Rosa DeLauro

No investment is more critical than investment in education for our young people.

I am begging you, Mr. Secretary, tell us that you are moving forward with a lifesaving rule because millions of low-wage workers across the country continue to risk their lives.

If they cannot be protected on the job and lose their life, we have a moral responsibility to do something about that.

I would love to have the opportunity to talk to you or ask you if there is any consideration of an executive order to prohibit the Government contractors from retaliating against their employers--employees who disclose salary information?

The paycheck fairness bill does include that

The Congress has cut funding for job training and reemployment programs by 20 percent since fiscal year 2010.

I think that is very important.

Can you make a compelling case for going above this year's spending caps to fund additional job training programs?

If I can ask unanimous consent to put into the record a document about the raising the minimum wage, 10 Reasons Raising the Minimum Wage to $10.10 Is a Women's Issue.

Is there any consideration of an executive order, as I and the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee have called for, prohibiting Government contractors from retaliating against their employees who disclose salary information?

I want to know how you plan to collect compensation data from Federal contractors in order to improve contractor awareness and encourage self-evaluations.

The U.S. has no mandatory paid leave policy, making it just three countries in the world and the only country among industrialized countries to not mandate paid maternity leave for new mothers.

I was very happy to see the budget request for an increase of OFCCP and including funds to investigate pay discrimination by Government contractors.

Nearly two-thirds of minimum wage workers are women.

I have been involved in putting together something called the Women's Economic Agenda, which focuses on three main priorities--pay and rising pay, work-family balance, and childcare.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Secretary, the first issue I would like to discuss is the Labor Department's efforts to improve economic opportunities for women.

Women now make up half the Nation's workforce, but they face a host of unique and disproportionate challenges in the workplace.

I plan to fight for their continuation.

The future of the economy lies in jobs that require knowledge and skills, and those jobs also offer the best chance for decent, livable wages and benefits.

Thank you for your leadership on behalf of working families, including pushing for higher wages and support for the unemployed since becoming the Secretary of Labor.

But I believe this proposal represents a backward approach to job creation.

It is another sequester on steroids.

480,000 people die every year from a tobacco-related illness.

Strong funding for the CFTC reduces the deficit in many more ways than a lot of other actions

Our share, U.S. share, of biomedical R&D expenditure declined from 52 percent to 42 percent despite what is happening in the rest of the world.