[Senate Hearing 117-170]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                                       S. Hrg. 117-170

                       NOMINATION OF MARTY WALSH
                              TO SERVE AS
                           SECRETARY OF LABOR

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                                 OF THE

                    COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION,
                          LABOR, AND PENSIONS

                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                                   ON

 EXAMINING THE NOMINATION OF MARTIN JOSEPH WALSH, OF MASSACHUSETTS, TO 
                         BE SECRETARY OF LABOR

                               __________

                            FEBRUARY 4, 2021

                               __________

 Printed for the use of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 
                                Pensions
                                
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        Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
        
                              __________

                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
46-750 PDF                 WASHINGTON : 2022                     
          
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          COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS

                     PATTY MURRAY, Washington Chair
BERNIE SANDERS (I), Vermont          RICHARD BURR, North Carolina 
ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania       Ranking Member
TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin             RAND PAUL, M.D., Kentucky
CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut   SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine
TIM KAINE, Virginia                  BILL CASSIDY, M.D., Louisiana
MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire         LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska
TINA SMITH, Minnesota                MIKE BRAUN, Indiana
JACKY ROSEN, Nevada                  ROGER MARSHALL, M.D., Kansas
BEN RAY LUJAN, New Mexico            TIM SCOTT, South Carolina
JOHN HICKENLOOPER, Colorado          MITT ROMNEY, Utah
                                     TOMMY TUBERVILLE, Alabama
                                     JERRY MORAN, Kansas

                     Evan T. Schatz, Staff Director
               David P. Cleary, Republican Staff Director
                  John Righter, Deputy Staff Director
                           
                           
                           C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              

                               STATEMENTS

                       THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2021

                                                                   Page

                           Committee Members

Murray, Hon. Patty, Chair, Committee on Health, Education, Labor, 
  and Pensions, Opening statement................................     1
Burr, Hon. Richard, Ranking Member, a U.S. Senator from the State 
  of North Carolina, Opening statement...........................     4

                               Witnesses

Walsh, Hon. Martin, J., Boston, MA...............................     7
    Prepared statement...........................................     9

                          ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

Statements, articles, publications, letters, etc.
Murray, Hon. Patty:
    Letters of support...........................................    46

 
                       NOMINATION OF MARTY WALSH
                              TO SERVE AS
                           SECRETARY OF LABOR

                              ----------                              


                       Thursday, February 4, 2021

                                        U.S. Senate
        Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:02 a.m., in 
room SD-430, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Patty Murray, 
The Chair of the Committee, presiding.
    Present: Senators Murray [presiding], Sanders, Casey, 
Baldwin, Murphy, Kaine, Hassan, Smith, Rosen, Lujan, 
Hickenlooper, Warren, Burr, Paul, Collins, Cassidy, Murkowski, 
Braun, Marshall, Scott, Romney, Tuberville, and Moran.

                  OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR MURRAY

    The Chair. This hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, 
Education, Labor, and Pensions will please come to order. 
Today, we are holding a hearing on the nomination of Mayor 
Marty Walsh to be Secretary of Labor. Senator Burr and I will 
each have an opening statement and then I will recognize 
Senator Warren to introduce Mayor Walsh. After Mayor Walsh 
gives his testimony, Senators will have five minutes each for a 
round of questions. And I am happy to stay for a second round 
if Senators have any remaining questions.
    Before we begin, I also want to walk through the COVID-19 
safety protocols we have in place. We will follow the advice of 
the Attending Physician and the Sergeant at Arms in conducting 
this hearing. Committee Members and our witnesses are seated at 
least six feet apart. That means we are unable to have the 
public or the media attend in person. But the hearing is 
available on our Committee website at www.help.senate.gov. Some 
Senators, including myself, are participating by video 
conference. We are all very grateful to the Sergeant at Arms, 
the Capitol Police, the Architect of the Capitol, the Press 
Gallery, the Rules Committee, and our Committee staff for all 
of their hard work to keep us all safe and healthy.
    Joining us today, we have all of our new Committee Members 
that I am very, very pleased to welcome our new Senators Lujan, 
Hickenlooper, Moran, Marshall, and Tuberville to the Committee, 
and I look forward to working with all of you. Mayor Walsh, 
thank you for joining us today, and I am pleased to welcome 
your partner, Lori, as well. While we haven't had the chance to 
meet in person yet, I do look forward to meeting you soon and I 
know we will be working together a lot, both virtually for the 
time being and in person hopefully soon. President Biden 
announced his intent to nominate Mayor Walsh on January 7th. 
His formal nomination arrived on January 20th. The Committee 
received Mayor Walsh's Office of Government Ethics paperwork, 
including his public financial disclosures and ethics 
agreement, on January 22nd, and his Committee paperwork on 
January 25th. Mayor Walsh, I look forward to hearing about how 
you and the Biden administration will work with us to fight for 
workers across our country, and I hope we will be able to 
confirm you quickly because we do not have a minute to delay.
    We have lost 140,000 jobs in the last month. All of the net 
job loss was among women and it was disproportionately among 
women of color. Unemployment is twice as high as it was a year 
ago, and as usual, it is unfortunately even higher among women, 
people with disabilities, and people of color. And I have heard 
from so many families back in Washington State who are hurting. 
This pandemic has laid bare the painful fact that while our 
economy might work for the biggest corporations and wealthiest 
individuals, it doesn't work for families. And it is working 
against women, people of color, people with disabilities, and 
many others. Since the beginning of this pandemic, our health 
and homecare workers, grocery store clerks, delivery people, 
fast food workers, farm workers, bus drivers and so many others 
have kept this country going, showing more clearly than ever 
before that workers are the backbone of our economy. Democrats 
and Republicans alike have joined together in rightly calling 
our essential workers heroes. But despite their tireless work 
and the risk of COVID exposure, too many of these workers are 
paid wages so low they can't even afford to meet their basic 
needs.
    One in nine workers in our country makes poverty level 
wages, and the current Federal minimum wage has left millions 
of working people desperately in need of a raise, a quarter of 
Latino workers, a third of Black workers, 60 percent of women, 
over 32 million people in all are currently paid as little as 
$7.25 an hour or $2.13 an hour for tipped workers, pennies on 
the dollar to workers with disabilities and the pandemic has 
only made it harder for workers to make ends meet. It is making 
their wages even more deeply unfair. Women are paid only $0.82 
for every $1.00 paid to men, and that drops to $0.63 for Black 
and Pacific Islander women, $0.60 for many Native American 
women, and only $0.55 for Latino women. And a new report 
projects the wage gap will likely widen by 5 percent because of 
this pandemic. And these problems are exacerbated by our 
insufficient pay equity protections, our lack of guaranteed 
paid sick days, and national paid family and medical leave 
policy, and our lack of--the worsening childcare crisis. Amid 
all the pressures of this pandemic, one in four women now say 
they are considering downshifting their careers or leaving the 
workforce. And for so many workers, the conditions aren't just 
unfair, they are also unsafe.
    The largest meatpacking plant in my home State of 
Washington had a COVID-19 outbreak last year that infected 
hundreds of people. And we have seen the same thing in other 
workplaces across the country. Thousands of workers have died 
from COVID-19, including over 100 grocery store workers, more 
than 275 meatpacking plant workers, and nearly 3,000 health 
care workers. It has never been more important to have a 
Department of Labor that fights for workers. Unfortunately, we 
didn't have that last year. We had the Trump administration. 
Under former President Trump, the Department of Labor attacked 
workers' rights at every turn and protected the wealthiest 
corporations at the expense of working families. They denied 
millions of workers overtime pay. They made it easier for 
employers to steal workers' tips. They weakened workplace 
discrimination, enforcement and protections for LGBTQ workers, 
and more. Despite the urgency of this pandemic, the Trump 
administration refused to have OSHA issue an emergency 
temporary standard protecting workers from COVID, a tragic 
failure that I am glad President Biden is already working 
toward correcting. The Trump administration even tried to 
restrict the bipartisan emergency paid leave policy Congress 
did pass to help fight the pandemic.
    After four years of the Trump administration's attack on 
working families and a pandemic that continues to push them to 
the brink, we desperately need a Secretary of Labor like Mayor 
Walsh who will fight for workers not against them. Mayor Walsh 
will bring an important perspective to the Department as the 
first union leader to head it in decades. And just as 
importantly, he will bring a long track record as a 
collaborative leader who has worked across coalitions with 
labor groups and the business community, as a state 
representative, and as Mayor of Boston, to rebuild the middle 
class and create a more inclusive, resilient economy for all 
workers. Under his leadership, 135,000 new jobs have been 
created in the city, and he has fought for a $15.00 minimum 
wage and paid leave policies will help ensure women, workers of 
color, workers with disabilities can succeed in the workforce 
and get the pay they deserve.
    During this pandemic, Mayor Walsh has also continued to 
show a deep commitment to our frontline workers who have kept 
this country running by providing funding for emergency 
childcare and other resources essential workers need to weather 
this pandemic. It is clear Mayor Walsh has the right 
experience, leadership, and priorities to protect workers 
during this critical moment. And I look forward to working with 
him, President Biden, and Vice President Harris to see our 
country through this pandemic and rebuild an economy that is 
stronger and fair for all workers, one that promises regardless 
of age, race or ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or 
disability, every worker can earn a livable wage, which is why 
we need to pass the Raise the Wage Act and establish a national 
minimum wage of $15.00 an hour without exceptions across jobs, 
pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, and promise that every woman 
will receive equal pay for equal work, and have a Department of 
Labor that protects workers' paychecks against wage theft.
    We need leaders who ensure that every worker is safe from 
pandemics. We need laws like my Be Heard Act to make sure 
workers are protected against discrimination and harassment. 
And we need to hold every employer accountable for ensuring 
safe working conditions. Building an economy for working 
families also means ensuring that every person has paid sick 
days and leave so they can put the health and well-being of 
themselves and their loved ones first and every parent has 
access to quality, affordable childcare, two other critical 
pieces of President Biden's COVID plan. It means ensuring that 
every person has access to a retirement plan and the resources 
that they need to plan for their future and protecting those 
plans against threats like unscrupulous financial advisers or 
the multiemployer pension crisis that could strip millions of 
people the benefits they have earned. And last but not least, 
it means protecting and strengthening every worker's right to 
join a union and collectively bargain for safer working 
conditions, or better pay, or a secure retirement. Which is why 
I am so proud to be introducing the PRO Act later today with 
Majority Leader Schumer and Congressman Scott.
    Even before this pandemic and even before President Trump's 
four years crusade against workers, we had a long road ahead to 
build a truly fair, inclusive economy that works for working 
families. But now not only is the road longer, but the clock is 
ticking. Workers who are the backbone of our economy are being 
pushed to the brink. They need us to acknowledge that this 
crisis is far from over and pass additional relief as soon as 
possible. And they need a Secretary of Labor like Mayor Walsh, 
who will act quickly to keep workers safe, to defend and expand 
workers' rights, and be a partner in helping our economy come 
back stronger and fairer for all workers. I hope all of my 
colleagues agree. We need a Secretary of Labor we can trust to 
stand up for workers, not huge corporations, at this critical 
time. And we will prove it by working with me to get Mayor 
Walsh confirmed without delay.
    Finally, I now ask for UC to enter into the record 25 
letters of support from Mayor Walsh's nomination for Labor 
Secretary, signed by over 29 individuals and groups 
representing labor, trade unions, financial and medical 
institutions, and a bipartisan group of Mayors from across the 
country. So ordered.
    [The information referred to can be found on page 46.]

    The Chair. With that, I will recognize Ranking Member Burr 
for his opening remarks.

