Elaine Chao defends her Labor legacy

The Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has promulgated many fewer safety rules than in the past. The Government Accountability Office issued two reports last summer criticizing Labor for its enforcement of wage and hour laws. The agency has also been skewered for its enforcement of mine safety laws, and for imposing lower fines on firms found in violation of them.

Chao brushes such critiques aside as political rhetoric. "This department is probably the most partisan of all the departments," she said. "I think people have very different worldviews about this department and about what is best for the workforce."

She said that much of the criticism of her stewardship misses the big picture. "Our workers today safer and healthier than they were eight years ago. The facts speak for themselves," she said in a recent interview.

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"Together with our enforcement strategy has been a strategy of educational outreach," Chao said. "We want to make sure that workers know their rights and that employers know their obligations. That is the best way to protect workers."

-- and oh so much more, from the Los Angeles Times