William Beach Confirmed by Senate as Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner
William Beach Confirmed by Senate as Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner
 
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March 2019

On March 13, the Senate confirmed William Beach to serve as commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), by a 55–44 vote. President Donald Trump nominated Beach to lead BLS, one of the principal federal statistical agencies, in October 2017. The term of the prior commissioner, Erica Groshen, expired in January 2017.

Beach, an economist, most recently served as vice president of policy research at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center. Prior to that role, he was chief economist on the Republican staff of the Senate Budget Committee. He was also the Lazof Family Fellow in Economics at the Heritage Foundation and director of the foundation’s Center for Data Analysis. His portfolio at Heritage included education.

Members of the statistical community supported Beach’s nomination in a letter from the Friends of BLS.