                   OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR BURR

    Senator Burr. Well, good morning, Madam Chair, and thank 
you. I want to thank you for scheduling this hearing with Mayor 
Marty Walsh to be Secretary of Labor. I want to at this time, 
welcome on my side of the aisle, three new Members, Senator 
Marshall, Coach Tuberville. Tommy played college football. You 
will always be Coach. And Senator Moran. Mayor Walsh, welcome. 
You have been a Mayor, state representative, union leader. You, 
quite frankly, have the experience and the qualifications to be 
considered for this position.
    I believe you are here, though, because in your career, you 
have called balls and strikes, and I think that is important in 
the position of Secretary of Labor. So I want to congratulate 
you on your nomination. I want to welcome you today. I also 
want to welcome Lori because I noticed that she was not in your 
statement that you are going to make, and it is just important 
to have her here. The Department of Labor serves an immensely 
important role in our economy and the lives of the American 
people. Our Nation can never afford to have a labor Secretary 
that will ever be accused of being in cahoots with union bosses 
or beholding to management. This is a job that requires a labor 
Secretary who is willing to make a commitment to confront both 
when necessary for the protection of the rank and file 
individual workers, especially in the midst of a pandemic with 
unemployment at 6.7 percent and 12.6 million people unemployed. 
This is a job that needs to be filled today.
    That is why I agreed with Senator Murray to begin the 
process of your nomination as soon as institutionally possible 
without unnecessary delays and roadblocks, and I hope we will 
do the same with your confirmation vote. Not all nominees in 
other circumstances, in other administrations have received 
that consideration. You will get that consideration from me. I 
don't know if you would consider this the biggest job interview 
of your life, but I guess it is up near the top. The President 
has nominated you in the Senate and now has the opportunity to 
give advice and consent. I am going to commit to giving you my 
best advice today, my best well-intentioned advice in the days 
ahead and in the future. I hope you can commit to doing the job 
the right way and I think you can. The people who work in 
Washington, DC. need to come in to serve all the Americans from 
coast to coast and in the middle, Democrats and Republican, 
management and labor.
    No matter what pressure comes from the extremes of the 
President's party, we cannot open the door of the Labor 
Department up to people who want to make enemies of job 
creators and the Department's job is not to make trial lawyers 
richer at a time when many businesses are struggling just to 
keep their doors open for the benefit of their workers. The 
problem with slaughtering the golden goose is that it no longer 
lays eggs. America is in the midst of an immense domestic and 
international challenge. We have health challenges with 
coronavirus pandemic. We have challenges with international 
competition with China and others. We should be able to work 
together to address these challenges. We need a skilled 
workforce. We need to encourage more women and minorities into 
science, technology, engineering, and math. We need to ensure 
that management and labor never conspire to construct another 
unfunded pension plan again.
    We need to ensure America that Government is here to 
assist, not to hinder, the reopening of our economy and the 
list goes on. Bipartisan solutions exist to all these problems. 
And if you commit to working together in a bipartisan manner 
with us, I am sure the Senate will work with you. I am 
particularly concerned about the unprecedented firing of the 
NLRB's General Counsel. No President, no President has ever 
taken such action in recent memory, not Trump, not Obama, not 
Bush, not Clinton and Bush, not Reagan or others before them, 
and it is a disturbing signal from an administration preaching 
the need for bipartisan unity.
    I would caution you and the Administration that might 
doesn't always make right and that you should be mindful that 
lurch to the left will be bad for a growing economy and getting 
people back to work. At one point in our history, the 
Department of Labor and the Department of Commerce existed 
together. Theodore Roosevelt knew that the interest of commerce 
and labor were ultimately aligned. Somehow, over the years, we 
have lost our way in that regard. Our largest economic 
challenges are external. As chairman of the Intelligence 
Committee, I learned our competitors just don't play fair. We 
need to be on the same team.
    We need to battle for our economy, for our fellow citizens, 
not for philosophy. Samuel Gompers, the founder of the American 
Federation of Labor, once said that a man who dwells on 
socialism forgets his union card. He told his socialist 
opponents, ``economically, you are unsound, socially, you are 
wrong, industrially, you are impossible.'' These sorts of 
unsound, impossible political agendas he spoke of don't help 
the working people. They present the biggest standing threat to 
America's competitiveness. I implore you, do not be a party to 
that. As Teamster's President Jimmy Hoffa pointed out, the 
political decision by President Biden to cancel the completion 
of the construction of the Keystone pipeline resulted in the 
loss of 8,000 union jobs and the loss of members' retirements 
and health care benefits.
    I hope that when confirmed, you will be the voice in the 
room reigning in this type of politically motivated chaos. 
Chaos in that specific example which cuts jobs and 
counterproductively increases, increases greenhouse gas 
emissions. I hope you can help us move beyond a class struggle 
mentally of 100 years ago and help us build a workforce for 
2021 and beyond. We can no longer afford to operate as a labor 
team and a management team. We must be in this together. Tom 
Brady has proven that a Massachusetts guy can hop on I-95, go 
south, and do good things. If doing good things is your goal, 
and I think it is, you will have an ally in me. But you have 
got to be willing to stand up to the agenda activists to get 
that goal. I will join you Sunday. Rooting for Tampa Bay. Not 
trying to suck up to the next Secretary of Labor, but because 
at my age I root for the old guy, and that is where Brady is 
these days. I plan to conduct rigorous oversight, especially of 
the pandemic--of the response to COVID-19.
    I will ask fair, difficult, and probing questions on the 
decisions you make and the way the agency operates. I would 
expect honest, complete and timely answers. I hope you can 
commit to working with me on that. Despite the fact that as 
Mayor, you out recruited my State of North Carolina for many of 
the jobs that should have come our way and they ended up in 
Boston, I expect by the end of this hearing I will be able to 
support your nomination, and I will encourage my colleagues on 
the side of the aisle to support you as well.
    I look forward to this confirmation hearing. I thank the 
Chair. I yield back.
    The Chair. Thank you very much, Senator Burr. I will now 
turn to you, Senator Warren, to introduce me to Mayor Walsh.
    Senator Warren.
    Senator Warren. Thank you very much, Madam Chair Murray and 
Ranking Member Burr. And welcome, Marty and Lori. I am here to 
introduce Mayor Walsh, the Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, who 
has been nominated to be our next Secretary of the Department 
of Labor. And I am really happy to be here. After four years of 
a Trump Labor Department that did its best to undermine 
workers, Marty will be a Secretary of Labor who actually 
supports labor.
    Marty grew up in a hardworking family in Dorchester, 
Massachusetts. His mom and dad immigrated from Ireland and 
worked hard in America to give their children more 
opportunities. His family's story tells of a deep-seated 
commitment to building opportunity for the next generation. It 
is one of the many reasons that I trust Marty to look out for 
everyone looking for a good job, a decent wage, and a chance 
for their kids and their grandkids to succeed. Marty's dad 
worked in the building trades. Marty followed him into this 
work as a member of Laborers Local Union 223. Marty was smart, 
creative and relentless, and his fellow workers eventually 
elected him their union president. He later served as head of 
the Boston Buildings and Construction Trades Council, 
representing tens of thousands of workers in the region and 
then on to the state legislature and eventually Mayor of 
Boston.
    I trust Marty to look out for America's working men and 
women because he has a strong record of having done exactly 
that. As Mayor, he fought for a $15.00 an hour minimum wage and 
paid sick and family leave. He prioritized racial and gender 
equity, creating an Office of Women's Advancement and an Office 
of Diversity to address disparities in pay and leadership and 
in opportunity. And he established a new cabinet level position 
for a chief of equity to center equity and inclusive 
opportunity throughout all of city policy. Marty's response to 
the COVID-19 pandemic exemplifies his leadership.
    His administration worked to get PPE to frontline workers 
and to set up a field hospital in Boston's convention center. 
But Marty didn't stop there. He provided emergency childcare to 
first responders and health care workers. And he worked to 
create the Boston Resiliency Fund to meet the needs of hard-
pressed communities, including programs to hire laid off 
workers. Given his record on fighting for workers, it is not 
surprising that Marty's nomination has earned the support of so 
many unions and worker organizations as a long-time union 
leader. Marty knows what it is like to fight for fair pay, 
meaningful benefits, and safe conditions in your workplace. And 
I say this as someone who has worked with Marty for years.
    Deep down, he is a good man who believes that Government 
can and should serve the people, and he lives by that belief 
every day. Welcome, Mayor Walsh. We are pleased to have you 
here. And I look forward to your nomination and your service to 
our Nation.
    The Chair. Thank you very much, Senator Warren. Mayor 
Walsh, welcome. Thank you for being here today. We are looking 
forward to hearing from you and you can now begin your 
testimony.



 STATEMENT OF HON. MARTY WALSH, BOSTON, MA TO BE SECRETARY OF 
                             LABOR

    Mr. Walsh. Thank you. Thank you very much, Madam Chair 
Murray. I appreciate your introduction. Ranking Member Burr as 
well. I want to thank you, however--. Sorry about that. Thank 
you very much, Senator Murray, for your introduction. 
Appreciate it. Ranking Member Burr, thank you as well. I am not 
sure how much you help me out there today with Senator Marshall 
when you were talking about Tom Brady. He was looking at me. So 
we will have to work on that one later on as the hearing goes 
on.
    I want to thank you also Senator Warren, my friend, for 
that kind introduction. I also want to acknowledge Senator 
Hassan, my neighbor and partner from New Hampshire. Senator 
Romney, whose administration I worked with when he was Governor 
of Massachusetts. I want to thank all the Members of this 
Committee for inviting me to speak today. I want to welcome the 
new Members of this Committee to your hearing today for the 
first time. And to the Members that I have had opportunities to 
talk to, I have enjoyed our conversations over the last couple 
of weeks and look forward to talking to all the Members of this 
Committee and getting to know you on a personal level. I want 
to thank President Biden and Vice President Harris for the 
honor of this nomination.
    I share their commitment to the health and safety of the 
working people carrying our country through this pandemic, this 
very difficult time. I share their commitment to building back 
better with an economy that works for every single American 
worker. In many ways, that has been my life's work. As Senator 
Warren mentioned, my mother and father emigrated from Ireland 
in the 1950's. They both worked hard but our American dream did 
not take shape until my father had the opportunity to join the 
Laborers Union Local 223 in Boston. That union was my family's 
way into the middle class. It meant a fair wage so we could 
have security. It meant safety on the job site, so we didn't 
have to live in fear of accidents derailing our lives. It meant 
a pension so my parents could retire with dignity, and that 
meant health insurance.
    At the age of seven years old I was diagnosed with 
Burkitt's Lymphoma, a form of cancer. It was every parent's 
worst nightmare, but with health care treatment and great 
treatment by doctors and nurses at Boston Children's Hospital 
and Dana Farber Cancer Institute and the prayers from nuns and 
priests on both sides of the Atlantic, I recovered. And I have 
had an amazing experience on my life's journey. As a young man, 
I followed my father into that union into construction. I saw 
firsthand the sacrifices that working men and women make for 
their families each and every day.
    In my 20's, because of the same benefits that enabled my 
cancer treatment as a child, I went to treatment for 
alcoholism. I am a proud member of the recovery community 
today. Later on, as a full-time legislator, I went back to 
college, earned my degree from Boston College at the age of 42 
years old. I share these personal details because they helped 
shape my understanding of struggling working people and 
families the problems they face each and every day, and they 
inform my deep beliefs in the work of the Department of Labor. 
Workers' protection, equal access to good jobs, the right to 
join a union, continuing education and job training, access to 
mental health and substance use treatment, these are not just 
policies to me, these are--I live them.
    Millions of American families right now need them. I have 
spent my entire career, different levels fighting for them. As 
a state representative for 16 years, I worked on economic 
development and worker protections in collaboration with four 
Republican Governors and one Democratic Governor. As general 
agent of the Metropolitan Building Trades Council, I worked 
with developers and contractors to secure good jobs and major 
investments. I also helped create a program called Building 
Pathways. It provides pre apprenticeship training for union 
careers for people of color and women so their families can 
join the middle class the way that my family did. I believe 
everyone, including veterans, LGBTQ Americans, immigrants, and 
people with disabilities must have full access to economic 
opportunities and fair treatment in the workplace.
    For the past seven years, I have had the honor of serving 
as Mayor of my hometown, Boston, Massachusetts. We have proven 
that we can create a world class economy that works for working 
people. We secured a $15.00 an hour minimum wage. We expanded 
workplace training. We created groundbreaking policies to close 
gender wage gap and increase racial equity. And businesses 
thrived as well. We attracted $43 billion of investment. We 
grew the base of jobs as an American major city by nearly 20 
percent. We managed public resources responsibly, earning a 
triple AAA bond rating for each of the seven-years for the 
first time that has ever been done in Boston's history. And 
when COVID struck, we were ready to meet the needs of working 
people. We were the first city in America to pause 
construction.
    We worked with employers and labor on strong COVID product 
protocols. That allowed us to restock safely and build the 
homes and businesses and infrastructures of a strong recovery. 
Throughout my career, I have led by listening, collaborating 
and building partnerships. That is how, if confirmed, I will 
lead the Department of Labor. Right now, we are depending on 
workers, men and women to keep us going as they always have 
done, and we are always depending on them. I believe we must 
act with urgency to meet this moment with determination to 
empower our workforce and rebuild.
    If confirmed, I pledge to lead this work in partnership 
with workers in businesses, states, cities and tribal 
territories, employees in every single agency of the Department 
of Labor, the Administration, Members of Congress from all 
parties, and Members of this Committee. Thank you, and I look 
forward to hearing your questions.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Walsh follows.]
                 prepared statement of martin j. walsh
    Thank you Madam Chair Murray and Ranking Member Burr. Thank you to 
all the Members of the Committee, for inviting me to speak today, and 
for our conversations in recent days.

