Getting your player ready...
WASHINGTON — California Rep. Hilda Solis won confirmation Tuesday as President Barack Obama’s labor secretary, giving the agency a decidedly pro-worker tilt after years of business-friendly leadership under the Bush administration.
The 80-17 Senate vote ended more than a month of delays prompted by GOP concerns over Democrat Solis’ work for a pro-union organization, and later, revelations about her husband’s unpaid taxes.
But Democrats said Solis had put to rest any questions and called her a powerful advocate for working families.
Solis, 51, was to be sworn in at a private ceremony later Tuesday night and was set to begin work today. She will manage an agency with an annual budget of about $53 billion and nearly 17,000 employees.
