A Democrat operative who worked for the Biden White House personnel office, as a political appointee to the Department of Labor, and for the Kamala Harris transition team, has been hired by the Department of Labor in a role that will continue in the Trump administration using a loophole.
Elizabeth Peña was a Biden political appointee to the Labor Department’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs, where she worked from October 2021 to October 2024, first as a Special Assistant and then as Policy Advisor, according to her LinkedIn.
From October to December 2024, she served as senior manager of vetting for the Harris transition team. Then in January, she returned to the Labor Department — this time as International Relations Officer, not a political appointee.
In a LinkedIn post announcing her new position on Monday, she said she planned to use it to promote “equity,” a left-wing policy opposed by the incoming president.
“I’m thrilled to announce that I have returned to the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) as an International Relations Officer! This new role marks a continuation of my journey to protect and promote labor rights globally. Over the past few years, I’ve had the privilege of working on issues that matter deeply to me and at ILAB, I look forward to collaborating with partners at home and abroad to uphold the principles of dignity, equity, and justice in the workplace,” she wrote.
Peña knows the importance of having people with the right political leanings in the right jobs — and the rules around it — because placing Democrats in key posts has been a large part of her career in politics.
From September 2020 to January 2021, she worked on the Biden transition team as it selected Democrats to fill top jobs. From January to September 2021, she worked in the White House’s influential Presidential Personnel Office, which does the same thing.
Prior to that, she worked for Beto O’Rourke’s presidential campaign, where she “authored over 500 vetting reports analyzing employees,” according to her LinkedIn.
Federal ethics rules frown on “burrowing,” as the effort to embed political appointees into the next administration is known. According to a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, a political appointee can only be converted to a permanent position with special permission from the Office of Personnel Management.
The Congressional Research Service said that’s because of concerns about whether the person was hired because they were close to top leaders instead of being the best-qualified, that it takes a job away from an existing civil servant who may have wanted a promotion, and “that the individual who is converted to a career position may seek to undermine the work of the new Administration.” All of that, the Congressional Research Service says, “may increase the tension between political and career staff.”
Democrats have lashed out at Trump’s suggestion that government employees are often liberals who may seek to thwart him — a suggestion that the Biden PPO alum’s appointment makes harder to dispute.
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), the incoming ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, previously condemned the idea of political operatives moving into the federal workforce, saying he was “committed to protecting the civil service from partisan attacks and attempts to replace qualified experts with political loyalists.”
The Labor Department appears to have used a loophole to avoid Peña showing up on a list of “burrowed” employees, which under the law must be furnished to Congress.
A Labor Department spokesperson told The Daily Wire “Peña was hired as a Term employee at the Bureau of International Labor Affairs. A Term employee is a time-limited position that does not confer career status, distinguishing it from both political appointee roles and permanent career positions.”
The Biden administration has taken other personnel measures that could make it more difficult for Trump to identify and remove partisan operatives from the workforce.
That includes hiring permanent employees to work on DEI initiatives — roles Trump is likely to abolish. Federal agencies may change their titles in an attempt to hide the target.
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