On March 22, the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) held a confirmation hearing on the nomination of R. Alexander Acosta to serve as United States Secretary of labor. President Trump nominated Acosta to head the U.S. Department of Labor on Feb. 16. Acosta’s nomination must be approved by the HELP Committee before the full Senate can vote on his nomination.

Acosta is currently Florida International University’s College of Law dean. Under former President George W. Bush, Acosta was confirmed by the Senate three times, as a member of the National Labor Relations Board, the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and as a U.S. Attorney in Miami, Fla. Acosta is a graduate of Harvard Law School, and clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito when he was a judge on the Third Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals.

ABC signed onto a letter of support along with a wide variety of business organizations urging the Senate HELP Committee for the swift approval and confirmation of Acosta.