By KASIE HUNT, CongressDaily
Labor Secretary-designate Rep. Hilda Solis, D-Calif., will likely sail to confirmation despite the intense partisan divisions over labor policy on display today at her hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. "I intend to support you," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, before launching into intense questioning about Solis' position on card-check legislation that would make it easier for unions to organize. He called that bill, called the Employee Free Choice Act, "dangerous" and "terrible." She pointed out she was a co-sponsor of the bill, which passed the House in 2007, and that President-elect Obama had backed it when he was in the Senate. "If I am confirmed I will first and foremost be sure that we attend to the goals of the Department of Labor," she said. In her testimony, Solis laid out four priorities for her tenure: expanding job training and creating green jobs; enforcing workplace safety laws; enhancing retirement security; and eliminating discrimination. Solis has a strong record of backing organized labor, and unions have praised her nomination.
HELP ranking member Michael Enzi urged Solis to work with business and Republicans instead of stoking partisan rancor. "One area where common ground should certainly be found is in retooling our nation's job training system," Enzi said. Meanwhile, HELP Chairman Edward Kennedy praised Solis' background as the daughter of immigrants who worked in manufacturing jobs. "We need leaders who understand what working families are facing in today's economy. I believe that Hilda Solis is just such a leader," Kennedy said. Solis' testimony came shortly after the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced the economy lost over half a million jobs in December, raising the unemployment rate to 7.2 percent, up from 6.8 percent a month earlier. "This is an especially difficult moment for middle-class families in America, increasing numbers of whom are losing their homes, their jobs and their retirement savings," she said.
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