    I want to thank President Biden and Vice President Harris for the 
honor of this nomination. I share their commitment to the health and 
safety of the working people who are carrying our country through this 
pandemic. I share their commitment to build back better--with an 
economy that works for every single American worker.

    In many ways, this has been my life's work. I want to start by 
telling you why the mission of the Department of Labor is so important 
to me. My father and mother emigrated from Ireland in the 1950's. They 
both worked hard but our American Dream did not take shape until my 
father joined the Laborers Union, Local 223 in Boston. The union was 
our way into the middle class. It meant a fair wage, so we could have a 
home, and give back to our community. It meant safety on the job, so we 
didn't have to live in fear of an accident derailing our lives. It 
meant a pension, so my parents could retire with dignity. And it meant 
health insurance.

    At the age of seven, I was diagnosed with a form of cancer called 
Burkitt's Lymphoma. It was my parent's worst nightmare and every 
parent's worst nightmare. But with health insurance, with great 
treatment by doctors and nurses at Boston Children's Hospital and Dana 
Farber Cancer Institute, and the prayers of nuns and priests on both 
sides of the Atlantic; I recovered and I've had amazing experiences on 
my life's journey.

    As a young man, I followed my father into construction and joined 
the same union that he joined when he came over from Ireland. I worked 
on job sites all over Boston and saw the sacrifices working men and 
women make for their families every single day. In my 20's, because of 
the same benefits that enabled my cancer treatment as a child, I was 
able to seek treatment for my alcoholism. I am a proud member of the 
recovery community. Later on, as a full-time legislator, I went back to 
school and earned my degree from Boston College at the age of 42.

    I share these personal details, because they shape my understanding 
of the struggles working people and families face each and every day. 
And, they inform my deep belief in the work of the Department of Labor:

        Protecting all workers: with fair pay, healthcare and 
        unemployment benefits, safety in the workplace, and a secure 
        retirement.

        Ensuring equal access to good jobs--and the right to join a 
        union and engage in collective bargaining.

        Continuing education and job training.

        Access to mental health and substance use treatment.

    These are not just policies to me. I've lived them. Millions of 
American families right now need them. And I've spent my entire career 
fighting for them.

    As a State Representative for 16 years, I fought for good jobs and 
the rights of working people. I worked in collaboration with one 
Democratic Governor and four Republican Governors including Senator 
Romney, whose Administration I worked with to reform public 
construction.

    As General Agent for the Metro Boston Building Trades Council, I 
advocated for 35,000 union members. I worked with developers and 
contractors to secure good jobs and brought new housing, small 
businesses, and infrastructure to communities across Greater Boston. I 
also created a program called Building Pathways that provides pre-
apprenticeship training and union careers for people of color and women 
so their families can join the middle class, the way my family did.

    I am committed to making sure that everyone--including veterans, 
LGBTQ Americans, immigrants, and people with disabilities--gets full 
access to economic opportunity and fair treatment in the workplace.

    For the last seven years, I have had the honor of serving as Mayor 
of my hometown, Boston. In that time, we proved that you can create a 
dynamic, competitive economy that works for working people. We secured 
a $15 minimum wage, paid sick leave, and paid parental leave. We 
expanded workforce training--in partnership with businesses, community 
colleges, unions, and the U.S. Department of Labor. We created 
groundbreaking policies to close the gender wage gap, and increase 
racial equity. We invested in affordable housing, clean energy, and 
resilient infrastructure.

    During my administration, business thrived, attracting $43 billion 
of investment and creating 77 million square feet of new development.

    We became a global leader in fields from robotics to athletic 
shoes. Small businesses grew in every neighborhood. And we expanded the 
job base of a major American city by nearly 20 percent.

    We also showed that investing in working people is fiscally smart. 
As the City's chief executive, I lead a workforce of 18,000 employees, 
represented by 41 unions. We worked together as partners to put our 
pensions on track to be fully funded by 2024. And we earned AAA bond 
ratings for 7 consecutive years--which has never been done before in 
Boston.

    When COVID struck, we were ready to meet the needs of working 
people. We were the first city to pause construction. We worked with 
employers and labor on strong COVID protocols that allowed us to 
restart with confidence.

    Throughout my career, I've led by listening, collaborating, and 
building partnerships. That's how, if confirmed, I will lead the 
Department of Labor.

    Right now, this work is critical to the future of our economy, our 
communities, and our families. We are depending on working men and 
women all across this country to keep us going--as they always have 
done. They are depending on us.

    I believe we must act with urgency to meet this moment to 
strengthen and empower our workforce as we rebuild. If confirmed, I 
pledge to lead this work in partnership with workers and businesses; 
states, cities, and tribal territories; employees in every agency of 
the Department of Labor; the Administration and Members of Congress 
from all parties; and all the Members of this Committee.

    Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.
                                 ______
                                 
