Labor Secretary, Congressional Democrats Demand Action On Unemployment Insurance

By Kyle LaFleur

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis joined Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democratic leaders Wednesday to show their support for extending unemployment insurance.

“In no recession have we ended federal extensions with an unemployment rate as high as ours is today,” said Solis during a press conference on Capitol Hill.

Unemployment insurance expired Tuesday and if left on its own would run out, leaving two million American’s and their families without benefits.

“The word is insurance,” said Pelosi, “This is something that is not only good for these families, it’s the right thing to do in a downturn in our economy.”

House Republicans have vowed to vote against extending the bill, leaving many Democrats upset. 

“Where, I ask, is the moral outrage at policies that are going to allow million dollar bonuses to the Wall Street money manipulators and then give them a tax break so they do not have to pay their taxes but deny unemployment benefits to two million unemployed Americans?” asked Iowa Senator Tom Harkin (D). “Where is the sense of moral outrage?”

Good News For Small Businesses Under New Healthcare Law

By Miles Wolf Tamboli
Talk Radio News Service

Under the recently approved Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, many small businesses will be eligible to receive tax credits to pay for their employees' health insurance.

Specifically, businesses with ten or fewer full time equivalent employees, earning $25,000 a year or less, and those with 25 or fewer full time equivalent employees earning $50,000 a year or less will be eligible for a tax credit up to 35%, starting retroactively in January 2010.

In addition, small business owners will be pleased to note that receiving state tax credits will not affect eligibility for federal tax credits under the law.

"Federal credit will never be reduced because an employer is also getting a state health care credit or subsidy," said Assistant Treasury Secretary for Tax Policy Michael Mundaca during a conference call with reporters on Monday morning.

Mundaca gave more good news when he elaborated on the enhanced coverage of the law, which provides for the inclusion of coverage for add-on benefits, like vision and dental care, in addition to traditional medical coverage.

U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, who also participated in Monday's call, trumpeted the law's subsidy provisions for small businesses.

"The tax credit proposal provides tens of billions of dollars in new tax credits to small businesses to make it easier for them to provide coverage to their employees."

Shriver Report Touches Upon Equal Pay, Rights For Women In Workplace

By Julianne LaJeunesse- University of New Mexico

Equal pay, equal housework and more government obligations to women workers were all on the table at Monday's Center for American Progress' conference on California First Lady Maria Shriver's report on women in the workforce.

U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said during her quick statement that the government is on the side of women workers, and said through increased education and grants, women will become more prepared for advanced jobs, such as green energy jobs.

"Allied health and information technologies are two of the areas that are the fastest growing in our economy," Solis said. "And that's why my agency has announced approximately $220 million in competitive grants to train workers in these high growth occupations. And we'll work to ensure that women have access to these growing fields, and that these jobs pay well, and that they're secure."

Solis recognized that women face challenges when working outside of the home and said the Department of Labor wants to review policies to make it easier for all employees to have more flex time, or time that would make make employment and household duties less disjointed.

Heather Boushey, a senior economist for CAP said if women are to be good workers, social institutions need to change, adding that Shriver's "A Woman's Nation Changes Everything," a collaborative study, found that families already, though maybe unknowingly, discuss disparities in male to female wages, and that despite government action to prevent women from receiving less pay for equal work, families are having to come up with ways to support what feels like an individual experience, and not a national wage difference.

Boushey added that just because more women are becoming the family "breadwinner," doesn't mean the rules are the same.

"We all know that too many women, and especially too many low-wage women, simply cannot compete in the way that a traditional male breadwinner could, primarily because they don't have a stay-at-home wife to take care of all of life's little and big emergencies," Boushey said.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro's (D-Conn.), who also spoke at the event, said the Shriver Report marks a milestone that's an occasion to reflect on how far women right's have come, but said "the process of change will not stop" and said that "society still undervalues the work woman do today."

DeLauro also called on the U.S. Senate to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, an amendment of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and said U.S. Rep. Lynn Woolsey's (D-Calif.) Balancing Act, which provides benefits for needy families, is worthy of Congressional attention.

