The Senate confirmed Boston Mayor Marty Walsh to be President Joe Biden's labor secretary Monday.
Senators voted 68-29 to confirm Walsh. The nomination needed a simple majority to be confirmed.
Walsh, 53, who has been the Democratic mayor of Boston since 2014, led the Boston Building Trades Council, a union group, before he became mayor. He was a member of the Massachusetts House from 1997 to 2014.
Walsh's confirmation puts the Biden administration closer to filling key government posts and Cabinet positions. As of Monday, the Senate has confirmed nearly two dozen of Biden's nominees.
Walsh, who received bipartisan support in a procedural vote last week, resigned as mayor Monday night. While on the campaign trail, Biden promised to be "the most pro-union president." He also made empowering workers a key tenet of his labor agenda.
Biden and Walsh have close ties — Biden spoke at Walsh's second inauguration in 2017 — and Walsh was on a shortlist of picks for the position. Union leaders praised the nomination when it was announced in January.
Walsh will oversee the $12 billion agency, which has over 17,000 employees, during a time when there is growing pressure to increase the federal minimum wage and when workers in dozens of industries, including at tech giants, are fighting to unionize and to secure better safety protections during the Covid-19 pandemic.
CORRECTION (March 22, 2021, 10:30 p.m.): A previous version of this article misstated Marty Walsh's political status when he led the Boston Building Trades Council. He was a member of the Massachusetts state House at the time; it was not before he had entered political office.