    The Chair. Thank you very much, Mayor Walsh. We will now 
begin a round of 5 minute questions. I would ask my colleagues 
to please keep track of the clock and stay within those 5 
minutes. I am very happy to stay if anyone would like 
additional questions in a second round. So Mayor Walsh, I will 
begin. In my opening remarks, I noted the unprecedented 
challenges that workers face in today's economy. The economic 
impact of this pandemic has been especially severe for women 
and in particular women of color.
    While we work to address the challenges posed by the 
pandemic to workers, we also need to address systemic issues 
that have been swept under the rug for far too long. And even 
before this pandemic, women were paid less than men for the 
same work and were more likely to struggle to find affordable 
childcare or be able to take time off to care for a sick family 
member. In the past few years, we saw the me too movement raise 
awareness of the harassment many workers face on the job 
because of their gender, race, sexual orientation, gender 
identity, disability or religion. I introduced the Be Heard in 
the Workplace Act to address harassment, including sexual 
assaults in the workplace, and I hope working with Members of 
this Committee on both sides of the aisle can make some 
progress on that issue.
    Building an inclusive economy means taking into account the 
needs of all workers and removing barriers that hold too many 
people back. So, Mayor Walsh, as Secretary of Labor, I expect 
you would use the full authority at your disposal to respond to 
the impact the pandemic has had on women and workers of color 
and to deal with the longstanding barriers to create an equal 
opportunity in the workplace. Can you give us some examples of 
how you approach those issues during your time as Mayor in 
Boston?
    Mr. Walsh. Thank you very much, Madam Chair Murray, for 
your comments and your question. I am proud of the work that we 
were able to accomplish in the city of Boston through our 
Office of Women's Advancement and also the newly created Office 
of Equity in the city of Boston. COVID-19 has really shown all 
of us in Boston, throughout this country, the shortfalls that 
we have in our American economy right now. One of the things 
that we did in the city of Boston previously to COVID was we 
saw that there was a pay equity gap that was growing in the 
city of Boston.
    I worked with 200 of the largest employers in the city of 
Boston to give us data anonymously. That data allowed us to 
look at the numbers to inform us what we already knew, men were 
paid more than women. And when you look at women, white women 
were paid more than Black women and Latina women and we had an 
issue there. So we created a program which was called Salary 
Negotiation Workshops, where we helped over 20,000 women be 
able to negotiate their own salaries to increase their wages to 
be able to get more money into the economy, more money into 
their families, more money on the table, something that was 
really important for us. And during this pandemic, one of the 
things you said in your opening statement and many of the 
meetings that I have had with Senators is the need for 
childcare, the need for getting women back into the economy.
    The last month, the large majority of the folks that have 
lost their job are women. Many of those folks lost their job, 
quite honestly, because they didn't have adequate childcare. So 
we need to work collectively as a Federal Government to 
increase opportunities for women and people of color. We need 
to close economic gaps. We need to close racial gaps. And that 
is the work that I have been doing for the last seven years as 
Mayor of the city of Boston. And I look forward to working with 
people not just here in this community, but the entire 
administration, the Biden administration.
    The one thing that I find that was really interesting in 
all of my conversations with the Senators, both Democrats and 
Republicans, each and every one of you spoke about the need for 
job training. Each and every one of you spoke about the need 
for preparing workers for the economy of the future. A big part 
of that economy of the future are women and people of color. So 
I find it will be one of my top priorities, if confirmed, when 
I get to the Department of Labor is to work with each and every 
one of you to make sure that every American worker gets the 
opportunity to be successful.
    The Chair. Okay, thank you. And the mission of the 
Department of Labor is to ``foster, promote, and develop the 
welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees in the 
United States, improving working conditions, advance 
opportunities for profitable employment and ensure worker 
related benefits and rights.'' Unfortunately, the previous 
administration's Department of Labor did the opposite and too 
often put profits over people.
    I really think it is time to have a Department of Labor 
that gets back to his job on behalf of our workers, creating 
enforceable health and safety standards to protect workers from 
COVID-19 during this pandemic, protecting workers from wage 
theft, particularly during this economic crisis, closing the 
wage gap and more.
    Mayor Walsh, if you are confirmed as Secretary, can workers 
rely upon you to make the Department of Labor a place that has 
their backs and enforces their rights to ensure that they are 
protected during this pandemic and beyond?
    Mr. Walsh. The short answer is absolutely, and the second 
part of that is, if I didn't feel that I could make a 
difference and the President felt that I couldn't make a 
difference, I probably wouldn't be sitting here right now.
    The Chair. Thank you very much, Mayor.
    I will turn it over to Senator Burr for his round of 
questions.
    Senator Burr. Thank you, Madam Chair. Mayor, the Department 
of Labor's office of Inspector found that between 2013 and 
2016, OSHA did not establish or follow appropriate procedures 
for issuing guidance. And as a result, OSHA risked issuing 
guidance in violation of laws requiring public notice and 
comment that could impact the efficiency and effectiveness of 
the programs to protect the rights of workers.
    The OIG recommended that the Department improve procedures 
and monitor compliance with procedures and trained officials 
and staff as necessary. In response to these findings, OSHA 
agreed in 2019 to take the steps necessary to ensure guidance 
follows the proper procedures. Will you commit to adhere to 
these recommendations made by the OIG?
    Mr. Walsh. Thank you, Ranking Member Burr. That is an area 
that I want to work with you on. I find it very important, when 
we talk about OSHA and as I have been prepping for this 
interview today or this hearing today and as I have been 
talking to people, OSHA should not be an us versus them. OSHA 
is a part of an agency that should be there to protect workers 
on the job site. We have seen, and I have seen personally in 
the city of Boston, many instances where unsafe conditions have 
led to serious injury to workers, in some cases throughout this 
country, death. And I find that rather than have discussions on 
what should OSHA be doing and not be doing, we should be 
working with OSHA and working with the Administration and 
working with the Members of this Committee to talk about the 
importance of bringing OSHA back as an agency that is an agency 
that is there to help workers and help employers and not be put 
in the middle of both.
    Senator Burr. One of your priorities as Mayor was to 
support free community college for graduates of Boston public 
schools. What role do community colleges play in the workforce 
system?
    Mr. Walsh. Community colleges play, in my opinion, a very 
big role. And I think that not only--when we created our 
program in Boston in 2015, we were creating it off of a very 
prosperous building boom in the city of Boston. And we had 
additional revenue and we put money into making sure that we 
put young people in high schools on pathways to college and a 
career. In one of those pathways to college was through 
community college, couldn't afford to get into a big school, 
couldn't afford to pay. And we created opportunity for young 
people to get into community college to put them on a pathway.
    I feel that we have a real opportunity right now in the 
21st century and at this point with COVID is not just to have 
college credits, but also create workforce opportunities, 
training opportunities. And I think that we need to do more 
with colleges, community colleges all across America, to help 
train the workforce of the future. Not every young person is 
cut out to go to college. You are looking at somebody that once 
a year and a half of college after high school. I dropped out 
of college. I went into the trades.
    I was fortunate enough to get back into college and 
eventually graduate. But at the time, I was not right for that. 
But creating opportunities through these pathways is really 
important, and I think community college can be a real asset to 
the American workforce and can be a real answer, quite 
honestly, to companies as well. When, as I said, we created 
community colleges in the city of Boston, businesses loved it 
because we are partnering some of our community colleges with 
different industries so they can train their workforce as well.
    Senator Burr. Does that mean you believe that community 
colleges should be free for every American?
    Mr. Walsh. If we could, I think it would be great. I think 
it is something that we should be planning for and trying to 
get to. I know that when we brought it into Boston, a lot of 
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is looking at that now, 
trying to have free community college through different pieces 
of legislation. I think if we can make community college free 
for kids in our systems, I think absolutely that is a goal we 
should be trying to do.
    Senator Burr. If we Federally mandated free college, what 
would that do to city budgets like Boston and state budgets 
like Massachusetts?
    Mr. Walsh. Well, I don't know if you Federally mandated. I 
think what you talk about is not everyone is cutoff for 
community college either, and I think we have to put more 
resources and revenue into job training programs, not just what 
we do here in the Federal Government, but also throughout 
cities and states across the country as well with employers. 
And I think that, again, there is no clear pathway for anyone.
    Everyone has a different path in life. And not everyone is 
going to take advantage of a college or community college, and 
that is why I think it is important for us to really focus on 
job training programs and strengthening those job training 
programs to make sure that we have real outcomes, so when you 
send somebody to a workforce training program or community 
college, that there is an outcome there. We have to make sure 
that we are setting these young people, and people who go 
through them, up for some success. And that means a job, a job 
that gets them to the middle class.
    Senator Burr. The 2019 report from the Government 
Accountability Office identified 43 Federally supported 
employment and training programs across 9 different agencies. 
This includes 19 programs at the Department of Labor. What do 
you believe is the role of the Department of Labor in 
coordinating training programs across the Federal Government?
    Mr. Walsh. Well, after talking to a lot of the Senators the 
last couple of weeks, that is a lot. There has been--like I 
said, every single Senator has brought up some sort of job 
training program in their areas or in their territories that 
they represent. So I look forward to--one of the areas that I 
really have done a lot of work with job training in the city of 
Boston. And we also added another component to financial 
empowerment, where we help people understand how to build 
credit, how to pay their debt down.
    There is a lot more--I know my time is up almost. There is 
a lot more to this conversation I would love to have with you. 
It is something that obviously I am passionate about. You can 
tell. And it really, it is an opportunity for us to really--
when we think about the economy and the American worker, if we 
truly want to get people into the middle class, we have to help 
them get into middle class. And job training, community 
college, and many other programs that are out there are ways 
and pathways in. And that is what we have to continue to build 
those pathways into the middle class.
    Senator Burr. Thank you, Mayor.
    Mr. Walsh. Thank you.
    Senator Burr. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    The Chair. Thank you, Senator Burr.
    We will turn to Senator Sanders.
    Senator Sanders. Thank you. Can you hear me, Madam Chair?
    The Chair. Yes, yes, we can.
    Senator Sanders. Okay. Mr. Mayor, welcome. Congratulations 
on your excellent work in Boston. And let me begin by telling 
you what you already know, and that is that there are tens of 
millions of workers in this country who are working at 
starvation wages. The gap between the very, very rich and 
everybody else is growing wider. Half of our people are living 
paycheck to paycheck. You mentioned that in the city of Boston. 
You have a $15.00 minimum wage. I gather and understand that in 
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, you are moving toward a 
$15.00 an hour minimum wage. How has that worked for the people 
in Boston, in Massachusetts? And is that a concept that you are 
sympathetic to?
    Mr. Walsh. It is working. I think it is helping people be 
able to put a little more money in their pocket as a minimum 
wage. In the city of Boston we actually have something else 
called the living wage, which is higher than the minimum wage. 
And we work on city contracts to try and push that. When I 
think about the minimum wage on a Federal level, it has been 11 
years since we have raised the minimum wage. The average family 
on a current minimum wage salary with the Federal Government is 
roughly $15,000 a year. It is impossible to raise a family of 
one on that, never mind a family of two or three or four. So I 
definitely support raising the minimum wage. I know the 
President Biden has made that part of his economic plan as 
well.
    Senator Sanders. Good. You are a union guy and I think have 
a lifetime 100 percent pro union voting record. And I believe 
that if we are going to create a strong middle class in this 
country, we need to have a strong union movement. We need to 
make it impossible for employers to act illegally to prevent 
people from joining unions. Or can you tell us what you, as 
Secretary of Labor, will do to allow working people in this 
country to exercise their constitutional right to join unions?
    Mr. Walsh. Well, I know that--thank you, Senator, for that 
question. I know that Madam Chair Murray mentioned today about 
the PRO Act that is going to be filed with her and Leader 
Schumer. That is one step toward helping union people to 
organize freely. I do believe in the right of organizing. I do 
believe in the right of people being able to join a union if 
they choose to join--if they want to join a union. So I 
certainly support that.
    Senator Sanders. Okay. In the midst of so many of our 
people struggling economically, it is no great secret as 
Senator Murray mentioned, that women and people of color are 
often struggling even harder. Do you have some specific ideas 
as to how we can make real progress in combating systemic 
racism and sexism and make sure that all of our people, 
regardless of their gender or the color of their skin, are able 
to advance economically?
    Mr. Walsh. No, absolutely. I think, first and foremost, we 
have to have more conversations around the country. I don't 
think there is enough conversations going on. And I know that 
in the beginning of the COVID crisis in Boston, one of the 
things that we saw in health care was that people of color, 
particularly the Black community, was testing at a higher rate 
of positivity cases in COVID-19. We put together a health 
inequities task force. That health inequities task force led to 
having conversations around hospitalization and the ability for 
lack of access to hospitalization and care. That task force 
state is still in existence today and still moving forward. We 
are working now through--across departments, whether it is our 
Office of Equity, our Office of Economic Development, the 
Boston Planning and Development Agency, about creating 
opportunities, whether it is in private development or it is in 
public development. It is about creating opportunities. And we 
have to close those gaps.
    Our country, and I will speak for Boston, our country, but 
Boston, we are dealing with a system of systemic racism that we 
have to continue to address. It is not simply just being, 
throwing fancy words out there in policies, but it is actually 
doing the work, rolling up our sleeves. And in our city, I have 
