Outrageously, U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Secretary Hilda Solis and other DOL Obama appointees appear to have blatantly disregarded the President’s Executive Order #13490 – the Ethics Pledge.
According to a report by the National Right To Work Committee, Solis and several other appointees gave themselves unilateral waivers on the two-year moratorium in direct conflict with President Obama’s two-year mandate:
Revolving Door Ban [for] All Appointees Entering Government. I will not for a period of 2 years from the date of my appointment participate in any particular matter involving specific parties that is directly and substantially related to my former employer or former clients, including regulations and contracts.
Solis’ only publicly available signed ethics pledge is provided by Olga Pierce and Christopher Weaver at Propublica. National Right To Work reviewed it and other ProPublica provided ethics pledges. It is clear that other DOL appointees followed Solis’ lead and granted themselves ethics waivers in conflict with the presidential order. The report identified Deputy Secretary Seth Harris, Assistant Secretary Phyllis Borzi, Assistant Secretary T. Michael Kerr (SEIU & AFSCME), and Assistant Secretary Jane Oates.
Unlike the other DOL appointees’ waivers, Solis signed her waiver a few days prior to the issuance of the Executive Order. DOL has failed to provide an updated pledge signed by Solis even though several Freedom of Information Act requests have been filed asking for copies of the Secretary’s ethics pledge.
To view the cited pledges that contain the one-year, not two-year, signed pledges click here.
Big Labor Bliss
“The Obama-Biden administration will give the Office of Governmental Ethics strong enforcement authority with the ability to make binding regulations, and it will work with inspectors general in all the federal agencies to enforce ethics rules…”
Solis and other DOL appointees are completely ignoring Obama’s “Revolving Door Ban.” When inquiring minds wanted a glance behind the DOL’s regulatory process in an effort to see if everything was on the up-and-up, their Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was stonewalled. The National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation filed a federal lawsuit to force DOL to comply with the Freedom of Information Act.
“Starting today,” Mr. Obama said, “every agency and department should know that this administration stands on the side not of those who seek to withhold information, but those who seek to make it known.”
Solis’ direct ties with union bosses and her positions as a director and officer of the labor-union financed “American Rights at Work” were questioned by the Weekly Standard: “The Nominee Who Lobbied Herself – Hilda Solis’s breach of House ethics rules may disqualify her from serving.”
Labor Secretary Solis’ actions speak louder than President Obama’s words. A new National Right To Work Committee video, demonstrates that Solis intends to serve Big Labor at her post. In the video, Labor Secretary Solis refers to the AFL-CIO ands declares, “Our President, John Sweeney!” In another part, she announces that union bosses will be “a very, very important part of what I will be doing!”
The video also captures an impromptu cheerleading session where Secretary Solis shouts, “Are you fired Up? Ready to Go? Yes, We Can! And Yes, We Will…” Would she lead this cheer at a National Right To Work or National Federation of Independent Business convention?
Probably not, but it shows that Solis has little interest in the spiritof Obama’s Ethics Pledge.
Obama promised that he would bring change. It appears the more things “change,” the worse they get.