It is difficult to say when the economy will stop shedding jobs and start growing again, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said Friday.
"I don't have a crystal ball," Solis told CNBC in her first interview since taking her new position. "All I can tell you is that we're doing everything we can to expedite funding for those people who are unemployed."
Solis emphasized that her agency's focus would be on distributing $3.5 billion in funds to assist out-of-work Americans get additional training or find new work.
"It's hard to predict," Solis said of when the economy would recover. "As you know, this is a relatively new administration. I think the president has really demonstrated his commitment that he will attack this problem on every front, and also in our financial markets."
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) opened his first campaign email to supporters highlighting his decision to oppose the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), signaling the senator will play up his opposition to the bill ahead of an expectedly tough primary battle.
After already taking it to his likely opponent, Club for Growth Chairman Pat Toomey, the first item in Specter's email touted his decision to oppose EFCA (or "card check"), a prized piece of legislation for organized labor.
"Last Tuesday, Senator Specter announced his opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), also known as Card Check," the inaugural "Specter 2010 Campaign Update" read. "In a speech on the Senate floor, the Senator spoke out against the bill. Later, Senator Specter said, 'I won't support legislation that takes away the secret ballot.'"
Specter's decision likely killed EFCA in this Congress, and represented a key position for Specter in his fight against Toomey, who has made card check and Specter's support for the stimulus package key issues in the race.
Civil rights groups will use tomorrow's anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. to push for the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA, or "card check").
Civil rights groups will host a conference call Thursday at 12:00 p.m. featuring the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) and its director, Wade Henderson, NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Jealous, and National Coalition on Black Civic Participation Executive Director and CEO Melanie L. Campbell.
"Dr. King was assassinated helping to lead a struggle of sanitation workers to win the freedom to form a union and bargain collectively with their employer," said a LCCR release on the call. "The struggle of those workers continues today as Congress works to pass the Employee Free Choice Act to improve the lives of working men and women regardless of race, color or creed."
"The secret ballot has been a pillar in our democracy and has ensured that Americans can vote without fear of intimidation or reprisal," said one conservative opponent of EFCA. "From a historical perspective, it
Greg Sargent got his hands on an anti-card check newspaper ad set to print tomorrow:
The poll stats listed on the ad:
-74% of likely voters oppose the Employee Free Choice Act
-82% believe a secret ballot election is the best way to protect the individual rights of workers during union organizing elections.
-88% believe that a worker's vote should be kept private in a union organizing election.
-11% support Big Labor's card check agenda
It's no surprise that the angle of attack here involves preserving the secret ballot. Business supporters have focused on the democratic process as a cornerstone of their attack on EFCA, while labor supporters would like to shift the debate to the merits of being unionized and the struggle against business coercion. The poll numbers cited in the ad were likely in response to questions worded in the manner business prefers.
The ad is paid for by the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace.
In an address from the White House this morning, President Obama laid out guidelines for steering the U.S. auto industry back to health while pledging to keep a watchful eye on taxpayer money.
Arguing that the restructuring plans set forth by GM and Chrysler were prepared in good faith but ertr ultimately insufficient, the president laid out different paths for the two struggling automakers. GM will have 60 days cut drastically cut costs if it wishes to receive billions more in aid.
If there was ever any doubt that fictional President Jed Bartlet's administration was pro-labor, the answer is now clear.
Actors Martin Sheen, Bradley Whitford, and Richard Schiff -- all of the fictional NBC presidential drama "The West Wing -- will appear at an event in Congress on Tuesday seeking to bolster support for the Employee Free Choice Act ("card check").
Sheen (President Jed Bartlet), Whitford (Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman), and Schiff (Communications Director Toby Ziegler) will meet with Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and other lawmakers in meetings on the Hill.
The event is being coordinated by organized labor groups, including American Rights at Work, AFL-CIO, and Change to Win.
Claims that the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) would destroy the right to a secret ballot in union elections are "nonsense," one of organized labor's biggest congressional proponents said Wednesday.
"They understand what's at stake in this election, and this whole nonsense about the end of the secret ballot," Rep. Phil Hare (D-Ill.) said of the workers who have been following congressional developments on EFCA, or "card check."
Hare called arguments to the contrary right-wing propaganda.
"If 30 percent of the people who sign the card say they want a secret election, they get a secret election," Hare said on the Fox Business Network. "I think this is once again propaganda by the right. They're all scared to death that somehow ordinary people will have someone to go to bat and bargain for them."
Hare, a onetime president of his local union, said he's willing to "roll the dice" on behalf of workers who wish to organize, and accused businesses of being "scared" into opposing the piece of legislation.
"This is typical of business that are just scared to death that somehow employees are going to be able to determine their own destiny."
Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday he is "confident" a budget will emerge from Congress containing all of the Obama administration's priorities intact.
Speaking before lunching with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Biden predicted the administration would get the budget it wants from the House and Senate.
"I am confident that with the leadership of the speaker and with Harry Reid, we're going to get our budget with all the major elements intact," Biden said. "I think our budget will, I'm absolutely confident will cut the deficit in half within five years."
Some lawmakers, especially Republicans, have wondered publicly whether the budget can accommodate the Obama budget can pay for the administration's simultaneous priorities on tax relief, healthcare, the environment, and other issues.
Biden also expressed some nostalgia on his return to the Hill.
The vice president said he snuck over Senate to see former colleagues, only to be asked where he was going.
"This is a continuation of an ongoing dialogue," Biden joked of the budget talks. "We've had most of it down at the White House, but when the speaker invited me to lunch, it's a free lunch, so I decided to come on up."
Club for Growth Chairman Pat Toomey, a likely 2010 Republican primary challenger for Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), said that while Specter's decision to oppose the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) was positive, it was due to the threat of a primary challenge.
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