Nomination Of M. Patricia Smith To Be Solicitor For The Department Of Labor - Continued

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I thank the Senator from North Dakota for his passion on this issue. I would add one other issue within this, which is that we have to be training our workforce for the coming years with those skills to make those things in America--whether it is airplanes in my State or cars in the Midwest or South, or whether it is the widgets he talked about. We are losing people today in this country who have those basic skills--welding, electricians, those kinds of skills that are basic to these industries. As we move into this coming year and look into our budget and look at our education policy--and we will be talking about the President's education policy on the committee on which I sit--we have to make sure we are going down into our middle schools and high schools and making sure our kids have career pathways that help fill these skilled manufacturing jobs we want to have here in this country. I thank the Senator for his words.

I am here this afternoon to rise again in support of President Obama's nominee to serve as Solicitor of Labor, Patricia Smith. I have to tell everyone I am very confident she is the right person for this critical job. The work she is going to do to protect our workers is more important than ever before.

American workers are facing an incredible challenge today. We all know that. They are struggling with record unemployment, a devastating economic crisis. Today more than ever they need and they deserve strong leaders in the Department of Labor who are passionate about public service and committed to being there to fight for them. The Department of Labor is this agency with a name that sounds bureaucratic, but it is important because that agency is charged with a very critical mission in our Nation's government. Its role is to foster and promote the welfare of America's workers by improving their working conditions, by advancing their opportunities for profitable employment, by protecting workers' retirement and health care benefits and helping employers find workers who are skilled in the jobs provided and strengthen free collective bargaining.

I believe during these challenging economic times it is absolutely critical that the Department has leadership within that Department to make those goals a reality. I was very pleased when I heard President Obama nominate such a strong candidate for the position of Solicitor of Labor.

Ms. Patricia Smith, as the Presiding Officer knows, is Commissioner of the New York State Department of Labor. She has been there since 2007. She is cochair of the New York State Economic Security sub-cabinet and she oversees today 3,700 employees in 80 offices with an annual budget of $4 billion.

For the previous 20 years, Tricia worked in the Labor Bureau of the New York Attorney General's Office and she served on the Obama administration's transition review team for the Department of Labor.

I have received many letters of support for Patricia Smith from people who admire her work, from people she has worked with, and from workers she has helped. I want to take a couple of minutes this afternoon to read some excerpts from those letters because I believe they demonstrate Patricia's broad support and why she should be confirmed by the Senate.

One letter I received was a letter of support from the CEO of the Plattsburgh, NY, Chamber of Commerce, who knows Tricia well. He said:

Patricia Smith has been an outstanding partner as Commissioner of the New York State Labor Department and will be an outstanding Solicitor for the U.S. Labor Department. We strongly encourage her earliest possible confirmation by the Senate.

I heard from the United States Women's Chamber of Commerce. They wrote to me and said:

After learning of Ms. Smith's qualifications, her expertise and the laws she has worked to uphold, I can clearly see that she is someone who would work with conviction to enforce the laws of the United States of America. Additionally, I am impressed with her out-of-the-box thinking in creating programs that will keep jobs. We especially need these attributes in these times of economic challenge.

That is from the United States Women's Chamber of Commerce.

I also received a letter from a group of professors and scholars of labor and employment law and labor relations, from over 50 scholars of highly respected institutions, institutions such as Georgetown University Law Center, Columbia Law, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, Yale Law, and Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations. They wrote to me and urged speedy confirmation saying that Tricia has:

consistently demonstrated the highest integrity and commitment to ethical standards. She is experienced, intelligent, thoughtful and energetic. We believe this is exactly what the U.S. Department of Labor needs in a Solicitor. Once confirmed, she will be among the best Solicitors of Labor the Department has known.

I would tell my colleagues that her support transcends party lines. Former New York Attorney General Dennis Vacco, who is a Republican, had this to say about his former employee:

Patricia Smith has proven herself as one of the foremost experts in the nation in the realm of labor law, which is why President Obama saw fit to nominate her. ..... She was an asset to the New York Attorney General's office and I am confident ..... she will be an asset to the Department of Labor.

Tricia Smith has bipartisan support. As Chair of the Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety, I know the challenges American workers are facing today. I know they deserve a Solicitor of Labor such as Tricia who is going to fight every single day to protect them. When she is confirmed as the Department's top legal counsel, she is going to have the profound responsibility of enforcing more than 180 Federal laws and managing more than 450 attorneys nationwide. She is going to be responsible for defending the Department in litigation, as well as providing legal advice and guidance on nearly every policy, legislative, regulatory, and enforcement initiative of the Department. But, most importantly, she is going to be responsible for defending the rights of workers when they are not able to speak for themselves. Tricia has a big job ahead of her, but we need to act now to allow her to get started. We owe it to our country's workers to have a confirmed Solicitor of Labor in place.

I have had a number of conversations with Tricia myself, and I am confident she is highly qualified, and she is eager to get to work. So I will be voting, hopefully later this afternoon or soon thereafter, to confirm Tricia Smith. I come to the floor this afternoon to urge my colleagues to do so as well.

I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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