Whereas President Obama has pledged openness,
transparency, and a new area of responsibility in this Administration;
Whereas, on January 21, 2009, President Obama stated,
Let me say it as clearly as I can: Transparency and the rule of law will
be the touchstones of this presidency.
;
Whereas the Department of Labor under previous
Administrations has made tremendous strides to improve the lives of
rank-and-file union members by giving them better information on the financial
conditions and operations of their labor unions;
Whereas since 2001, the Department of Labor’s Office of
Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) investigations have yielded a total of 972
indictments with 904 convictions and returned more than $91 million in
restitution to rank-and-file union members;
Whereas during fiscal year 2008, OLMS secured 131
indictments and 103 convictions against union officials and related parties for
crimes, such as fraud and embezzlement;
Whereas the Form LM–2 is the annual financial disclosure
report form filed with the OLMS by labor organizations with annual receipts of
$250,000 or more;
Whereas on average, over a third of all unions fail to
comply with existing requirements to file annual financial disclosure reports
on time;
Whereas without the Form LM–2, union organizations have no
accountability and rank-and-file members are left with no information about how
their dues are spent;
Whereas revisions to the Form LM–2 are needed to ensure
that relevant information on union finances is provided to rank-and-file union
members to ensure transparency and accountability as required by the Labor
Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959;
Whereas, on January 21, 2009, OLMS published in the
Federal Register a final rule, making several revisions to Form LM–2;
Whereas the final rule expresses the Department of Labor’s
commitment to transparency and accountability for corporations, pension funds,
and labor unions;
Whereas the updates to the LM–2 form include additional
disclosure of the compensation amounts received by labor organization officers
and employees, further details about parties buying or selling union assets and
additional information regarding different categories of receipts;
Whereas, on January 29, 2009, eight days after the final
rule was published, the Department of Labor notified the public of the Obama
Administration’s intention to rescind these same union transparency
regulations;
Whereas, on April 21, 2009, the Department of Labor
subsequently issued a notice of proposed rulemaking seeking to rescind the
changes to Form LM–2 regulation, depriving union members of necessary
information about union management;
Whereas if the Form LM–2 regulation is rescinded, union
executives will not be required to share information, including the value of
the total compensation packages paid to union executives, and details regarding
union expenditures and member dues; and
Whereas, on April 23, 2009, 30 United States Senators sent
a letter to Secretary Hilda Solis expressing their same concerns with the
Department of Labor’s decision to rescind the new Form LM–2 regulations: Now,
therefore, be it
That it is the sense of Congress
that—
(1)the Obama Administration should immediately
withdraw the Department of Labor’s notice of proposed rulemaking seeking to
rescind the Form LM–2;
(2)the Department of Labor should not weaken
the disclosures provided for in the Form LM–2 regulation;
(3)the Department of
Labor should rededicate itself to the task of fully enforcing the
Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959; and
(4)all Americans are
encouraged to share their thoughts on financial disclosure of labor
organizations with the Department of Labor through the comment process on this
rule which closes on May 21, 2009.