The Senate has approved the nomination of New York's state labor commissioner for the No. 3 post at the Labor Department.

The 60-37 vote for Patricia Smith comes nine months after she was nominated for the department's top legal job as solicitor and just hours before Republican Scott Brown takes his Senate seat. Republicans had held up a vote on Smith, claiming she misled lawmakers about her role in creating a New York program that allowed labor unions to help uncover wage-and-hour violations.

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