worked with different organizations and we have a women's task 
force groups. We have all kinds of different organizations 
working with the NAACP, working with the Urban League, working 
with employers. I have seen it happen in Boston where we all 
get to the table and there really is very little disagreement 
at the table. The issue is how do we move agendas forward?
    As I mentioned in my opening statement, I am a proud 
collaborator, and I don't like top-down pushing on something. I 
would rather have a conversation about having everyone 
understand the importance of the issue, whether that is pay 
equity, whether that is discrimination, whether that is 
workplace violence. How do we address those issues? So I look 
forward to working with you, Senator, and the entire Senate, 
quite honestly, in Congress. But Members of this Committee and 
how we can advance some of the concerns that I am going to hear 
today.
    Senator Sanders. Well, Mr. Mayor, thank you very much. I 
look forward to working with you as well. Thank you.
    The Chair. Thank you very much, Senator Sanders.
    We will go to Senator Marshall.
    Senator Marshall. Alright. Madam Chair, again, thanks for 
having me, Ranking Member Burr. It is good to be back here 
again. And, Mayor, welcome. We will talk about minimum wage for 
just a second. Boston, Massachusetts. What is the last cup of 
coffee you paid for? What did it cost?
    Mr. Walsh. Last cup of coffee paid for in Boston was 
probably at Doughboy Donuts, and I think it was $1.75.
    Senator Marshall. Well, that is a good deal. That is a good 
bargain. You believe in Kansas where I live, some of the gas 
stations will give you a cup of coffee if you fill your truck 
up with gas and, certainly calmly getting it for less than a 
dollar. As I look at cost of living. Median house in Boston, 
$600,000. The median house in my hometown of Great Bend is 
$83,000. The cost-of-living index in Boston is literally 2.2, a 
multiple of 2.2 from where I live. You have a minimum wage 
right now of $12.00?
    Mr. Walsh. At least $12.70.
    Senator Marshall. $12.00. The minimum wage in Great Bend is 
$7.25. So a $7.00 an hour job in Great Bend would be like a 
$16.00 job in Boston, Massachusetts. I guess, I am trying to 
get at is how can we have a nationwide minimum wage of $15.00 
which frankly would kill a lot of jobs in Kansas? So how--I 
mean, I am all for if you want $15.00 an hour in Boston, knock 
your socks off. But in Kansas, that would be a pretty big 
wage--a job killing wage.
    Mr. Walsh. Well, thank you, Senator. I think the issue 
around minimum wage is actually going to be debated on the 
Senate floor in the U.S. Congress floor. President Biden has 
stressed that he has support of a $15.00 minimum wage, a Nation 
wage, national wage. I support him in that, a $15.00 minimum 
wage. And I think that there is going to be many conversations 
from now until something passes the Senate and the House, 
around conversations about how that--if, in fact, it passes. 
How does that $15.00 minimum wage gets instituted--
implementing.
    Senator Marshall. Thank you for that answer. I want to talk 
about, please, for a second. My father was a police officer for 
almost 30 years, and it is certainly an issue close to my heart 
and it is my understanding that you reallocated $12 million 
from the Boston Police Department's overtime budget to, 
basically defund the police. I am very happy that President 
Biden during this campaign said that he was opposed to efforts 
to defund the police. And of course, I am very sensitive and 
proud of my police officers, including those among the unions 
across the country. As a supporter of unions, how do you 
reconcile your actions to defund the department with your 
responsibility to protect officers and keep them safe?
    Mr. Walsh. Thank you. I love my Boston Police Department. 
And if you had a chance to talk to any of the members of my 
police department, they will tell you the support that I have 
shown them all along as my time as Mayor and prior to that 
being Mayor. That was not a defund movement. What we did there 
was we shifted $12 million from the police budget into programs 
such as mental health counseling, trauma counseling to deal 
with the issues that we are dealing with in the city of Boston. 
In my Boston Police Department, officers have not lost 1 hour 
of overtime from the beginning of this budget cycle.
    Senator Marshall. Okay. Let's talk just a second about 
right to work Kansas, is a right to work state since our 
constitutional amendment in 1975 and the President's 
administration proposed eliminating right to work laws in all 
28 states that have them, some going back to decades. Do you 
believe it brings the country together to upend state 
constitutions? And do you believe that individual workers 
should have the right to decide whether they belong to a union?
    Mr. Walsh. Yes, I believe--I think that we need to continue 
to strengthen the American worker here. My role, if confirmed, 
as Secretary of Labor would be to work to strengthen the 
American worker. I think the worker has every right to choose 
what they believe, and I always have believed that. I think 
that, people have different opinions of unions and different 
opinions of business and different opinions of corporation. And 
I see my role, quite honestly, as a Secretary of Labor as 
bringing different ideas and different thought processes 
together and try and come up with some common understandings 
and support.
    Senator Marshall. Alright. Thank you, Mayor. I yield back.
    Mr. Walsh. Thanks, Senator. Good luck on Sunday.
    Senator Marshall. Thank you.
    The Chair. Thank you very much, Senator Marshall.
    We will turn to Senator Casey.
    Senator Casey. Thank you, Madam Chair. I really appreciate 
the opportunity to be with Mayor Walsh. I am grateful for your 
nomination. And I want to commend and salute your public 
service to the city of Boston, your work in the--as a state 
representative and your work as a union official. And we are 
grateful you are willing to do more public service for the 
Nation as Secretary of Labor. And I am grateful for your 
willingness to take on some tough issues. I wanted to try to 
get to maybe two or three issues. But first one I will start 
with is an issue that relates to people with disabilities in 
employment.
    We know that in order to rebuild the economy and help 
millions of unemployed Americans return to not just employment 
but safe employment, it is critical that we make sure that 
workers with disabilities aren't left behind. Despite the 
passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act now 30 years 
ago, we have made--and also advances we have made in assistive 
technology, job coaching, and other support, good employment 
opportunities for people with disabilities remain far too 
limited. In 2020, only about 34 percent of people with 
disabilities between the ages of 16 and 64 were in the labor 
force, compared to about 76 percent of people without 
disabilities. So 34 percent versus 76. We can do a hell of a 
lot better than that.
    I am concerned that as our economy recovers from the 
pandemic, people with disabilities will have a particularly 
difficult time finding work or returning to work, as they did 
in the aftermath of the Great Recession. So, Mayor Walsh, what 
are some of the steps you believe the Department of Labor can 
take to ensure that people with disabilities are not left 
behind by the recovery and the steps you can take to promote 
competitive, integrated employment opportunities?
    Mr. Walsh. Thank you very much, Senator Casey. And I 
enjoyed our conversation the other day. And I look forward to 
talking to you more about a whole host of issues. I know the 
issue of disability is also very important to Senator Hassan. 
We have spent some time talking about that. I know that there 
is an Office of--the Office of Disability and Employment Policy 
at DOL. It is a small but mighty office. And I look forward to 
working to strengthen that office, as well as within my own 
office now currently as Mayor of the city, my Office of 
Disabilities, which we have been--I have been very engaged with 
to really create opportunities for people, not just job 
opportunities, but other opportunities that we need. We have a 
great program in Boston. It is called Work Incorporated. And 
Work Inc. is in Dorchester, and it is a job placement training 
program for people with disabilities.
    One of the ways that I think that we can strengthen the 
opportunity for people is to get organizations like Work Inc. 
and give them the support that they need, whether it is the 
workforce development grants and training, but also continue to 
expand those opportunities. We also have to sit down, in my 
opinion, with employers to create opportunities for folks with 
disabilities at different job sites and opportunities. We have 
been able to do that in the city of Boston. And I think that we 
can take that model nationwide. I know that in your home state 
you have done it, up in New Hampshire, we have done it. In 
different places.
    This is an area, one of the areas that I would like to 
spend a lot of time and attention on creating real pathways for 
folks with disabilities. People with disabilities should not be 
treated as second class citizens. People with disabilities 
should not be treated as if they are invisible. People with 
disabilities are human beings. There our brothers and sisters, 
and we need to treat them with the respect that they deserve.
    Senator Casey. Mayor, thanks very much. I wanted to talk 
finally about miner safety. In your opening remarks, you noted 
that one of the most important jobs in the Department is 
keeping workers safe on the job. The men and women working in 
America's mines rely upon MSHA, the Mine Safety and Health 
Administration, to enforce safety laws and regulations to keep 
them safe. We need an MSHA that is going to keep those workers 
safe. And also an MSHA that will strengthen the silica exposure 
standards to better protect those miners. My grandfather on my 
father's side, Alphonsus Lagory Casey, worked in the mines as a 
kid from 1905 to 1910. Later went on to become a lawyer in his 
early 30's. But like a lot of kids in Northeastern 
Pennsylvania, he was not given the protections of it as a 
child, nor were the adults working in the mines. We need to 
make sure MSHA is enforcing the rules. And I just want to get 
your thoughts on that as we wrap up.
    Mr. Walsh. No, I mean, I agree with you 100 percent on the 
safety. We don't have, as I said to you on the phone the other 
day, we don't have any mines in the city of Boston. But what we 
have done is we have built tunnels and we have a lot of 
dangerous work in the city of Boston. And we need to make sure 
that when our workers, whether they are going to a mine or a 
tunnel or on a construction site or wherever they go, that they 
have all the protections that they need and deserve. And I 
certainly look forward to working with you more--a lot closer 
when it comes to mine safety.
    Senator Casey. Mayor, thanks. We look forward to your 
confirmation. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    The Chair. Thank you, Senator Casey.
    Senator Collins.
    Senator Collins. Thank you very much. Welcome, Mayor. It is 
great to have a fellow New Englander nominated for this 
important post. I want to bring up an issue that affected us in 
the State of Maine, which is that we experienced widespread 
unemployment compensation fraud last spring as we were plussing 
up the payments for people who, through no fault of their own, 
were unemployed as a result of the pandemic. And what we saw 
were these criminal enterprises ruthlessly exploiting gaps in 
systems in states all over the country.
    At the height of the pandemic, the State of Maine had to 
cancel more than 100,000 initial claims and weekly 
certifications that were determined to be fraudulent. And this 
obviously slows the system for Mainers who legitimately need 
the additional unemployment compensation to get by. Do you 
support Federal funding to help states upgrade their systems? 
Because part of the problems is, we have these legacy systems 
that simply cannot handle increased volumes that are slow to 
adjust for changing results and that cannot easily catch fraud.
    Mr. Walsh. Thank you, Senator Collins, and thank you for 
our conversation the other day. I look forward to visiting your 
home state. Not only do I support the Federal Government 
helping, it is a necessary step. Unemployment insurance--first 
of all, the money that goes to unemployed workers is taxpayers' 
dollars. So we need to make sure that every single dollar gets 
to an unemployed worker because we are helping them. We have 
never seen a time in our history, country's history, like we 
are experiencing right now with the mass loss of jobs from the 
beginning of COVID in probably I would say mid-March through 
last week. The unemployment system needs to be brought into the 
21st century as far as technology. I know that in my own home 
State of Massachusetts, we had, hundreds of thousands of 
workers unemployed overnight.
    The city of Boston worked with the state, with my Governor, 
Governor Baker, to help them be able to process some claims. We 
were able to assist and train up some folks. But it is about 
technology. We are in the 21st century and some of these 
systems that our states are working on are antiquated. We need 
to change the system, not only change it in the sense of 
bringing the systems up, but we also have to make it easier for 
workers that are unemployed to access unemployment benefits and 
easier for workers that are unemployed when they go back to 
work to be able to let the states know that they are back to 
work. So I absolutely would look forward to working with you 
and this Committee, but the entire Congress to talk about how 
do we make those investments, as well as Ranking Member Burr 
mentioned in his opening statement about the need of commerce 
and labor at one point working together.
    I commit to this Committee today, I commit to the President 
of the United States of America today that Commerce and Labor 
will work together. We will work hand in hand with each other 
as we move forward. One of the issues will be unemployment 
insurance. And there are many other issues that we are going to 
have. But I promise you, we are going to work together for the 
American worker and for the American economy.
    Senator Collins. Thank you. And one of those things we 
discussed is the importance of the H2B program to the State of 
Maine. It helps to preserve Maine jobs because during our 
tourism season in an ordinary year, we will have four times the 
population of the entire state come to the great State of 
Maine. And our tourism industry is extremely seasonal. So it is 
not that the businesses aren't trying to find Maine workers, 
there is simply not enough. We had a great deal of difficulty 
in working with the previous administration on this issue, and 
I suspect it is an issue in the State of Alaska as well, and 
perhaps North Carolina too. And I just want to ask for a 
commitment from you to work with us to ensure that the H2B 
program has sufficient returning workers, foreign workers to 
meet the needs of our seasonal businesses.
    Mr. Walsh. Thank you, Senator. And, that is an issue that 
we spoke about and Senator Murkowski as well when I spoke to 
her. Absolutely, you have my commitment to work with you on 
this issue. It will certainly bring smiles to the faces of 
people in Massachusetts just down 93, a little bit down Route 
three to Cape Cod. So I think they will be happy as well.
    Senator Collins. Thank you.
    The Chair. Thank you, Senator Collins.
    We will turn to Senator Baldwin.
    Senator Baldwin. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. 
Walsh, for joining us today and for your willingness to 
continue that service by leading the Department of Labor. I am 
looking forward to your swift confirmation and working with you 
to help address the many challenges facing our Nation's 
workers, families, and businesses. So, as we know, millions of 
essential health care workers, food service workers, grocery 
store workers and others have been on the front lines of this 
pandemic since it began. And it is about time, I think, that 
Washington steps up to put those workers health and safety 
first. Do you believe protecting worker health is central to 
protecting public health in general and combating the spread of 
this pandemic? And if so, how do you plan to lead the 
Department of Labor in this effort?
    Mr. Walsh. Thank you, Senator. Let me just say that while I 
have this microphone for a moment, on a nationwide level, I 
thank all of our grocery store workers, our first responders, 
our ambulance drivers, our nurses, our custodians, the people 
on the front line. In the city of Boston when the pandemic hit 
us the hardest, those are the folks that went to work every 
