News You Can Use: Obama taps Solis to lead DOL

Rep. Hilda Solis, (D-Calif.), is President-elect in Barack Obama’s pick for Secretary of Labor, he will announce in a news conference today.

"We're thrilled at the prospect of having Representative Hilda Solis as our nation's next labor secretary," John J. Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, told the New York Times. "We're confident that she will return to the Labor Department one of its core missions: to defend workers' basic rights in our nation's workplaces. She's proven to be a passionate leader and advocate for all working families."

If approved by Congress, Solis will oversee an agency responsible for regulating nearly 700,000 retirement plans and 2.5 million health plans. However, some in the business community fear that her support for the Employee Free Choice Act and her position on free trade will further impede businesses to compete in a global economy.

Randel K. Johnson, vice-president of labor policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, told the New York Times he is disappointed having "expected Obama to pick someone supported by the A.F.L.-C.I.O. She's not a pick whose philosophy we didn't expect. We will disagree with her on some issues and work with her on some."