e-Team Report, Jan. 11, 2013

Hilda Solis Out as Labor Secretary

After four years of serving as Secretary of Labor in President Obama’s cabinet, Hilda Solis has informed the White House and her staff that she will not be staying on into the President’s second term.  Hilda Solis’ departure as Secretary of Labor will certainly leaves big shoes to fill for her replacement, as President Obama noted, “her efforts have helped train workers for the jobs of the future, protect workers’ health and safety and put millions of Americans back to work.”

Upon learning of her coming departure, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka thanked Hilda Solis for bringing “urgently needed change” to the Labor department and for always putting “the values of working families at the center of everything she did.”

At this time President Obama has yet to announce a nominee to serve as Secretary of Labor in his second term.

To read more about Hilda Solis and her resignation as Secretary of Labor, please click here.

To read Hilda Solis’ letter to Labor employees, as well as the White House’s statement on her departure, please click here.

 “Leonard Montalto Post Office Building”

As has been previously reported in the e-Team, Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) introduced a bill last December to rename the South Shore Annex Post Office in Staten Island, NY after Lenny Montalto, the lifelong resident of Staten Island and APWU member who lost his life trying to save his home from flooding during Hurricane Sandy.  Since the bill was not been passed and signed into law before the 112th Congress ended, Rep. Grimm reintroduced the bill on January 4th, the first day of the 113th Congress.  The new number for the bill is H.R. 181.

“We’re grateful that Congressman Grimm chose to honor Lenny this way,” said APWU Legislative Director Myke Reid.  We join Rep. Grimm in looking forward to the speedy passage of this legislation.

To read more about Lenny and H.R. 181, please click here.

113th Congress by the Numbers

The swearing in of 113th Congress last week brought about many changes: new districts, new committee assignments, and of course, new members.  So what does the new Congress look like?  Linked below are a couple quick studies on the political, demographic, and occupational makeup of our federal legislative body.

A couple interesting highlights: 

• Republicans maintain control the House of Representatives by narrower margins, while Democrats expand their lead in the Senate.
• The number of veterans in Congress continues a decades long decline, from a high of 428 veteran Members of Congress in 1977 to 106 serving today.
• A record number of women, including 20 in the Senate, are serving in the 113th Congress.  New Hampshire is the first state to have an all-female congressional delegation.
• For the first time in history, white men do not make up the majority of a major party’s congressional caucus, in this case the House Democratic Caucus.
• The number of lawyers serving in the upper chamber declined modestly from 46 senators last Congress to 45 today.
• While the number of senators with mustaches doubled (to two), this Congress will see a net decrease in mustachioed legislators.

To view an interesting infographic by Businessweek on the occupational backgrounds of Members of Congress, please click here.

To read more about veterans in the new Congress, please click here.

For a brief overview on demographic changes in the 113th Congress, please click here.

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