Solis Poised to be Confirmed as Labor Secretary in Senate Vote

Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Senate Republicans removed a procedural hurdle blocking U.S. Representative Hilda Solis’s confirmation as labor secretary, clearing the way for a final vote later today.

“Now that we’ve done our due diligence, I know that members of the Senate are anxious to have a permanent labor secretary in place,” said Senator Michael Enzi, a Wyoming Republican.

The Senate scheduled a vote on Solis, a California Democrat, for 4:30 p.m. Washington time, after Republicans resolved concerns about her ties to union groups and tax liens on her husband’s business. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell today removed a requirement that the Senate hold a procedural vote requiring she receive the support of 60 senators. A simple majority is normally required to win confirmation.

Republicans held up her confirmation initially because of Solis’s co-sponsorship last year of the Employee Free Choice Act, a measure aimed at making it easier for workers to organize, and her work as a director and former treasurer of American Rights at Work, a pro-union group lobbying for the bill.

In written questions to Solis, Enzi, the top Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, asked if she would recuse herself for two years from debate over the bill because of her position with the advocacy group. Solis declined to do so.

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