Tom Harkin

Well, I appreciate your explanation. I may want to just get some more elaboration on that. But, you make a strong argument.

But, in the farm bill we put that money in there, including funds for technical assistance and personnel to carry it out, and we paid for it.

I know there are budget problems, but it just seems to me that this is one area where we can't back off--I'm concerned deeply about it.

We just can't back off of all the great strides we've started to make in conservation.

The demand is there, but we couldn't meet it all.

I'm disappointed in the budget, on conservation.

I commend you for your focus on local food initiatives and urge you to continue to really push that Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food effort.

I'm hopeful that we'll have that food safety bill on the Senate floor soon.

That extra billion dollars a year for 10 years is truly, as you said in your statement, an historic proposed investment.

Chairman Harkin has been an outstanding champion for facilities funds for community colleges.

I thank you for the honor and the opportunity to share our experience in creating a workforce strategy that integrates education and training with career pathways linked to quality jobs.

We must act swiftly to ensure that American workers have the education, skills training, and supports they need

Let me put one thing to rest here. No one on Wage Watch was authorized to enter any business unless the business owner agreed to that. The only exception is if the public was allowed. Sure, they could go into a department store or a…

After learning of Ms. Smith's qualifications, expertise and the law she has worked to uphold, I can clearly see that she is someone who would work with conviction to enforce the laws of the United States of America. Additionally, I am…

Since she assumed leadership of the New York State Labor Department in 2007, we have enjoyed not only attention and engagement from Patricia Smith but a genuine working partnership. The bottom line is this. Patricia Smith has been an…

You will recuse yourself from all cases involving the SEIU.

Current law bars coercion by unions and employers in relation to employees' choice of whether to be represented.

We will report this out on Thursday. I don't know what the floor will be like, but I can assure you that we will move this as expeditiously as possible on the floor.

I certainly don't want to hold this nominee accountable for the actions of others, but going forward I trust this committee will be vigilant in holding nominees accountable for their testimony.

It is our responsibility to determine if these nominees can be entrusted with this power, or if they would compromise fairness to grant favors to special interest groups.

I am confident that Mr. Becker can be an important part of that effort.

The question of whether the secret ballot election process should be rejected in favor of or supplemented with a card check certification process rests with Congress.

Whether employees would be subject to heightened levels of intimidation, threats or coercion if Congress authorized the Board to certify a representative based on authorization cards is an empirical question.

The current law clearly protects employers' ability to express their views on the question of whether their employees should vote to be represented by a labor organization.

Justice delayed is justice denied, and all too often these delays mean there is no real penalty for violating workers' rights.