Confirmation Hearing for Hildas Solis to Become Secretary of Labor

Update: Hilda Solis confirmed by Senate as Secretary of Labor on Feb. 24, 2009

As reported in the New York Times, on January 9, 2009, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held a confirmation hearing for Rep. Hilda Solis, President-elect Obama’s choice to be the next Secretary of Labor. Democrats on the committee said they hope Solis will take a pro-employee, pro-union approach to her job. Republicans said they hope she doesn’t go too far. The hearing was uneventful, and it’s clear that Solis won’t have trouble being confirmed.

When Solis was nominated by Obama, I posted a summary of her background and experience. She’s staunchly pro-employee and pro-union, and nothing she said during her confirmation hearing did anything to pull back from this position.

In trying to read the tea leaves during the Solis hearing (which I watched on C-Span), I did notice one thing that occurred several times. When Republicans asked her questions about the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), she repeatedly deferred, responding that she and the President-elect hadn’t yet talked about the EFCA. She did note that both she and Obama supported the EFCA but felt that answering specific questions about the proposed legislation was premature.

Solis’ refusal to answer questions about the EFCA and, thus, become embroiled in a debate now about the law would seem to mean that the Obama administration will not push the EFCA as early as organized labor had hoped. There will be a heated debate in due course, because some version of the EFCA will end up being voted on by Congress. Given all the Obama administration wants to quickly accomplish on the economy, it’s unlikely it wants to get bogged down in a highly partisan debate on the EFCA — at least, not yet.