E. J. Antoni, Heritage Foundation economist and former economist for the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Courtesy: Texas Public Policy Foundation
The Trump administration has withdrawn its nomination of conservative economist E.J. Antoni as head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the White House mentioned on Tuesday.
President Donald Trump nominated Antoni final month to lead the bureau, which is a component of the Department of Labor and produces statistics carefully watched by the markets, after firing the company’s head, Erika McEntarfer, and accusing her with out proof of manipulating the bureau’s figures.
“Dr. EJ Antoni is a brilliant economist and an American patriot that will continue to do good work on behalf of our great country,” a White House official mentioned in an announcement, promising the president will announce a brand new nominee “very soon.”
The Senate committee overseeing the Labor Department by no means scheduled a affirmation listening to, and on Tuesday, Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska mentioned she remained involved about Antoni’s nomination. An individual conversant in the nomination mentioned a number of different Republicans expressed related hesitation.
NCS first reported that the administration had pulled Antoni’s nomination.
Antoni presently serves as chief economist on the conservative suppose tank the Heritage Foundation and has been a critic of the BLS, whose month-to-month job market and inflation report is utilized by a worldwide viewers of economists, buyers, enterprise leaders, public policymakers and customers.
The U.S. lurched towards a government shutdown on Tuesday as a vote to prolong funding previous a midnight deadline failed within the U.S. Senate. A shutdown would delay the discharge of the September jobs numbers, that are due out on Friday.
Antoni’s nomination raised considerations amongst economists in regards to the high quality of BLS information.
“The nominee will result in a surge in demand for private label data,” Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM US, mentioned in August.
Alex Jacquez, the pinnacle of coverage and advocacy for Groundwork Collaborative, which describes itself as combating “to change economic policy and narratives in order to build public power,” mentioned on the time that Antoni’s choice was “a clear assault on independent analysis that will have far-reaching implications for the reliability of U.S. economic data.”
The BLS has come underneath scrutiny from Republicans after Trump took situation with its information. Senator Bill Cassidy, the Republican chairman of the committee that oversees the affirmation course of, mentioned in an announcement that the “status quo” just isn’t working with the roles information.
Trump added to rising considerations in regards to the reliability of BLS and different federal authorities financial information when he fired McEntarfer on August 1. Her dismissal got here hours after the company reported a lot weaker-than-expected job progress for July and issued a traditionally massive revision to its employment figures for May and June.