Michael Kimmel, a sociology professor who has studied the relationship between men who support women's rights at Stony Brook University in New York, said men are ready to support women and that familial lives are bettered by women's increased access. He also joked that woman are more attracted to men who can do the dishes.

Shriver's report calls for updated labor standards, more focus on family and employee health benefits, reformation of anti-discrimination laws, modernization of the social insurance system, and increased government support for early child care and elder care.

Reid, Solis Join Forces With Healthcare Providers To Push For Reform

By Laura Smith, University of New Mexico - Talk Radio News Service

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis joined healthcare workers and healthcare providers Wednesday to support making healthcare affordable for Americans this year.

Reid and Solis stood with nurses, doctors and leading healthcare providers before they delivered hospital scrub tops to Congress inscribed with written messages from thousands of frontline healthcare workers across the country.

Healthcare workers and administrators launched the “Every Patient Matters” campaign Wednesday through the Partnership for Quality Care, to ensure that America’s direct caregivers have a voice in the debate on how to provide quality and affordable healthcare to all Americans.

Dennis Rivera, chairman of SEIU Healthcare, said that with Reid’s help, healthcare reform will be passed this year.

"Senator Reid is an incredible advocate on behalf of working women and men of Nevada and throughout this country, and a leader who knows we can do what is right. We can pass healthcare reform this year," Rivera said.

Reid said there were 10,000 scrub tops from around the country, and that insurance companies make the most money in the healthcare field. He said people ask why insurance companies do better than any other business in America during these hard times.

“The reason is that [the] insurance industry is not subject to the anti-trust laws we have in our country. More than a hundred years ago, big businesses were running our country...Congress passed the Sherman Anti-Trust law under a Republican president, Theodore Roosevelt, because big business had gotten out of hand,” he said.

Donnetta Miller, a registered nurse from Nevada, presented Reid an inscribed scrub top to thank him for being “a champion on getting healthcare reform passed.”

Miller wore a shirt that read, “As a healthcare provider, I wish to voice my demand for healthcare reform. This must pass this year, this congress. Our patients cannot wait another year. We’re swiftly approaching collapse of the Medicare/Medicaid system. Our seniors, our patients deserve healthcare reform. Donnetta Miller."

Solis said she understands the importance and how pivotal insurance reform is for the nation right now.

“Asthma, diabetes, obesity, cancers, HIV and AIDS. All these things and illnesses prevent people from getting healthcare right now, or they die from not getting healthcare. And we can’t afford to leave that be the status quo. We need to change it, “ she said.

Diane Palmer, a nurse from Maryland, held up a scrub top and read a message that a nurse from Seattle had written on it. The message said, “My 12 year old has chronic health issues. She runs the risk of meeting her max coverage without healthcare reform. We could face a life or death situation. It takes a village to raise a child. It takes a nation to protect one. Please protect my child."

George Halverson, Chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente, said America is the only country in the industrialized world that has not created universal coverage.

“We are the only country in the industrialized world where our people need to worry that a healthcare event is going to drive them into a solvency or bankruptcy. That is wrong,” he said.

Labor Secretary Claims Electric Vehicle Development Will Create Thousands Of Jobs, Revitalize Auto-Industry

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis praised the Obama administration’s announcement Wednesday to allocate $2.4 billion of Recovery Act funds for the development of electric vehicles.

“This is a perfect example of an investment that meets both short-term and long-term goals,” Solis claimed during a conference call with reporters. “[The] projects will create tens of thousands of good, sustainable jobs all across America and immediately help to revitalize the auto-industry in America.”

Solis also described the decision as an important step in combatting climate change and dampening U.S. dependency on foreign oil.

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland (D), whose state will receive $30 million in grants, cited the funding as proof of the stimulus plan’s success.

"We are just thrilled,” Strickland said. “There are some who talk about the stimulus not working. I can tell you, in Ohio, it is working.”