Nominating Of Hilda L. Solis, Of California, To Be Secretary Of Labor - Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, let me begin by saying that I have not supported all of President Obama's nominations, but I am on the floor today to very proudly and enthusiastically support the nomination of HILDA SOLIS to be our next Secretary of Labor.

As a former Member of the House, I have had the honor and privilege of working with Congresswoman Solis on a number of very important issues over the years. I consider Congresswoman Solis not only an outstanding Member of that body but also a very good friend.

In my view, there are very few Members of Congress who have spent as many years as she has in the fight to expand the middle class, in the fight to address the problems of poverty, in the fight to make sure all of our fellow Americans have health care as a right. I believe very strongly that HILDA SOLIS will make an excellent--excellent--Secretary of the Department of Labor.

When I left the House and moved to the Senate, I was delighted to work with Congresswoman Solis to create the Green Jobs Workforce Training Program. This important initiative will not only lead to the creation of decent-paying jobs all over this country but will also help us combat the scourge of global warming and our dependence on foreign oil and help us move aggressively away from fossil fuels.

Mr. President, as you well know, millions of Americans from California to the State of Vermont are caught up in the worst economic crisis this country has faced since the Great Depression. Our people by the millions are losing their jobs. Our people are losing their homes. They are losing their health insurance. They are losing their pensions. They are losing their ability to send their kids to college. And perhaps most significantly, they are losing their hope, their belief that the American dream is still alive, that their kids will have at least a good, if not better, standard of living than our generation has.

Millions of American workers in recent years have seen their wages go down, and they are working longer hours for lower wages. During the last 8 years, some 7 million American workers have lost their health care; millions are unable to find quality childcare despite the fact that husband and wife are both working, and they just do not know what to do with their kids; and millions of Americans are wondering right now whether the dream of a college education will, in fact, be available to their kids.

What has happened over the last 8 years is, as the middle class has shrunk, poverty has increased, while the gap between the very wealthy and everybody else has grown wider. The United States of America can do better than that. Instead of seeing the middle class shrink and poverty increase, we have to see poverty go down and the middle class expand.

The American people and the workers of this country are entitled to have a Secretary of Labor who will stand with them, who will be aggressive in fighting for the rights of workers from California to Vermont. The truth is that no Secretary of Labor, no matter how great he or she may be, is going to solve all of the important problems facing our country. But what working people have a right to know is that they will have a Secretary of Labor who, in fact, understands what labor is about and is on the side of working people; a Secretary of Labor who is committed to protecting workers throughout the country from unscrupulous employers who try to steal their pay and threaten their health and safety to pad the bottom line and enrich the CEOs on top. And God only knows we have seen a lot of that over the last 8 years. For far too long, we have had a Labor Department that was more interested in protecting the actions of bad, unscrupulous employers than protecting the needs of hard-working employees. That has to change. When President Obama nominated HILDA SOLIS for Secretary of Labor, I think he sent a signal all over the country that that is going to change, that the rights of workers are going to be protected.

There is perhaps no more challenging time to be Secretary of Labor than at this very moment. The problems workers are experiencing are enormous. But, frankly, I cannot think of any person who is more up to the task at hand than HILDA SOLIS. Her character and her work ethic are impeccable. Most of all, she will be a tireless advocate for working families throughout this country. For millions of American workers struggling to make ends meet, Congresswoman Solis is, indeed, a breath of fresh air.

I will be strongly supporting the Secretary of Labor nominee HILDA SOLIS, and I hope all of my colleagues will as well.

Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

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