SECRETARY OF LABOR
HILDA SOLIS OPENS UP TO HE&IT
By Michael A. Fletcher H
ilda Solis took office in February 2009, as challenging a moment that could be imagined for any labor secretary. The economy was in free fall. The job market was in even worse shape, as unemployment skyrocketed and record numbers of Americans found themselves out of work for long periods of time. Then just over a year into her term, 29 miners were killed in an explosion in West Virginia, casting a harsh light on the Labor Department’s mine safety agency.
Even as she managed those crises, Solis was tasked with a daunting long-term mission: To reverse the plight of Ameri- can workers, who were dealing with flattening wages and eroding job security even before the recession.
The antidote to many of those trends is education, par- ticularly in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)—skills that will be increasingly required for the best and most plentiful jobs of the future.
Solis is also on the front lines of the administration’s efforts to stoke the green energy economy, which received an unprecedented level of investment money from President Obama’s economic stimulus package. Still, the nation seems far away from a true pivot to renewable energy, a goal that is likely to remain elusive without a carbon tax to transform the economics of energy.
So, in short, Solis has a full plate.
Before joining the Obama administration, Solis was a four- term member of the House of Representatives, where she focused on expanding health care, protecting the environ- ment, and uplifting working people.
One of her key legislative achievements was enactment of a bill that provided funding for “green collar” training for veterans, displaced workers, at-risk youth and people from low-income families.
A former federal employee who worked in the Carter White House Office of Hispanic Affairs and in the Office of Man- agement and Budget Civil Rights Division, Solis was elected to the board of trustees of California’s Rio Hondo Commu- nity College in 1985. From 1992 until 1994, she served in the California State Assembly, and in 1994 she became the first Latina elected to the California Senate.
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HISPANIC ENGINEER & Information Technology | 2010
www.hispanicengineer.com
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