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Remarks Prepared for Delivery by
U.S. Secretary of
Labor Elaine L. Chao
Charter 100 Club of Dallas
Hay-Adams
Hotel
Washington, D.C.
Thursday, October 2, 2003
Thank you, Ruth [Altshuler]—it’s great to see you
again. And thank you Gail [Madden], for inviting me and for putting this
great event together.
Welcome to Washington, D.C.!
Today, I thought I’d give you some perspective on what it’s
like to be a member of President George W. Bush’s cabinet, and then tell
you a little about the challenges of being Secretary of Labor.
First of all, let me say what a privilege it is to serve in President
George W. Bush’s cabinet and how proud I am of his leadership.
Each President defines leadership in his own way. I would say that the
defining characteristics of President Bush are his resolve, his compassion and
his strong faith.
Whenever I have asked the President for advice on a difficult issues his
guidance is always the same: we’re here to do what’s right for the
American people. Period.
That guidance has been very important to me. As Secretary of Labor I
have tried to follow his example of principled leadership in everything I
do.
Let’s step back, for a moment, and look at the extraordinary
challenges this President has faced since he came into
office.
If you recall, the President took office during a
recession—although it was not widely reported at the time. The stock
market peaked in March 2000 and manufacturing went into the doldrums in August
2000. That’s why passage of the President’s first tax cut was so
important. It is widely credited with making the recession shorter and
shallower.
The economy was starting to recover when the devastating attacks of
September 11th occurred. They were followed by revelations of
corporate scandal that shook the public’s trust in our financial
institutions and further weakened the economy.
The President acted immediately and decisively. He pushed through
Congress a second jobs and growth plan and a strong package of corporate
transparency and accountability reforms. Washington pundits thought that a
second jobs and growth package would never pass. It was only because of the
President’s leadership—his willingness to risk major political
capital—that it was enacted. And we’re starting to see the benefits
of his plan already with encouraging signs of economic growth.
The President is still not satisfied with the rate of growth, however.
He wants to make sure that everyone who wants a job can find one. That’s
why we are working hard to implement his 6-point, which includes:
- Making temporary tax cuts permanent;
- Ensuring an affordable, reliable energy supply;
- Curbing abusive lawsuits;
- Streamlining government regulations;
- Creating affordable health care options for working Americans,
and
- Opening up new markets for American products.
The challenges the President faced on the international front were even
more daunting. No one could have predicted the terrible attacks of September
11, 2001 or that terrorism would become the defining international challenge of
our day.
Since that terrible day two years ago, the President has initiated and
won two wars against terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq. Yet he has never
forgotten that the needs of Iraqi children and Afghan girls are just as
important to a lasting peace as building roads and infrastructure.
As I mentioned earlier, I have tried to follow the President’s
example in everything I do as Secretary of Labor.
Let me tell you a little bit about the Labor Department. Our budget was
approximately $72 billion last year—give or take a few billion.
When most people think of the Labor Department, they think of
unemployment numbers or enforcement of labor laws. But we do far more than
that. The Department:
- Oversees every private pension and 401(k) plan in America.
- Funds a $12 billion workforce training system that trains unemployed
workers for new jobs.
- Administers the nation’s unemployment insurance system.
- Ensures the safety and health and wages of all working
Americans.
Basically, if it has anything to do with work, the Department of Labor
is involved.
However, many of the laws and regulations that govern our
department—and the American workforce—were written in the first half
of the 20th century for a much different economy.
They were written for an era when employees and workers spent their
entire lives with one or more organizations. Employees were designated as
either management or labor. They had inflexible work hours, and when they
turned 60, they retired and took the company pension, if there was one.
Today, all that has changed. The lines between labor and management have
blurred. More and more people work away from the office in flexible working
arrangements connected by little more than a laptop, a cell phone, a
Blackberry. And the average person will change jobs 9 times during the course
of his or her career.
So my team at the Department of Labor conducted a comprehensive review
to determine which regulations, policies and programs needed to be updated and
modernized to reflect the realities of today’s workplace.
We came up with quite a list!
We found worker training programs that had little connection to the real
world of work or to the skills that were in demand. We found that
hundreds of millions of dollars in grants were going to the same
handful of organizations, year after year, with little or no competition and no
accountability. And we found key workplace regulations that hadn’t been
changed since the 1950s and were seriously out of date.
One of the other things we discovered, is that bringing real, lasting
change to government can be difficult.
So we are working with the Congress to transform our worker training
programs into a powerful economic development tool that will help workers train
for real jobs in the real world. We have introduced competition—real
competition—into our grants process. But other reforms have been even more
challenging.
Let me give you an example that has been in the news recently—the
Department’s proposal to modernize the regulations determining which
white-collar workers must be paid overtime.
These regulations haven’t been updated in more than 50
years. They describe a workplace populated by “straw bosses,”
keypunch operators and “legmen”—all jobs that no longer
exist.
The regulations are so confusing and unclear that it’s easy to make
honest mistakes when trying to apply them. In fact, disputes about these
regulations have overtaken discrimination complaints as the number
one cause of class action lawsuits in the workplace.
So the Department proposed changes that update and clarify the
white-collar overtime regulations so that they are easy to understand and
apply. We wanted to help workers get their overtime immediately, without having
to go to the courts, or to the government, where recourse and recovery take a
long time.
Unfortunately, these much-needed reforms have been subjected to a
massive disinformation campaign—including television attack
ads—funded by advocacy groups.
They falsely claim that nurses, firefighters, policemen, first
responders and other would lose their overtime. These workers would NOT lose
overtime. In addition, anyone who is a union member would not be affected by
these changes because their wages and benefits are determined through
collective bargaining. And 1.3 million low-wage, vulnerable workers would
gain overtime protections under the Department’s
proposals.
Yet these long overdue reforms have been consistently portrayed as
anti-worker and attempts have been made to stop them. We prevailed in the House
but lost in the Senate. But the story is not over yet—we will continue to
fight for these important reforms for America’s workforce. In fact, there
may be another vote in the House of Representatives on this issue today.
I have singled out the overtime issue because it’s an example of
how difficult it is to bring about change—even when everyone agrees that
it is necessary!
I have found that reform requires much more than understanding,
intellectually, the right thing to do. It requires a comprehensive strategy
involving the Congress, the media, key stakeholders and the career
professionals who work for the government.
This last point is especially important. We proposed our white collar
overtime reforms, in part, because the Department’s own career
professionals told us that the current regulations were difficult, if not
impossible, to enforce.
Without the support of the career professionals, it is difficult to make
lasting institutional change.
I have found that to be true—whether it’s serving as CEO and
President of the United Way of America, Director of the Peace Corps or
Secretary of Labor.
So let me close by saying, once again, how rewarding it is to serve this
President. His principled leadership makes it easier for me to do me job and
serve the American people.
I have had the good fortune of serving under two members of the Bush
family—President George Herbert Walker Bush and President George W. Bush.
In both instances, I have found their courage, resolve and compassion a daily
inspiration.
Thank you—and the great state of Texas—for all you have done
to nurture such outstanding leaders, including, of course, Senator Kay Bailey
Hutchinson.
And thank you, again, for inviting me here today, and have a great visit
in Washington!
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