Patrick Pizzella, a veteran of several past Republican and Democratic presidential administrations, will take over as acting secretary of labor following the abrupt departure of Alexander Acosta Friday following controversy surrounding a plea deal he arranged for sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein in 2008. Pizzella has served deputy secretary for just over a year.

President Trump said Friday that Pizzella "will do the job. Highly recommended by Alex. Going to be acting. He’s already been told."

A 65-year-old New York native, Pizzella was confirmed to the number two spot at the Labor Department last year on 50-48 vote with Republicans arguing that the department was suffering without key positions filled.

Pizzella has been a fixture of labor policy for several past administrations. He was an assistant secretary at the Labor Department throughout President George W. Bush's administration, 2001 to 2009. He served as a member of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, the agency that oversees labor relations between the government and federal employees, during President Barack Obama's administration, starting in 2013. Following Trump's election, Pizzella became FLRA chairman prior to moving to the Labor Department in April 2017. During President George H. W. Bush's administration, Pizzella served as deputy undersecretary in the Education Department.

Patrick Pizzella. (Shawn T Moore/U.S. Department of Labor)

He worked for a namesake firm 2009 to 2013. He has a degree in business administration from the University of South Carolina.

His nomination to the number two position at the Labor Department was controversial. Some liberal policymakers and groups noted that he had lobbied on behalf of the Northern Mariana Islands to maintain its unique status as an income tax-free place that could still manufacture products with the label "Made in the U.S.A.," despite the island's record of poor working conditions. "[H]e has not done enough to repudiate his past record of defending companies that routinely ignored these [labor and civil] rights, and he has not given workers adequate reason to believe that he will defend their rights in the future, said the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.