U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis tells Talk Radio News Service that healthcare reform is absolutely vital for millions of Latino-Americans who do not have access to health insurance. Solis adds that green jobs are on the rise in the U.S.
Speaking at the sixth annual Latino Luncheon Series in Washington, D.C. on Friday, U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis recalls legislation she put forth while a member of the California statehouse in support of giving undocumented students the right to have access to attend public colleges and universities. (:44)
By Laura Smith – University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service
U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis was the featured speaker at the sixth annual Latina Luncheon Series in Washington, D.C. on Friday. Solis discussed challenges faced by Latinos throughout the country, such as jobs.
Green jobs, said Solis, are going to be the key to putting minorities, including Latinos, African-Americans, American Indians, women, farm-workers and lower-class Whites to work.
Solis said that millions of dollars in grants from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, passed earlier this year, are helping working families get back on their feet and find jobs in green industries.
“Through the Recovery Act and other investments, $220 million was made available to help dislocated workers transition into new high-growth sectors like allied health and information technology,” said Solis. $114 million has been awarded to community groups nationwide to educate and train young people, she added.
“By providing the job training that will revamp blue-collar jobs into secure 21st century green-collar jobs, we are paving a pathway out of poverty, strengthening urban and rural communities and protecting the health of our citizens and planet,” boasted Solis.
Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) says the issue involving the WTO, the EU, Airbus and the U.S. military was like the movie “Cool Hand Luke. Says Roberts, “what we have here is a failure to communicate.” (0:38)
Senator Kit Bond (R-Mo.) says he doesn’t “think our European friends should be rewarded with U.S. contracts for products they illegally subsidized. It’s time the Pentagon starts looking out for maintaining our own defense industrial base.” (0:28)
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) says Wednesday that “Now that WTO has ruled that what the EU and Airbus are doing is illegal, we don’t think they should be allowed to continue benefitting at the expense of our workers.” (0:46)
Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) says “unfortunately, Airbus and the European Union have refused to allow fair competition. They use the aerospace industry as a jobs program and they use billions of dollars in illegal launch aid to fund it. They don’t even require Airbus to repay the subsidies if the aircraft is unsuccessful. So it’s no risk, all reward for the company.”(0:43)
By Laura Smith – University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service
A bipartisan collection of lawmakers urged the Department of Defense Wednesday not to award a military contract to European based aviation company Airbus following a recent World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling that the company received illegal subsidies from the European Union.
“We need fair competition with fair rules. [The] Department of Defense should not favor Airbus more than the WTO does. This is not a French government decision, this is a U.S. government decision,” Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) said.
Airbus is competing for a $40 million contract from the Air Force against U.S. based manufacturer Boeing to replace aerial refueling tankers. The Department of Defense has said in September that they won’t consider the ruling by the WTO that Airbus received illegal subsidies.
Lawmakers, such as Brownback, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO), are asking the Department of Defense to “level the playing field.”
“Airbus and the European Union have refused to allow fair competition,” charged Murray. “They use the Aerospace industry as a jobs program and they use billions of dollars in illegal launch aid to fund it. They don’t even require Airbus to repay the subsidies if the aircraft does unsuccessful. So it’s no risk, all reward for the company.”
“We can’t afford to undercut American companies,” added Bond. “We need a fair competition and a level playing field for American workers and American companies.”
“What’s the purpose in Afghanistan? Well, it’s not to defeat Al-Qaeda because they’re largely not there,” said retired General Wesley Clark Tuesday. “It seems to me that what we seek there is to prevent the emergence of a terrorist state that would physically harbor Al-Qaeda and use it’s diplomatic and legal authorities as weapons against the very international system of which it’s a member.” (0:33)
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) says Tuesday that she “always tell[s] people three numbers” that she got from Sen. Cardin: six, 12 and 24. Klobuchar explains that “the average American spent $6,000 on their health care just ten years ago. Now the average American family is spending $12,000, and in ten years from now, without any bending of the cost curve, they will be spending $24,000 a year.” (0:31)