single day. In the very beginning, if you remember, very little 
PPE. We were all going after it, fighting each other to try and 
get PPE in our states and our cities. And these folks went to 
work every single day and kept our economy moving forward. The 
Department of Labor, Secretary of Labor, if I don't protect 
those workers and we don't protect those workers, then I don't 
have a right to be sitting in that seat.
    Those are my people. Those are the people that through 
snowstorms, through tragedies, through a pandemic, they are 
constantly there for us day in and day out. And we need to do 
everything we can to support those workers because they support 
us on a daily basis. So I look forward to continuing the 
conversation with you, Senator, but also really, doing some 
legislative stuff to support workers. But we don't need the 
legislation to support workers that take care of us every day. 
And again, I want to just personally thank all of those first 
responders, thank those grocery store workers, and all those 
folks who you have been working tirelessly, that if confirmed, 
you will have the Secretary of Labor that understands and cares 
and loves you and loves the work that you do every single day.
    Senator Baldwin. Well, I appreciate that. I have been 
calling on OSHA to implement an emergency temporary standard 
for months, and this is really long overdue. So I would urge 
you to make a swift decision and move forward on an enforceable 
safety standard immediately if that hasn't already begun to 
happen by the time you are confirmed. I want to sort of add on 
to the call for OSHA to issue an enforceable standard. Included 
in the Biden administration's January 21st Executive Order on 
Protecting Worker Health and Safety, President Biden asked 
Congress to pass legislation that strengthens and expands 
OSHA's authority as provisions in my COVID-19 every Worker 
Protection Act of 2021 would do.
    We--I think that OSHA's emergency temporary standard, if 
and when issued, is extremely important, but it still won't 
reach all workers, which is why we do have to act 
legislatively. Why do you think these expanded safety 
protections are needed, and how will workers be left 
unprotected if Congress fails to act?
    Mr. Walsh. Yes. First and foremost, I also--just a side 
note for a second. President Biden also wants to increase the 
number of inspectors that OSHA. It is down over 500 over the 
last 4 years. And so if we increase standards and don't 
increase inspectors then we really don't protect the American 
worker. I find it really important that as we think about these 
standards, again, as I said in the earlier part of the 
conversation here, OSHA should not be looked at by business and 
saying, oh, my God, this is terrible. Let's not do that. This 
is about protecting their workforce, about protecting their 
companies, is about protecting their products. And I do think 
that I look forward to working with the Biden administration, 
and I look forward to working with the Department of Labor, and 
on a closer basis, when confirmed, to make sure that OSHA is 
one of the first top priorities that I will address and tackle, 
if confirmed.
    Senator Baldwin. Thank you.
    The Chair. Thank you, Senator Baldwin.
    Senator Cassidy.
    Senator Cassidy. Hi, Mayor Walsh. Thank you for being here. 
I enjoyed our conversation. And as I told you, I have a brother 
who lives in Randolph, so it is kind of nice to have a 
connection with my beloved brother. Senator Burr spoke to this. 
I would like to return to it. Quoting Jimmy Hoffa regarding the 
cancelation of the Keystone XL pipeline, ``the Teamsters 
strongly oppose. This Executive Order doesn't just affect US 
Teamsters, it hurts our Canadian brothers and sisters as well. 
It reduces good paying union jobs that allow workers to provide 
a middle-class standard of living to their families.'' Now, I 
am trying to represent that perspective.
    One picture I love, or loved--it was just so poignant--I 
don't know if love is the right word, in USA Today, of the guy 
in Arkansas standing in front of a partially completed home, 
had been told to lay off 11 of his workers, and kind of the 
story was how is he going to pay for his home? Do you agree or 
disagree with Mr. Hoffa as regards the impact of that Executive 
Order?
    Mr. Walsh. Senator, thank you for your conversation. It was 
great to talk to you today and I look forward to continuing. 
Maybe actually when you come to Massachusetts, well I may be 
down here so we can--we will take you to dinner in Boston, at 
some point we will go back. I am a laborer. I am a member of 
Laborers Local 223, international union LIUNA. When that 
Executive Order was signed by President Biden, many of the 
workers on that job site were labor union members, laborers, 
same union book in my pocket that they have. But also in the 
American recovery plan, there is an opportunity that we have to 
build back better by creating hundreds of thousands of green 
jobs----
    Senator Cassidy. Mayor, if I can, because my time is 
limited, will those jobs be available tomorrow?
    Mr. Walsh. They--again, the quicker we can get the American 
Recovery Plan Act----
    Senator Cassidy. But my point being, because I think you 
are talking past me. Because the Keystone XL jobs are going 
today, actually last week. The jobs you are describing are in 
the by and by, hopefully within a year or more likely longer 
than that. Mr. Hoffa also said, aside 8,000 union workers 
losing their work, this impacted their ability to pay into 
their pension and their retirement. Is that a correct statement 
by Mr. Hoffa?
    Mr. Walsh. Yes. Well, Mr. Hoffa, if you don't work in that 
industry, you do not get pension credit. You do not get health 
care credit. That is absolutely--.
    Senator Cassidy. The Executive Order, and I grant that the 
Administration has high hopes that sometime from now, maybe 
even six months, probably more like one or two or three or four 
years, there will be jobs which will replace these on the 
ledger sheet, because the pipefitter may not get a job at 
making solar panels because that is a different set of 
training. The pipefitter may be 55, etcetera. The impact on 
that pipefitter, the guy in front of the half-completed house, 
will that be made up tomorrow by everything the Administration 
is planning on their American Recovery Act?
    Mr. Walsh. The jobs that were lost during Keystone will be 
more than made up with the American Recovery Act.
    Senator Cassidy. For that individual worker?
    Mr. Walsh. That pipefitter will be connecting steam. That 
pipefitter will have opportunities in that economy. That 
ironworker will have opportunities in that economy. That 
laborer, that operator, that Teamster, that carpenter, that 
plumber, all of those different trades and skills that people 
have in this country will have great opportunity in this new 
economy as we move forward.
    Senator Cassidy. Is there a sense of when the first of 
those jobs would come out knowing that the money is not even 
been appropriated yet and it is got to filter its way through 
the system and there has to be bids made and there has to be so 
on. I think it is reasonable to say it will be quite some time, 
but the guy has got a mortgage payment next month. And now, I 
will just make parenthetically, we don't ask you to comment on 
this. We had experts yesterday in the Energy committee, 
bipartisan experts, and what they said is we are going to 
continue to use oil and gas for decades around the world.
    The United States uses the best, the highest environmental 
standards. If we don't produce it, another country will, which 
does not have our standards, which will increase global 
greenhouse gas emissions. Not only do the jobs, they migrate to 
another country, many making Russia's economy better, for 
example, but we increase global greenhouse gas emissions. I 
applaud the efforts to employ those tradesmen and women on 
other types of activity, but we are being disingenuous if we 
don't recognize the impact it has upon them right now. They 
face poverty because of an Executive Order that will increase 
global greenhouse gas emissions. With that, Mayor, I yield 
back, and I thank you for your testimony. And I thank you for 
offering yourself for service.
    Mr. Walsh. Thank you, Senator.
    The Chair. Thank you, Senator Cassidy.
    We will go to Senator Murphy.
    Senator Murphy. Thank you, Madam Chair. Great to see you, 
Mayor. Thank you very much for the time this week and our 
conversation. I enjoyed it. I wanted to try to squeeze in two 
or three topics, if I can, in a short amount of time here. The 
first is the issue of mental health. CDC reported that during 
the pandemic there has been a really substantial increase in 
emergency room visits for mental health and substance abuse, 24 
percent for five to 11 year olds, for 12 to 17 year olds, 31 
percent. This is particularly acute among children who are 
experiencing lots of traumas because of the COVID epidemic. 
Might seem like a strange topic to raise with the potential 
Secretary of Labor, except for the fact that Labor actually 
holds the enforcement powers with respect to mental health 
parity laws. Senator Cassidy and I actually passed legislation 
at the end of last year that gives the Department of Labor new 
powers to do audits of insurance companies to make sure that 
they are complying with the parity law.
    Often what we find is that insurance companies put up all 
sorts of bureaucratic hurdles to reimbursement for mental 
health and substance abuse treatment that you don't find if you 
are going for an orthopedic visit or for a cancer treatment. 
And so I just want to ask you to make a commitment that you are 
going to implement these new authorities and you will work with 
us to make sure that the Department of Labor is an active 
participant in making sure that the parity laws that have been 
supported by Republicans and Democrats are working.
    Mr. Walsh. Thank you, Senator. And one of the--when I was 
mentioned as a potential nominee for this job, I went online, 
and I was reading all the different areas of Department of 
Labor. I knew obviously a lot of the kind of the bread and 
butter of the Department of Labor. And when I got to the 
section that talked about mental health and substance use, it 
perked my attention to my personal story, but also for my time 
in the legislature, I was Mayor or whatever it was. There isn't 
a Member in this room today, not a person in this room today 
that a family member or a close friend or one person removed 
are dealing with the issue of mental health issue, mental 
health problems or substance use problems, whether that is 
drugs or alcohol. And it is something that, quite honestly, we 
need to do a lot more for. Yes, COVID has put a big spotlight 
on it. And we can see that mental health crisis are more and 
more every day and they are going--people are going more, using 
hospital access and treatment.
    Substance use disorder. Obviously, it is no surprise that 
the disease of substance use is a disease of isolation. And we 
are in a period where we are telling people not to congregate 
and don't see each other. So I will do everything I can. And 
that is if--I don't really, personally don't mind if it bothers 
people. I am going to do everything I can to make sure we have 
parity for mental health and substance use disorder and that 
people have access to treatment because that is a game changer 
for people.
    That is a game changer for families to have that type of 
treatment accessible and available and not have to go through 
all kinds of hoops. Because when somebody--you have a moment in 
time. When somebody has a mental health issue and they are 
willing to get help or somebody has a substance use disorder 
and they want to get help, you have a moment. You have a moment 
to make that happen. And you can't wait till next Tuesday or 
next Thursday of next week or next month because that 
opportunity is going to be gone. And there are other chances 
that you lose that person. So my answer to you, my long answer 
to you--my short answer is, yes, I do. I will work with you.
    Senator Murphy. Great. And again, you will see that you 
have new authorities granted you by Congress that you can use. 
And I hope that you will be vigorous in using them. Let me ask 
one more question, and that is about the work the Department of 
Labor has done to help us buildup our workforce capacity in the 
defense industrial area. In Connecticut, we are really proud of 
something we call the Eastern Connecticut Manufacturing 
Pipeline Initiative. It has gained national recognition because 
it partners together Electric Boat, which makes our submarines 
in eastern Connecticut, with our community colleges and our 
workforce training programs in order to make sure that we are 
supplying Electric Boat in this case and their supply chain 
with the tens of thousands of workers that they are going to 
need as we dramatically scale up submarine production. This was 
made possible by a grant from the Department of Labor, but the 
Trump administration ceased making these kinds of grants to 
public, private partnerships. Can you--I know you have had 
experience in this area. I just wanted your commitment to take 
a look at that program and talk to us on both sides of the 
aisle about potentially restarting. It is really important to 
us in Connecticut.
    Mr. Walsh. Yes, absolutely Senator.
    Senator Murphy. Great. Thank you very much. Thank you, 
Madam Chair.
    The Chair. Thank you very much.
    We will turn to Senator Murkowski.
    Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Madam Chair. And Mayor, it 
was good to talk with you the other day. Look forward to your 
visit to Alaska. You had expressed a great deal of enthusiasm 
about that. And we want to make sure that we show you the best. 
We have got some interesting jobs up North, as I mentioned to 
you. We have resources. We have oil, we have gas, we have 
minerals, we have trees, we have fish. What we don't have is 
manufacturing. We don't manufacture automobiles. We don't 
produce pharmaceuticals.
    As we look to this transition, the incoming administration, 
the Biden administration has said we are going to be moving, 
making this transition to these clean energy jobs. And we are 
very proud of the way that we do produce our resources and try 
to do them with a limited environmental footprint, working as 
much as possible to make sure that we have reduced our 
emissions and that we are accessing these resources in a 
responsible way. But at the end of the day, whether you are the 
automobile manufacturer or the pharmaceutical or the company 
that is manufacturing the wind turbines here in America, we 
want all of that, we have got to get the resources from 
somewhere. And this is where States like Alaska have that 
advantage, because we have that natural bounty, and we are 
willing to be the producers so that we can provide for the rest 
of the country.
    To follow on Senator Kennedy's, excuse me, Cassidy's 
comments about the impact of the Keystone pipeline and the 
decision made there and real jobs, real energy jobs lost now, I 
would ask that you look critically when you talk about the 
energy jobs that are lost, that we are also thinking about our 
critical minerals, the base resource that allows us to, again, 
have an opportunity here in this country to be somewhat 
independent. In the Energy Committee that Senator Cassidy 
referenced yesterday, one of the other statements that was made 
was that we, for a period of time, were energy vulnerable. We 
were importing our oil. We turned that corner. We are an 
exporter, but we are now showing greater vulnerability when it 
comes to our mineral resources.
    The analogy that was made was we have gone from 
vulnerability from a liquid state to now a solid state, if you 
will. I raise this because when we think about those jobs 
around the country and how we transition to clean jobs, I think 
we need to remember that there will be certain parts of the 
country where you will need to continue to access these base 
resources. So what we want to be able to do is do that in a way 
that harnesses the strong technologies that allow us to do this 
with reduced emissions. But don't kill the jobs. Don't send 
those jobs overseas where the environmental practices are much 
less responsible, where the labor practices are clearly less 
responsible. There is not really a question there, Mayor, but I 
wanted to just reinforce what Senator Cassidy has raised, 
because I think this is one of the responsibilities that you 
will have if confirmed as Secretary, which I assume you will 
be, is ensuring that jobs across America continue and that they 
are good jobs that can sustain families and even in high-cost 
States like Alaska.
    In our conversation, I also mentioned fish and the 
significance of that to our state's economy. I want to just 
reinforce what Senator Collins mentioned with the H2Bs, 
recognizing that we are going to need your help with ensuring 
