WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s pick to lead a crucial U.S. economic statistics agency moved closer to a public confirmation hearing even as some economists have questioned his qualifications to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions has received paperwork for E.J. Antoni’s appointment and plans to hold a hearing, though the timing is still undecided, according to a spokesperson for the committee. The BLS is an agency within the Labor Department.

Trump nominated Antoni after he fired the former commissioner, Erika McEntarfer, last month following a jobs report that revealed the labor market was much weaker in recent months than previously thought.

The president pointed out that McEntarfer was appointed by President Joe Biden and asserted — without evidence — the numbers had been manipulated to make him look bad.

Antoni’s nomination drew criticism from both left- and right-leaning economists, with some skeptical of his experience and others flagging his vocal political views.

He’s also faced more recent criticism. According to a CNN report released Friday, Antoni allegedly ran a now-deleted social media account that included sexually degrading comments about Kamala Harris, conspiracy theories and derogatory comments aimed toward Trump critics, Democratic lawmakers and the LGBTQ community. The comments were posted from approximately 2017 through 2020.

“President Trump has nominated Dr. EJ Antoni to fix the issues at the BLS and restore trust in the jobs reports,” said Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman. “Dr. Antoni has the experience and credentials needed to restore solution-oriented leadership at the BLS — solutions that will prioritize increasing survey response rates and modernizing data collection methods to improve the BLS’s accuracy.”

NBC News also reported last month that video footage showed Antoni was among the crowd outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Rogers described Antoni as a “bystander” to the events and noted he was seen leaving the area. A White House official said Antoni never crossed any barricades or participated in demonstrations.

Antoni did not respond to requests for comment.

Trump’s pick earned his Ph.D. in economics from Northern Illinois University and serves as chief economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation. He contributed to Project 2025 and is a senior fellow at Unleash Prosperity, a group that counts Steve Forbes, Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore among its leaders.

Antoni has been critical of BLS and its revisions to jobs data. Before he was selected for the role, Antoni suggested suspending the monthly jobs report until issues were “corrected.” In a social media post last year, Antoni said the “L” in BLS “is silent.”

And while Antoni has repeatedly indicated that he doesn’t believe BLS staff are manipulating the data, he said on a podcast in December that “just because you didn’t make a sin of commission doesn’t mean you haven’t committed a sin of omission.”

Antoni has also advocated for getting rid of the Federal Reserve, which he’s called “unconstitutional.”

During the nomination hearing, Antoni is likely to draw questions from Democrats over his qualifications for the position. The Senate committee also includes moderate Republicans Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski who have previously voted against some Trump nominees.

Collins told reporters earlier this week that she doesn’t know much about Antoni. But on the allegations that the BLS data had been altered, she said revisions are normal and there was no evidence that McEntarfer had manipulated the numbers because of political motivation.

Antoni will need a simple majority vote from the committee to be advanced to the full Senate for a vote. There are currently 12 Republicans and 11 senators who caucus with Democrats on the Senate HELP committee.

After Antoni’s nomination was announced last month, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Trump nominated Antoni to “undermine the Bureau of Labor Statistics, knowing he’d lie for him.”

“The BLS exists to report factual data, not to serve as Trump’s propaganda shop,” Schumer said in the Aug. 12 statement. “This should not be a political issue, it’s about keeping our economic data honest, transparent, and independent.”

Antoni, before being appointed to the role, underscored the importance of accurate data.

“Whoever the next commissioner is, whether it’s me or anybody else,” Antoni said in an interview with Bloomberg News, “everything they do should be at the service of that mission — more accurate data, as timely as possible, as consistently as possible.”

(Molly Smith, Skylar Woodhouse and Hadriana Lowenkron contributed to this report.)

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