The United States President Donald Trump on Thursday nominated attorney Eugene Gene Scalia as the next Labor Secretary.
"I am pleased to announce that it is my intention to nominate Gene Scalia as the new Secretary of Labor," Trump tweeted.
"Gene has led a life of great success in the legal and labor field and is highly respected not only as a lawyer, but as a lawyer with great experience working with labor and everyone else. He will be a great member of an Administration that has done more in the first 2 1/2 years than perhaps any Administration in history!," he added.
If appointed, the son of late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia will succeed former Labor Secretary Alex Acosta who resigned last week after coming under criticism for a lenient plea deal he negotiated for the wealthy sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2008.
Scalia is a partner in the Washington DC office of the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
The younger Scalia served as Solicitor of the Labor Department from 2002 to 2003 after his appointment by former President George W. Bush.