that the systems are fair, that there is the ability to count 
on these workers. So if we need legislation to change the 
programs, we want to work with you to do just exactly that. I 
do ask, though, that in addition to looking longer term for the 
changes that will need to come, that you will help us with this 
upcoming season in ensuring that we have the ability to bring 
in these workers. Again, these are in areas that are as remote 
as you will ever find.
    There is not a lot of entertainment after work. It is a 
pretty challenging environment. So we want to get you up to the 
states so that you can see firsthand these good resource jobs 
and jobs that Alaskans have come to rely on, and the country 
has come to rely on what we produce. Madam Chair, I am sorry 
there wasn't a question there, but I think the Mayor and I have 
had a good chance to talk, and this was my five minutes to just 
put it on the record with you. I look forward to hosting you.
    Mr. Walsh. Thank you, Senator. I look forward to visiting 
your state.
    Senator Murkowski. Very good. Thank you.
    The Chair. Alright. Thank you, Senator Murkowski.
    We will turn to Senator Kaine.
    Senator Kaine. Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Mayor, welcome. 
I have got a soft spot for Irish Catholic Mayors who grew up in 
pro union households. And I am very, very happy. And just I 
will say I am so glad that President Biden has asked somebody 
with a labor background to be in the cabinet. I, when I was 
Governor, put a labor guy in as a Cabinet Secretary and my 
legislature blocked him. First time that a legislature ever 
blocked any cabinet nominee. I was able to then put him in 
charge of the state's workforce programs, which wasn't 
confirmable by my legislature. But they seemed very worried 
that somebody from Labor would be sitting around the table. We 
have had so many people in my state and in this country, who 
had great business experience or Secretaries of Commerce or 
heads of the Small Business Administration, and that is exactly 
as it should be.
    But we don't have a full picture, a full spectrum of views 
around the table if we don't have labor represented right there 
at the cabinet table. And so I am very, very happy that the 
President has nominated you. Senator Baldwin, talking about the 
idea of the OSHA temporary standard, and I don't want to 
belabor it, but I am proud that Virginia was the first state to 
adopt one. We adopted it in a special session last year. And I 
think it is working well. By all accounts, it was very 
responsive to the needs of people who are really worried about 
what, whether they could safely go to work in the early stages 
of this pandemic, whether there was a lot of information and 
also misinformation about what safety was and wasn't and giving 
clear guidance to employers and clear guidance to workers and 
clear guidance to customers has been a positive.
    Should you be confirmed, I hope you will take a look at the 
standard that Virginia and now other states have followed, have 
done as potential guidance for what OSHA might do. You are a 
laborer. My dad ran a shop that was ironworker organized. We 
need a lot of workers who are trained in these fields. I think 
it is likely my view that President Biden might do an 
infrastructure bill. But you can't do big infrastructure 
investments if you don't have the people who are there to do 
the job. Surveys of our workforce suggest that workers in 
infrastructure industries are expected to retire at about 50 
percent higher rate than the general workforce because of age 
and the challenges of the job.
    I hope that you will work with me and with Secretary 
Cardona, who was before us yesterday and did a good job at his 
hearing, because I think these are kind of crosscutting issues. 
I hope you will work with the Committee. And I know you have 
talked with the Madam Chair about this on the community college 
side, to really focus on ways that we can build the workforce 
that will be needed if we are going to make a commitment to 
broadband everybody or make a commitment to the green energy 
economy. As we work toward passing infrastructure, just talk a 
little bit about what you see DOL's role in your role as 
Secretary and making sure that we are preparing folks to do 
those important jobs.
    Mr. Walsh. Yes. First and foremost and I thank. I was 
looking--doing some research. And so what your state did at the 
beginning of the pandemic and save lives--quite honestly, the 
work that was done to save lives. I think that the work of the 
DOL, quite honestly, can do the same in many different areas. 
We can save lives when it comes to standards and working with 
OSHA. We can enhance opportunities when it comes to green jobs 
and technology. We can work with--we can enhance opportunities 
and deal with pay equity when it comes to women and people of 
color. There are lots of areas. We can expand mental health and 
substance use treatment.
    There is lots of areas within the Department of Labor that 
is--we talked about of being pro worker, but it is pro economy. 
And, I was thinking about it last night as I was preparing for 
today, thinking about my role as the Secretary of Labor. And it 
went back to home base for me. I thought about my uncle and my 
father talking at the kitchen table on Sundays about fighting 
for the rights of workers, about making sure the jobs were 
there so people wouldn't be unemployed, making sure that they 
didn't have the benefit dances to support union brothers and 
sisters because their kids were sick, or somebody died. I 
thought about the employers I work with as the Mayor of the 
city of Boston that I want to build things, want to grow, want 
to attract, tech companies and sneaker companies and financial 
service companies in the city of Boston. That is not a 
competing--that is not competing with the American worker. That 
is enhancing the American worker. And, what you see is what you 
get. And there is an opportunity for us to really--I keep 
hearing stories about, the past administration and what they 
didn't do in the one before that, what they didn't do, what 
they didn't do. We have an opportunity, and I can't do a thing 
about the past.
    All I can talk about is the future. All I can talk about is 
that, if confirmed, you and the American people are going to 
get 100 percent out of me each and every day. And the American 
people are made up of workers, of businesses, of industry. So I 
know I am a little off what you asked me, but to bring it back 
home is, yes, I am going to do everything I can as the head of 
the Department of Labor, if confirmed, to be able to advance 
workers' rights and to move our economy forward. When I see 
advance workers' rights, if it means being safe on the job 
site, it means being safe on the job site. Somebody had to come 
into this room today and set it up. And somebody had to come 
into this room yesterday after the hearing and clean it up. So 
we need to make sure we continue to make sure that we advance--
if we advance the American worker, we are advancing the 
American economy.
    Senator Kaine. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Chair--
thanks, Madam Chair. Thanks, Madam Chair.
    The Chair. I know who you meant. Thank you, Senator Kaine.
    We will turn to Senator Braun.
    Senator Braun. Thank you, Madam Chair. First of all, really 
enjoyed our conversation a week ago. I think it may be exceeded 
a half an hour and it was so much we were talking about. I come 
from the world of small business. Was lucky over time that my 
15-employee enterprise ended up turning into a national 
company. Three of my four kids, a great young executive team, 
run it. I would like to talk about where we were pre-COVID.
    To me, it was the hottest economy that I have ever been a 
part of. The policies that were different from the prior 
administration, to me I think had a lot to do with it. And I 
will cite a few of them. We had finally started to move wages 
and I have been a proponent because I treat my employees like 
family, raising wages is as important as your return on equity. 
It is part of what almost all small businesses would have as 
the highest priority. Were we making progress? And I will say 
that it was happening through the private sector in the 
marketplace. What was wrong with that? And why do we want to 
fix something if it is not broken?
    Mr. Walsh. I enjoyed our conversation as well, and I look 
forward to having many more with you in. Your story of starting 
a small business is the American dream in a lot of ways. We 
have many small businesses in Boston. Some of those small 
businesses turn into big corporations, which is God bless them, 
and that is a good thing to see. I think that the economy--I 
mean, talking to my colleagues, U.S. Conference of Mayors, the 
Mayors around the country, we were doing really well in urban 
areas and not necessarily in rural areas of the country over 
the last 4 or 5, 10, 15 years.
    I do think that there is an opportunity to continue to 
build back an economy. COVID just stopped everything in its 
tracks. We know that. I mean, I saw what it has done in the 
city of Boston to restaurants, small businesses, to the 
workforce, to everything. If we didn't have COVID, we wouldn't 
be talking about unemployment insurance. We wouldn't be talking 
about fraud. We wouldn't be talking about, the American rescue 
plan. We wouldn't be talking about all that stuff. We would be 
talking about how do we move our economy forward. We need to 
get back to that point. We need to get back. But we also need 
to think back.
    President Biden talks about building back better. He is 
talking about that for all Americans across the board. So I 
agree with you, raising wages is important, and thank you for 
mentioning that, but I also think that we have to start making 
sure that it is every single city and town in the United States 
of America that benefits from a good economy, not just places 
like Boston, Massachusetts, or, Dallas, Texas or Chicago or 
wherever.
    Senator Braun. I agree with that as well, because it is 
different across the country. Places that have higher costs of 
living generally have higher wages--places like Indiana, where 
I think it is a sweet spot in the United States with high 
incomes and low cost of living. I want to segway into this, and 
it is the minimum wage. Almost any small business, mine 
included, proud that we have one of the highest starting wages 
and the lowest unemployment county or one of them in Indiana, 
due to that extent, because they want to keep their employees, 
they want them to have a good living out of the business that 
the employees and the owners of small business are more 
interactive, than any other place in the economy, especially 
big corporations and their employees. So tipped wage income.
    Among restaurants that have been most devastated, and I 
would differ a little bit that when you start getting 
bureaucratic about essential workers and not, in my downtown 
every small business was shut down and they could have 
practiced the distancing and wearing masks better than some of 
the places that were considered essential. Putting that aside, 
focusing on minimum wage, speaking to our restaurant 
association and an owner telling me how his tipped wage 
employees were making between $15.00 and $25.00 bucks an hour. 
By taking that away to the sector most devastated, you would 
then be putting them into almost a different paradigm if you 
push forward with a comprehensive minimum wage of $15.00 bucks.
    In this case, I think you need to look at it the way you 
reflect the differences between places and that you don't have 
a one size fits all, which maybe was the way we went wrong with 
handling the pandemic in the first place. We needed to treat it 
with respect. But it should have been maybe a little more 
careful on what we did bureaucratically. Tell me what you would 
do on that particular part with restaurants most devastated, 
taking away their tipped wage plan that actually exceeds the 
minimum wage in almost all places.
    Mr. Walsh. Thank you. So two things. One is, I think 
President Biden has been very clear on the minimum wage as a 
whole. He would like to have bipartisan support to move a piece 
of legislation forward to support increasing the minimum wage. 
He has been clear on that and it has been reported in the news 
for the last several days. On the second part of your question, 
ironically, yesterday, I was talking to a restaurant owner in 
Boston who owns restaurants around the country. And this issue 
came up. And we talked about this particular issue because he 
is like, this is going to be--he is mad at me that I am 
potentially leaving as Mayor, but he is happy I am going to be 
here now because we started talking about the wage piece of it.
    What I said to him was, we talked back and forth about his 
restaurant and the concerns I don't have with him, but the 
concerns around the country. And he said we have to do--we have 
to do a better job of talking to my colleagues around the 
country to treating their workers with respect so that this 
doesn't become an issue of the tip wage. What I am looking 
forward to is working with the Administration, working with 
you, Senator, and I will continue this conversation, we have 40 
seconds left here, on this on how we move forward here.
    If confirmed, I will be--if I don't get confirmed, before I 
get confirmed, I would love to talk to you more about this 
offline to see how we come up with some resolutions.
    Senator Braun. Thank you. And representing small business 
as a Senator most recently of, out of the trenches, I want to 
work with you and listen to what small businesses do. I think 
they have got the same thing in mind that all of us want to do, 
raise wages and a good job.
    Mr. Walsh. I love--I love my small businesses in Boston. I 
support them. We supported them throughout the pandemic. Going 
to continue to support them. So, thank you.
    Senator Braun. Thank you.
    The Chair. Thank you, Senator Braun.
    We will turn to Senator Hassan.
    Senator Hassan. Well, thank you, Madam Chair Murray. And 
thank you, Ranking Member Burr. And thank you, Mr. Walsh, for 
being here today. I want to thank you and Lori for being 
willing to continue service because it takes everybody around 
you to make this possible, and we are really grateful. I also 
want to thank you for mentioning to Senator Casey the interest 
that you and I have talked about around workers with 
disabilities. And I just want to note how proud I am of the 
people of New Hampshire and the businesses of New Hampshire for 
being the first state in the country to outlaw the sub-minimum 
wage while I was Governor. And that was really because business 
leaders stepped forward and said, we value these workers. They 
do great work. Why the heck don't they get the same wages as 
everybody else?
    I look forward to continuing to work with you on that 
issue. I want to turn to an issue we have talked a lot about 
this morning which is how particularly in the wake of this 
pandemic we help workers who have lost their jobs get the 
skills that they need. And obviously, it is not just about post 
pandemic economics, it is about workforce training generally. 
And we have had a lot of discussion this morning about it. I 
just wanted to highlight that I have reintroduced the 
bipartisan Gateway to Careers Act, something we talked about 
when we spoke last week with Senators Young, Collins and Kaine.
    That is one that would support opportunities for workers to 
earn as they learn, as well as provide important supports to 
workers who face barriers like transportation or childcare 
assistance. I am particularly interested as we think about 
this, and you have mentioned it a little bit, how the 
Department of Labor can support these kinds of programs working 
with the Department of Education, because I think there is a 
lot of crossover there so you can expand learning opportunities 
for workers who have lost their jobs.
    Mr. Walsh. Thank you, Senator. And I look forward to 
working with you as they have in the past. And it is great to 
see you today. When it comes to job training, you have to work 
across agency lines, you have to work with Commerce. We need to 
work with Education. We need to work with higher education. 
Higher education, education, schools across America have the 
infrastructure to be able to help us really maximize the job 
training opportunities and the efforts that we invest in job 
training. In the city of Boston, I worked very closely with 
schools like Bunker Hill Community College, Roxbury Community 
College, MassBay Community College, and other community 
colleges on training and job training opportunities for young 
people who have worked on internships. In our high schools, we 
have a very robust summer job program in the city of Boston.
    Obviously, this year is different because of COVID, but 
prior to that, about 11,000 young people were employed in the 
