Harris to serve as acting Labor secretary

Seth Harris

Seth Harris will serve as the Department of Labor’s acting secretary.

Harris, the department’s deputy secretary since May 2009, will fill in for Secretary Hilda Solis who earlier this month announced she was stepping down.

In an email to department employees on January 24, Harris wrote, “Our goals in the department are stability and continuity as we wait for a Secretary of Labor to be nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.”

Before joining the department, Harris was a professor of law at New York Law School and director of its Labor & Employment Law Programs. He served for seven years at the department during the Clinton administration in key positions, including counselor to the secretary of labor.

Harris told department employees in his email that “our mission has never been more important than it is today. Let’s work together to carry it out, to help the people and organizations that depend on us, and to continue rebuilding America’s economy.”