in fact, his record includes working with convicted lobbyist jack abramoff on behalf of causes counter to the mission. in the 1990's congress was moving to expand labor protections to the northern marianas islands, a u.s. territory, to end the operation of sweatshops that did not follow federal labor laws. the law at the time let companies bring in foreign workers to toil under inhumane conditions. the workers were underpaid. they were forced to sign contracts, signing away their rights to protest labor conditions, and some were even coerced to have abortions. and the companies operating under these inhumane conditions were able to print the words "made in the u.s.a." on their products. while congress was looking at taking action to change the law so we can better protect workers, pizzella was working with abramoff to coordinate all expense-paid trips for dozens of republican lawmakers and staff and working to maintain the sweatshop status quo. patrick pizzella chose not to fight for workers, but for corporations. these efforts aren't just counter to the mission of the department of la

pizzella lobbied with jack abramoff to exempt the mariana islands from labor laws. that's what allowed companies to run sweatshops while slapping made in america labels on their products. later when mr. pizzella was in charge of data management and other operations at the labor department, the government accountability office found that the wage and hour division was egregiously mishandling wage theft complaints, consistently leaving vulnerable low-wage workers out to dry because of faulty data systems and other operational failures. and after leaving the department, mr. pizzella went to work for secretive far-right donor groups like the conservative action project, which secretly planned out the 2013 government shutdown to sabotage the affordable care act and undermine many workers' access to health care, all while mr. pizzella was its highest paid employee. the deputy secretary position should be filled by someone who's defended worker rights, not undermined them, someone who will make government work for the american people, not hamstring it for political purpose