Just as they did when Thomas E. Perez (click here) was nominated to head the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, Republicans are seeking to hold up his confirmation to head the U.S. Department of Labor, using any excuse they can think up, no matter how flimsy....
There is disproportionate statistics with labor in the USA. It is not just enough to bring down the unemployment rate; there has to be more equity in that number.
Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama criticized Mr. Perez, a former Montgomery County councilman and Maryland labor secretary, for his one-time service on the board of CASA de Maryland....
CASA de Maryland strongly supports Mr. Perez
...”His story reminds us of this country’s promise, (click here) that if you’re willing to work hard, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from, what your last name is, you can make it if you try,” Obama said. “Tom’s made protecting that promise for everybody the cause of his life.”
Perez thanked Obama in both English and Spanish.
“Over my career, I’ve learned that true progress is possible if you keep an open mind, listen to all sides and focus on results,” he said....
...But organized labor groups praised the pick.
“At a time when our politics tilts so heavily toward corporations and the very wealthy, our country needs leaders like Tom Perez to champion the cause of ordinary working people,” said AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka. “And working families need and deserve a strong advocate as their Secretary of Labor — one who will vigorously enforce job safety standards, wage laws, and anti-discrimination rules, and who will speak out forcefully for working families and their workplace rights, including their right to join together to improve their lives and working conditions....
This is the man that took on Joe Arpaio and the Arizona laws that actually put people in danger on their own streets because of their ethnicity. He also assisted in the fight against draconian Voter ID laws, including the Pennsylvania law that was to guarantee the election of Mr. Romney.
This is the man that took on Joe Arpaio and the Arizona laws that actually put people in danger on their own streets because of their ethnicity. He also assisted in the fight against draconian Voter ID laws, including the Pennsylvania law that was to guarantee the election of Mr. Romney.
...Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa complained that the president had nominated Mr. Perez for a cabinet post despite a congressional investigation into the Civil Rights Division and questions about whether he engineered a quid pro quo with the city of St. Paul, Minn....
He is a graduate of Brown University and Harvard Law School. He is 51 years old and was probably well acquainted with President Obama even in his early years. It is safe to say much of the minority leadership of this administration knew of each other and the careers they lead to improve the circumstances of minorities in the USA. My hat is off to them. Don't stop now.
To put it into a cliche' - "They know the head winds."
The issue with the complaint by Grassley and Sessions with the St. Paul, Minnesota is irrelevant. It was a complaint that a Whistleblower found fraud in government spending. In other words, funding was misused. Initially, Mr. Perez was going to join the lawsuit but as time went on it became obvious the Justice Department would not prevail.
It has to be said the Whistleblower was in for a significant reward for finding waste and fraud within spending. The monies spent to stimulate the economy has an oversight provision that will pay the average person to be a Whistleblower if there is fraud and abuse. There is a lot of incentive and possibly more incentive to report than improve the economic purpose of the spending for Whistleblowers. The Obama Administration has gone out of their way to put power in the hands of the people to stop fraud and abuse. This is one of THOSE cases.
As the St. Paul case was pursued by the US Justice Department and the facts were more obvious the Justice Department decided to put the power in the hands of the city to reform the problem than to criminalize it. It was viewed by those involved as a bribe to the city. The US Justice Department saw it as an opportunity to do things differently because the criminal case would not proceed well or to an expected outcome.
It is a common strategy to eliminate record keeping where federal funds are involved. Much of the oversight of federal funding relies on record keeping. This was one of those instances. There was an absence of records. It could be argued that an absence of records is as prosecutable as the presence of them when wrong doing is discovered, however, that isn't how it would play out in court even if that stipulation was made in the law. A judge and jury would see that as entrapment more or less.
So, the idea was to create an incentive to drop the case and provide guidance that would insure the monies be distributed properly which is what should have been done in the first place. It is notable there has been a record $3.3 billion through lawsuits filed by whistle-blowers in the 2012 fiscal year. There is a lot of incentive for reporting. The question with St. Paul is what does the administration do with all the information provided and how do they make sure it will be straightened out rather than prosecuted in the face of a sabotaged law. That is what occurs when there is no record keeping. The oversight is sabotaged and the cities know it.
The only thing that can really be done in these instances is to eliminate St. Paul from future federal funding and that is a real incentive to follow the rules. But, for one term elected officials conducting themselves questionably by refusing to carry out oversight standards it is less of an incentive than one realizes. The punitive nature of oversight in such instances hurts the PEOPLE of the city and the city itself, but, NOT THE PERSON refusing to conduct the record keeping.
These incidents are not a straight forward path. It is corruption, it goes on and it exists.
Was that a failing by Mr. Perez? No. It was his responsibility to determine there was no clear path to a successful legal case and that is what he did. What he also did rather than dropping the lawsuit, which probably can still go forward, he decided to provide the city with an opportunity to turn the ship around. It was a matter of the focus of the outcome. Did the city benefit or was this going to be a higher risk of prosecution than should be pursued with 'the people's money.' The purpose of the integrity of the original law that provided the funding entered the circumstances and the law own.
And Sen.David Vitter of Louisiana said he will block Mr. Perez's nomination over complaints about politically motivated enforcement of voting rights laws.
Yes, indeed, the man that played sex games with prostitutes gets to be a star performer at the Perez hearings. In Florida, the state wanted to reduce the welfare rolls while providing reasons to prosecute recipients based in urine tests thus removing their voting rights and in Louisiana the welfare recipients were going to be made to lose their voting rights, too.
The federal law requires public service agencies to have contact with the opportunity to vote. Louisiana didn't want to comply. I think everyone understands why.
Louisiana is in noncompliance. Boo, who. Not bob,boo; not Honey Boo Boo, just plain Boo, who.
So now, Vitter plays politics at the hearing of a very aggressive advocate for CIVIL RIGHTS. The country beware. Seriously. These folks are no joke. They intend to route out the corruption and proceed to make it a plus for the nation. It is a good thing.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
The U.S. Justice Department is suing Louisiana, (click here) claiming its public assistance offices don't offer adequate voter registration services for people who get food stamps, disability payments and Medicaid.
The suit alleges that the Department of Health and Hospitals and the Department of Children and Family Services have failed to meet requirements of the National Voter Registration Act.
That 1993 law requires all state offices offering public assistance to be designated as voter registration agencies. The Justice Department says those offices handled millions of applications and renewals for Medicaid and food stamps over the past four years,but only 14,725 voter registrations.
It contends those numbers show the state is not in compliance with the registration law.
The two state departments say they haven't seen details of the lawsuit, but they claim they are complying with the spirit and the letter of the law.
Thomas Perez knows his responsibilities and the Right Wing extremists know it. He does his job well and he leads. It is his ability that is so threatening to understand the trials of daily living of our minorities and bring about support for their rights.
Mr. Perez wants to see an increase in the minimum wage which would reduce the Wall Street Tax on the people of the USA. But, the beauty of that idea is that an increase in the minimum wage will actually bring about greater market share and the profits will return to Wall Street after they experience an increase in operating expenses for a few weeks.
That's all, just a few weeks. Ah, oh, there goes the CEO bonus this quarter.
I wish Mr. Perez success as our new Labor Secretary and look forward to his administration. It is unfortunate it is taking this long. But, when Congress has more days off than working days it becomes a burden to the nation when this is the effect.
