White House: Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer will leave job

WASHINGTON − Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is leaving the Trump administration, the White House announced.

She is the third Cabinet member to depart this year. All are women. Her exit comes amid allegations of misconduct and after multiple outlets reported that an investigation into her leadership was well underway.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said in an X post April 20 that Chavez-DeRemer would be leaving the administration to take a job in the private sector. He did not say where.

"She has done a phenomenal job in her role by protecting American workers, enacting fair labor practices, and helping Americans gain additional skills to improve their lives," Cheung wrote.

Chavez-DeRemer said in a post on X that she was grateful to Trump.

"It has been an honor and a privilege to serve in this historic Administration and work for the greatest President of my lifetime," she wrote. "While my time serving in the Administration comes to a conclusion, it doesn’t mean I will stop fighting for American workers. I am looking forward to what the future has in store as I depart for the private sector."

Cheung said deputy Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling would become acting head of the department. The announcement came days after The New York Times reported that a Labor Department investigation into her leadership included text messages that Chavez-DeRemer's husband and father purportedly sent young female members of her staff.

Her departure also comes just weeks after Trump ousted two other members of his Cabinet: former Attorney General Pam Bondi, who also left for an unspecified role in the private sector in early April, and former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whom he moved to a role as special envoy in March.

Chavez-DeRemer, a former Republican representative from Oregon, had been responsible for overseeing federal laws and regulations related to unions, workplace conditions such as occupational safety, and minimum wage and other labor-related matters.

The New York Post reported in January that she was under investigation on suspicion of pursuing an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate, unnecessary travel on the taxpayer's dime and drinking on the job. The Labor Department denied those allegations, and the White House called them baseless at the time.

In April, The New York Times reported Chavez-DeRemer had three civil rights complaints filed against her by three women who worked in her office. Among the allegations were that Chavez-DeRemer made staff members run errands for her, including picking up her dry cleaning and cleaning out the closet in her apartment.

Three members of her staff and a member of her security detail with whom she was accused of having an affair have been forced out of their jobs over the allegations, the newspaper reported.

Her husband, Shawn DeRemer, was also accused of sexual harassment. He reportedly was barred from the Labor Department’s headquarters after he was accused of making unwanted sexual advances toward its employees.

The police department in Washington, DC, declined in February to charge him with a crime.

Who is Lori Chavez-DeRemer?

The Senate confirmed Chavez-DeRemer as the nation's 30th labor secretary on March 10, 2025.

"The daughter of a Teamster, Secretary Chavez-DeRemer is a successful small businesswoman and the first in her family to graduate from college," her biography on the Department of Labor website reads.

The 57-year-old is married to Dr. Shawn DeRemer, who founded an anesthesia management company and medical clinics across the Pacific Northwest, the bio says. The couple share twin daughters.

From 2010 to 2018, she was the first female and Latina mayor of Happy Valley, a city southeast of Portland.

In 2022, Chavez-DeRemer was elected to the House of Representatives to represent Oregon's 5th Congressional District. She served in the House from 2023 to 2025. She ran for reelection in 2024 but lost to Democrat Janelle Bynum.

While serving in Congress, Chavez-DeRemer was one of three House cosponsors of a pro-union bill called the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, aimed at expanding labor protections for people to organize and bargain in their workplace.

Her interim replacement, Sonderling, is also in charge of the Institute for Museum and Library Services, an agency that funds the nation's libraries and museums and was shuttered by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X @nataliealund.

Contributing: Bill Poehler, Salem Statesman Journal