Sept. 30, Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Markowski said she was concerned about Antoni’s nomination. Those familiar with the nomination said other Republicans expressed similar hesitation.
CNN first reported that the administration had taken Antoni’s nomination.
Antoni is currently the Chief Economist of the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation and a critic of the BLS, whose monthly job market and inflation reports are used by global audiences of economists, investors, business leaders, public policy makers and consumers.
The United States was hiding towards a government shutdown on September 30 after a failed vote to extend funds past the midnight deadline in the US Senate. The shutdown will delay the release of employment numbers for September, which will be announced on Friday.
Antoni’s appointment has sparked concern among economists regarding the quality of BLS data.
“The candidates will see a surge in demand for private label data,” said Joe Brusseras, chief economist at RSM US.
Antoni’s choice is a clear attack on independent analysis that has a widespread impact on the reliability of US economic data,” said Alex Jacquez, director of policy and advocacy for basic cooperation, who says he is fighting “to change economic policies and narratives to build public power.”
The BLS is under scrutiny by Republicans after Trump suffered trouble with the data. Sen. Bill Cassidy, Republican chair of the committee that oversees the verification process, said in a statement that “current Quo” is not working with employment data.
When Trump fired Mcentarfer on August 1, it was added to growing concerns about the reliability of BLS and other federal government economic data. Her firing comes hours after reporting that the historically large employment growth in July, May and June employment numbers was far weaker.
