Solis pressed on jobs report, card-check

A dour jobs report and the influence organized labor will
have with the Obama administration dominated the confirmation hearing of Rep. Hilda
Solis (D-Calif.) as Labor secretary.

Democratic lawmakers seized on a new report released
Friday stating that more than 524,000 jobs had been lost in December, pushing
the nation’s unemployment rate to 7.2 percent, to press Solis on how she would
reverse the trend.

{mosads}“Every morning working families wake up to more bad news.
More jobs lost. More pensions gone. More dreams that disappear,” said Sen. Edward
Kennedy (D-Mass.), the panel’s chairman.

Lawmakers quizzed Solis as to how she could best reverse
the jobs decline for a number of sectors in the economy, from healthcare
workers to those afflicted with disabilities. One solution the California
congresswoman recommended was focusing on creating new “green-collar” jobs.
That could include retrofitting government buildings to meet energy-efficiency
standards and installing solar panels, among other tasks that would develop
America’s alternative energy production.

“This is the potential we have not seen before. There is
a calling to reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” Solis said.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) said she was supportive of
the program but warned it was not a “green bullet” to answer the country’s job
woes. Instead, the Labor Department has to be more active in funding already
existing job-training programs, including those for healthcare workers.

Reviewing the latest jobs report, Sen. Tom Harkin
(D-Iowa) said the unemployment rate for the disabled is at 63 percent, calling
it a “true blot on the American character.” Harkin asked Solis what the Labor
Department could do to turn this around. She said she would focus on programs to
help military veterans returning from combat who suffered injuries.

Solis earned praise from both sides of the aisle for her
career in public service, with Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) promising to vote for
her confirmation.

Born to immigrant parents, Solis was the first Hispanic
California state senator and has been a member of Congress for the past eight
years, often advocating for immigrant rights, as well as union rights. 

The member also earned the backing of fellow lawmakers. Sens.
Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced Solis to
the committee, while some of her House colleagues, Reps. Lois Capps (D-Calif.)
and Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), sat in attendance.

But despite the warm words from the committee, Solis
faced tough questioning from Republicans on a number of issues that the
incoming Obama administration will have to weigh in on, from state right-to-
work laws to funding union corruption investigations at the Labor Department.

Solis often deferred, not directly answering the
questions about Obama’s future labor policies, and promised to answer senators’
queries later in writing.

Most pressing, however, was the Employee Free Choice Act,
otherwise known as “card-check,” which would allow workers to organize into a
union by signing authorization cards and not by secret ballot. Labor groups
have said the bill is their No. 1 priority this year, while business
associations have already been lobbying hard against the measure.

“It can’t be used to magnify one side over the other. It
has to be handled fairly,” Hatch said.

Senators asked Solis for her thoughts about secret-ballot
elections and mandatory arbitration, two provisions in the bill that have
raised strident opposition from industry. Unions have argued that employers
have often prevented workers from organizing and that the bill would help
strengthen workers’ rights.

Solis mentioned at least three times that she in the
House and Obama in the Senate were co-sponsors of the legislation during the
past Congress. But the congresswoman has not discussed the issue with the
president-elect as of yet and could not answer questions about the bill at the
hearing.

Solis serves on the board of American Rights at Work, a
liberal worker advocacy group. Ranking Republican Mike Enzi (Wyo.) complained
to Solis about personal attacks the group has made against lawmakers and asked
if she would step down.

“If I’m confirmed, I am more than likely to remove myself
from the board,” she answered.