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Senate Breaks Blockade on Labor Solicitor Nominee
The Senate just now voted (60-32) to end debate on the nomination of M. Patricia Smith, clearing her way for confirmation as solicitor of labor and breaking the stranglehold Republicans had put on her to be the nation’s top labor lawyer.
President Obama nominated Smith, currently New York state’s labor commissioner, nine months ago, but Republican obstructionist tactics blocked a vote on the nomination.
The solicitor of labor oversees enforcement of the nation’s most important labor laws and sets enforcement priorities. During her confirmation hearing last year, Smith said she would bring to the job a “philosophy of proactive enforcement.”
That would be quite a change from the previous administration, writes Pat Garafolo in Think Progress Wonk Room.
Under the Bush administration’s corporate-friendly Labor Department, the solicitor’s office sat on its hands and failed to enforce even the most flagrant labor violations.
Saying Smith ”may well be the most qualified person ever to hold the position of Solicitor,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka noted that under the leadership of Secretary Hilda Solis,
the Department of Labor is returning to its historical and proper role—protecting the health, safety and welfare of working families. America’s workers are proud that Solicitor Smith will be joining this excellent team and continuing her years of public service on behalf of working men and women.
In a letter last week to Senate members urging Smith’s confirmation, AFL-CIO Government Affairs Director William Samuel cited her “commitment to strong, fair, and effective enforcement of our workplace laws.”
Prior to being named labor commissioner of New York, Smith served for 20 years as an attorney in the Labor Bureau of the New York state Attorney General’s Office, working for both Democratic and Republican administrations. She represented New York in cases involving its labor standards, workplace safety and health, unemployment insurance, apprentice training and prevailing wage statutes.
Last year, The New York Times wrote that Smith’s campaign against wage theft helped win more than $20 million in back pay for thousands of low-wage workers and that she has
developed a reputation as one of the nation’s foremost labor commissioners because of her vigorous efforts to crack down on minimum wage and overtime violations at businesses including restaurants, supermarkets, car washes and racetracks.
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5 Comments
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To the Senate: Now is the time to take action on those NLRB nominees who have also been blocked for the last nine months.
Obama could have invoked a recess appointment for Smith.The Dems need to actually make these Pukes filibuster on the Senate floor and televise it,allowing all of America to see the pure evil that resonates from the Puke Party.
Also we need Executive orders and signing statements galore just to get these Pukes in a frenzy
if smith is so good why is there no right to work law in new york state
Because right-to-work laws are anti-union laws and Smith is smart enough to never enact one…bobb.
Why would anyone want right to work laws.They were enacted after WW2 .to curb further unionization drives a la the 1930′s