Politics

Rep. Hilda Solis

By Karina

Today, President-elect Obama nominated Rep. Hilda Solis as Secretary of Labor:

Speaker Pelosi:

I applaud President-elect Obama?s selection of my colleague and friend Congresswoman Hilda Solis to serve as America?s next Labor Secretary. Hilda Solis? tenure in Congress has been defined by an unrelenting commitment to working Americans, from their health care and job creation to their retirement security and workplace safety. As the first elected Latina in the California Senate, she led the fight to increase the state?s minimum wage.

Working together, President-elect Obama and Secretary-designate Solis can help to put the Labor Department back on the side of working Americans who deserve fair wages, safe workplaces, and job training to take part in the green and innovative economy that will make America more competitive. I look forward to Congresswoman Solis? swift confirmation and to working with her and our new President in the new year.

Rep. George Miller, Chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee:

Congresswoman Hilda Solis is a very strong champion of working families and will be an outstanding Secretary of Labor. Her record in the California legislature as a leader on labor issues and her excellent work in Congress on behalf our of nation?s working men and women will restore the Department of Labor as an advocate for hard working Americans.

Congresswoman Solis will take the helm of the Department of Labor during a very trying time for our nation and our workers. Our nation?s growing economic uncertainty demands a Labor Secretary who understands the everyday struggles Americans are facing.

The task of rebuilding the Department of Labor after years of neglect will be particularly daunting. As a colleague and former member of the Education and Labor Committee, I am confident that Hilda Solis is the right person to lead this effort to ensure that the Labor Department fights for working people.?

I look forward to working with her and the Obama administration to move the country forward on expanding health care, ensuring fair and equal pay, improving worker safety, strengthening retirement security and rebuilding our middle class.

Full post as published by The Gavel on December 19, 2008 (boomark / email).