Republican Double Standard for Labor Secretary

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2009/02/06/republican-double-standard-for-labor-secretary/

by Mike Hall, Feb 6, 2009

Senate Republicans are continuing the same partisan, roadblock political games that voters said they’d had enough of in November.

This time their stubborn gamesmanship threatens the working families across the country: They are trying to derail President Obama’s economic recovery plan and block his pick of Hilda Solis as secretary of labor.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says: “Enough is enough.”

We cannot continue to fiddle as the economy burns. It is urgent for the American people to have an aggressive, emergency economic recovery plan that will put people back to work and keep families in their homes, and a strong Department of Labor.

Today we learned the nation lost nearly jobs 600,000 last month—the worst job loss since 1974—bringing the total job loss since the recession began 14 months ago to 3.5 million. The unemployment rate worsened from 7.2 percent to 7.6 percent in January. Says Sweeney:

But even as the economy crumbles around us, Senate opponents are continuing to block the confirmation of the Secretary of Labor and trying to cut crucial aid—particularly the funds for state and local governments—from the economic recovery plan for partisan and ideological reasons.

Enough is enough. Senate Republicans can’t just oppose a Secretary of Labor because she supports working Americans and favors curbing excessive corporate power. They need to stop obstructing and confirm Rep. Solis now.

Yesterday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee postponed a scheduled confirmation vote the Solis nomination. Obama announced his choice of Solis in December, and the committee held a hearing on the nomination Jan. 9. On top of that, when Republican panel members weren’t satisfied, she answered 15 sets of their written questions.

FULL story at link.