Obama to nominate Solis to head Labor Department

Rep. Hilda Solis, D-Calif., will be nominated to be Labor secretary in the Obama administration, a labor official said on Thursday. Solis, 51, was elected to Congress in 2000 from a heavily Democratic district that includes part of Los Angeles.

Before that, she served as President Jimmy Carter's director of Office of Hispanic Affairs and spent six years in the California state House and Senate.

She has a strong background on union issues, having worked to unionize farm workers in California and co-sponsoring "card check" legislation that would allow workers to form unions by signing authorization cards.

"Hilda Solis is a very strong champion of working families and will be an outstanding secretary of Labor," said House Education and Labor Chairman George Miller, D-Calif.

Labor leaders were also pleased by the pick. "The new secretary of Labor is terrific. We are incredibly enthusiastic about her," said Anna Burger, secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union and chairwoman of the union political federation Change to Win.

"We have a department of Labor that is built for the 19th century, not the 21st century, and I think Hilda Solis will be terrific at changing this."