Obama Cabinet and Key White House Staff
8. Hilda Solis (D) - Secretary of Labor
U.S. Representative, California
Former State Senator and Representative, California
Nominated: December 19, 2008
Obama’s comments:
“If jobs and incomes are our yardsticks, then the success of the American worker is key to the success of the American economy. For the past eight years, the Department of Labor has not lived up to its role either as an advocate for hardworking families or as an arbiter of fairness in relations between labor and management. That will change when Hilda Solis is Secretary of Labor. Under her leadership, I am confident that the Department of Labor will once again stand up for working families.
“Hilda has always been an advocate for everyday people. When she received an award several years ago, she said, ‘Fighting for what is just is not always popular, but it is necessary.’ And that is exactly what she has done throughout her career, blazing new trails every step of the way. Whether it’s creating green jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced or expanding access to affordable health care or raising the minimum wage in California, Hilda has been a champion of our middle class. And I know that Hilda will show the same kind of leadership as Secretary of Labor that she showed in California and on the Education and Labor Committee by protecting workers’ rights—from organizing to collective bargaining, from keeping our workplaces safe to making our unions strong.”
Others’ comments:
“Solis’s refusal during her confirmation hearing [in January] to be pinned down on issues including the Employee Free Choice Act, which she previously co-sponsored in the House, and her view of ergonomic rules lifted during the Bush administration, led to threats from some GOP lawmakers to place a hold on her nomination that could lead to further delays once it was on the Senate floor.
“Lawmakers also raised pointed questions about her work with American Rights at Work, a pro-labor group for which Solis serves as an unpaid treasurer. Some lawmakers questioned whether her position on a board that organization officials said meets only annually amounts to a lobbying role, something Solis has disputed.
“The lingering questions prompted weeks of correspondence between Solis and GOP members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in the weeks following her Jan. 9 hearing, as she provided written answers to the committee members’ questions. In the interim, President Obama [has] appointed longtime Labor Department official Edward C. Hugler to serve as acting secretary.
“The wrangling over Solis’s nomination comes at a pivotal time for organized labor, which is in its strongest political position in many years, with a president and majorities in both chambers of Congress supportive of many of its top legislative priorities.
“Organized labor [has] turned up the pressure on Congress to consider the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for workers to organize unions.”
—The Washington Post
Approved: February 24, 2009
Appointment Impact:
Special election to fill her empty House seat:
“If and when U.S. Rep Hilda Solis resigns her seat, a special election will be scheduled. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will have 14 days to schedule a special election. The election date must be between 112 and 126 days from the day the seat is vacated. The candidates will run in an open primary in which they will all run against each other. That primary will take place eight weeks before the special election. If no candidate gets 50 percent of the vote in the primary, the top vote-getters of each political party will square off in the special election. However, since Solis’ 32nd Congressional District is heavily Democratic, it’s possible no Republican will run [and] the seat will likely remain Democratic. If no other parties field a candidate, the winner of the open primary will be seated in the office, even if he or she did not get 50 percent of the vote.”
—Pasadena Star-News
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