The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee voted 12-11 along party lines today to approve President Donald Trump’s pick for deputy secretary of the Department of Labor.
The committee vote sends the nomination of Keith Sonderling to the full Senate for further consideration. The nominee signaled his support during a Feb. 27 nomination hearing for expanding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workforce and highlighted AI’s potential to reduce bias in hiring processes.
“Mr. Sonderling is ready to work with this committee to implement a pro-American agenda that secures a better future for all workers,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who is chair of the Senate Health committee.
Sonderling previously served the Trump administration as a commissioner on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2020. Before then, he was deputy administrator of the Wage and Hour Division at the Department of Labor.
In questioning before the Senate committee, Sonderling showed support for increased implementation of AI in the Federal workforce if that use complies with civil rights and health and safety laws.
Specifically, Sonderling mentioned using AI to make hiring decisions to mitigate bias in the hiring process. He said designing AI to be transparent in its decision-making will provide clear reasons for hiring decisions in the workplace.
“If we get the AI transparent, we can actually see if it was fair or see if it was biased,” Sonderling said about its use in the hiring process.
“We can, hopefully, get to a place where AI discriminates less than humans in the employment application process and throughout the employee life cycle,” Sonderling said.
Sonderling added that AI can also be used “on the American workforce to actually help make them more productive, help make their jobs better, safer, more secure.”
He emphasized training the workforce to use AI to aid in making workers more efficient in their tasks and highlighted the need for AI products to be developed domestically.
“We are not going to be able to succeed as a global leader in AI without making sure that the products are developed, designed, and deployed in accordance with the laws that Congress have passed,” Sonderling said.
“There’s a lot of old laws that we can apply to this. They’re not outdated. That’s our job to apply,” he added.
Sonderling also highlighted his desire to increase collaboration with private sector vendors to educate workers against fears associated with implementing AI.
“This is essentially going to make your job easier, better and more enjoyable and thrive more in the workplace and not having that fear of displacement,” Sonderling said.