tech industry, in the financial service industries, in 
different industries in the city of Boston, which gives kids 
from the inner city the opportunity to get be exposed to a 
career they might otherwise never would have imagined. Having 
the opportunity here is exciting in the Department of Labor. 
Senator Murphy was talking about job training for specific 
industries, but there really is opportunities here. And 
having--those crossovers need to happen.
    Job training is not a Republican or Democratic issue. It is 
not progressive or conservative issue. There are people all 
across the aisles, all over wherever they are, and they are 
struggling right now. And having the ability to make an 
immediate impact on their outcome or their family's outcome is 
really important. So I think that, working with the Senate, 
working with this Committee, first and foremost, because you 
cover it all, you cover the labor, you have the education, we 
have an opportunity here.
    But I think that working in a fast manner once confirmed 
over at DOL I think that is something that would be important 
for me and a priority that I would want to work with you and 
other folks on. And not forgetting, not forgetting the 
communities that are forgotten, the disability community, the 
recovery community and other communities.
    Senator Hassan. Well, thank you. And you just mentioned one 
of the other communities I wanted to talk to you about. We know 
we have to expand opportunities for workers who are in recovery 
from substance misuse, an issue that is huge in my state. I 
know it is huge in Massachusetts. And so for so many of our 
colleagues. We continue to grapple with the opioid epidemic, 
often leaving individuals in recovery, struggling to find their 
way back into the workforce. And I think there are employers 
who want to be helpful but maybe don't have the tools to do it. 
So what can we do to ensure that these workers receive the 
necessary supports to reenter the workforce and stay in 
recovery?
    Mr. Walsh. I believe in second chances or I would not be 
sitting here as the nominee for Secretary of Labor. A lot of 
people that we talk when you talk about substance use disorder, 
alcoholism, drugs, mental health, many of those people made 
mistakes that are held against them for their entire life. We 
have to do something about that. I have worked with employers 
in the city of Boston that have been amazing, that have given 
people opportunities, second chances. People have proven that 
they are looking for and will work for a second chance. So I 
think the stigma around this as well has to be addressed and 
that we have to--don't have enough time to get deep into it but 
I think stigma is something that we have to address as well.
    Senator Hassan. I would agree with that wholeheartedly. I 
am over time so I will submit a question to the record perhaps 
about retirement issues. Obviously, we need to make sure our 
workforce can retire with dignity and we have got a lot of work 
to do there as well. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    Mr. Walsh. Thank you, Senator.
    The Chair. Thank you, Senator Hassan.
    We will turn to Senator Scott.
    Senator Scott. Thank you, Madam Chair. And Mayor Walsh, 
thank you for your willingness to serve. Without question, you 
and I both share the story of redemption, perhaps in different 
areas, but certainly I appreciate your remarkable story of 
miraculous recovery and the fact that you are very passionate 
about the country that you live in. And that being a Mayor, I 
spent 13 years in local Government, so I certainly appreciate 
the commitment that it takes and the tenacity that it takes to 
do what you have done. I thank you for doing it. I thank you 
for your willingness to serve in the Department of Labor as the 
Secretary. I know that you and I will find some common ground 
perhaps on workforce development.
    There are other areas where we will have passionate 
disagreements. And you have already stated your support for the 
PRO Act and the Recovery Plan and those are two areas that we 
are going to have passion disagreements. I come from a state 
like 27 other states in this Nation that have right to work 
laws. After we became a right to work state in 1954, we have 
thousands upon thousands of employees who are members of 
unions. It is their right in South Carolina. We protect their 
right to unionize. What I am very concerned about the Pro Act 
is overnight those 27 states lose their ability to be right to 
work states. That is devastating for the economic future of 
this Nation, devastating for those employees within those 
states, and frankly, a bad decision and a poor start for this 
Administration, especially when you think about the fact from 
2001 to 2016, right to work states saw somewhere around 27 
percent of growth of jobs in their states, and I believe it was 
somewhere near a 10-point increase in personal income in those 
same states during the same time period.
    At the same time, we were able to drive unemployment down 
precipitously. So if you can have more jobs, making more money, 
with low unemployment, that sounds like a recipe for this 
Nation. Unfortunately, the PRO Act literally overnight squashes 
the dreams of millions of people living in those 27 states. I 
am a guy who believes that we can continue in the path of high-
tech manufacturing. That is what South Carolina has become a 
champion of the of, five major tire companies all hold their 
homes in South Carolina. BMW, Volvo, Mercedes, Boeing, all call 
their homes in South Carolina. And that story is throughout the 
Nation. So when we think about stopping the right of states to 
be right to work, when we think about having contracts of 
forced workers to pay union dues just to get a job, when we 
think about undermining secret ballot elections and restoring 
the Browning-Ferris standard for employers that will cause the 
franchising sector $33 billion a year, hundreds of thousands of 
jobs, the PRO Act is a place where you and I will have strong, 
passionate disagreements.
    My ask of you is to make sure that with a 50, 50 Senate, 
nearly a 50 percent, 50 percent House, that you agree to talk 
with both sides before moving forward and undermining the 
rights of those states as well. I hope that you can--I would 
love if you change your mind on the PRO Act but I don't think 
you will. But I hope that you will come to both sides to have a 
conversation about how to move forward with something that will 
be devastating to states like my home State of South Carolina. 
Is that something that you can commit to?
    Mr. Walsh. Absolutely, Senator. That is something I am 
proud to do. I am--I generally like to be a collaborator. I 
absolutely will not surprise you. I would love to keep those 
dialogs going. I have done that my whole entire career.
    Senator Scott. I appreciate that, sir. And I know that you 
and I will, as we look at the Recovery Plan, perhaps not agree 
on the minimum wage either. But this is another example of bad 
policy, perhaps with good intention. Raising the minimum wage 
from where it is now to $15.00 an hour will shutter, kill, 
destroy somewhere near 4 million jobs. CBO says upwards of 3.7 
million jobs lost, and I think that translates into about $9 
billion of personal income vanishes, vanishes. So increasing 
the minimum wage actually destroys income and a net loss for 
America. I hope we have an opportunity to recalibrate that. And 
I heard your conversation on tipped wages. I will simply say I 
have been visiting restaurants in South Carolina and in D.C. 
One thing that servers and bartenders have in common, they hate 
the concept of losing their tips. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    The Chair. Thank you very much, Senator Scott.
    We will turn to Senator Smith.
    Senator Smith. Thank you, Madam Chair, and also thank you, 
Ranking Member, for this hearing. And Mayor Walsh, 
congratulations. And I want to thank you for your service and 
your willingness to take on this really important job. We had a 
great conversation and I appreciate shared stories from City 
Hall where I was chief of staff, and I joked that when you are 
Mayor, there is no job that is too big or too small for a Mayor 
to undertake. And also the best cliche is that potholes aren't 
political. And I think that is true, though, that most issues 
that you deal with in the Mayor's office aren't partisan.
    I can hear in your answers today, in your responses to 
folks across the aisle, that sort of problem-solving spirit 
that I think Mayors tend to have, so I want to thank you. I 
also am really interested and so glad for your background, your 
family background. I mean, organized labor. I was 18. I joined 
the union so that I could go and work on the Trans-Alaska 
pipeline in order to help pay for college and I have seen 
first-hand, as I know that you have in your family, that the 
right to come together and organize collectively for better 
working conditions, better wages, for safer workplaces is a 
powerful, powerful thing. And it lifts everybody up. As my 
mentor in Minnesota, Paul Wellstone, says, it makes it possible 
so that when we all do better, we all do better.
    With that spirit, I was thinking this weekend I visited the 
picket line of Teamsters Local 120 who were picketing outside 
of Marathon Oil, fighting as hard as they can for a safe 
workplace, not only for themselves, but also for the 
surrounding community and the families that live less than a 
football field away from that refinery, a place that has the 
potential to be just as dangerous as the Husky refinery that 
exploded in Wisconsin. So your job here to help make sure that 
we have safe workplaces feels so important to me and very, very 
tangible and in the moment. I want to ask you a little bit 
about that, Mayor Walsh.
    We know that wage theft and unsafe working conditions 
continue to plague working people in this country, and that too 
often we don't treat wage theft the way we treat other kinds of 
theft, even though it steals money out of the pockets of 
working people every single day. And in 2013, this Committee, 
an investigation by this Committee discovered that over a five-
year period, 42 workers were killed on the job because of 
violations of worker safety laws by companies with Federal 
contracts. And in that same period, 32 of the largest 100 wage 
theft penalties were assessed against Federal contractors.
    I think as Federal leaders, we have a responsibility to 
address this. And I want to ask you, will you take steps to 
hold Federal contractors accountable for dangerous work sites, 
for stealing wages, or discrimination?
    Mr. Walsh. Thank you very much, Senator. Let me just really 
quickly address what you said earlier. No worker in this 
country should have to take a go to a picket line, walk off the 
job or quit because of safety regulations. Inside there 
companies that should just not happen. And I think it is 
important that, because we talked about--many of the Senators 
today brought up OSHA and we had a little conversation about 
OSHA, Federal contracted employee, Federal contracts that we 
give out should follow the rules and regulations as well, 
whether it is paying fair wages, whether it is respecting the 
rights of workers, whether it is making sure that we have safe 
working conditions today due to COVID but tomorrow due to other 
situations.
    Yes, I commit to working with you, but working with the 
Department more importantly to make sure that these contracts 
are properly carried out and workers' regulations are followed, 
and rules are followed, and safety is followed and pay equity 
followed, and everything that is important. Again, it is 
taxpayer money in these contracts. We need to spend them the 
best way we can spend them.
    Senator Smith. Well, I really appreciate that, Mayor. I 
couldn't agree with you more, and I look forward to working 
with you on that. I have a bill to help make clear that 
responsibility that we have. And I would love to work with you 
on that. I want to also--I just got a couple of minutes left. I 
want to mention to you that I look forward to working with you 
on the great challenges we have with multiemployer pensions. I 
think we spoke briefly about this when you and I spoke.
    During my first weekend as Senator I traveled to Duluth to 
talk with the Teamsters again about their deep worries about 
losing their pensions. This is a worry not only for them, but 
for the businesses that they work for. They did everything 
right. They paid into their pensions only to find that now it 
might not be there for them. And I will never forget Vicki, who 
I met there, who said, Tina, I don't have a plan B if I lose my 
pension. So this is something that I really believe that we can 
work on together and I look forward to that.
    I am just out of time, Madam Chair, but I want to also 
mention quickly that in Minnesota we need your help to make 
sure that high school students are eligible to access the 
pandemic unemployment insurance program. They have been saving 
money to help pay for their families. This is something that we 
can do, and I would love to work with you on that as well, 
Mayor Walsh.
    Mr. Walsh. Thank you, Senator.
    The Chair. Thank you, Senator Smith.
    We will turn to Senator Tuberville.
    Senator Tuberville. Thank you, Madam Chair. Mayor, welcome. 
I have had several jobs in my lifetime and had to go through 
this as a coach, so I know what you are going through, but 
welcome. Most people have gone through all my questions. I just 
want to reiterate some things that you said and get kind of 
your response. Being in the education business for 40 years and 
have been around kids going to college and coming out of high 
school, as you said, a lot of these kids don't need to go to a 
four-year school. They don't need to go. They need to go get a 
job, but they need to go be trained for a job. And I have 
learned over my career that just saying that we are going to go 
to community college or going to a junior college doesn't work.
    We are going to--we need to start in the high schools. We 
need to start them in vocational areas in the high schools. I 
know when I came through high school, I had vocation classes 
and I got interested in electricity and learned a lot about 
electricity over the years. Of course, I went into coaching and 
did pretty well. But I just want to get your thoughts.
    Being in education, of course, this is an education 
question, but I hope when you finish your tenure in this new 
job that people know your name. Know your name as somebody that 
really got people into a business or a field that they wanted 
to get into where they could raise a family and make money. And 
that is all part of life. And I just want to ask you, what do 
you think your goal is of really getting kids not just in 
community college, but in high school, involved in a real job, 
something to use their hands?
    Mr. Walsh. No, thank you. Thank you for that. And thank you 
for your comment. You saw in your lived experience young people 
that played for you, that if they didn't have that desire for 
the game, they probably wouldn't be in college. We need to get 
that same type of desire in young people in the trades, like 
you mentioned, about electricity or whatever it may be. We need 
to do a lot better job, I think. I will speak for Boston 
because I have seen it. We need to do a lot better job around 
vocational training. We need to do a lot better job around 
creating pathways and opportunities for young people. People 
don't know what their passion is. When I was 17, I didn't 
really know what my passion was. I ended up going to work in 
labor because my father was a laborer. I went to labor with 
him.
    My father wanted me to put a suit and tie on when I got 
older. So I agree with what you have lived, and you have seen 
as an opportunity. How do we translate that into the work that 
I have done into programs that we can put all across America 
into every high school and community college? I think that is 
what we need to. We have--there are millions and millions and 
millions of young people right now that if we don't take action 
soon, they are never going to get to the middle class. They are 
never going to have an opportunity because they won't have a 
chance to be helped and guidance on what they want to do.
    How do I do that? I think we work collectively together 
across the aisle. I think we listen to ideas and share best 
practices. I think that we work with the Secretary of Education 
to talk about policies that can be put into play during the 
Department of Education. I think we talk to colleges across 
this country as well because they are interested in this as 
well. I think that we put together, maybe put together a task 
force to talk about how do we create people for the American 
21st century recovery, kind of as President Biden talks about 
build back better.
    Well, we build back better. Let's create something, build 
back better for high schoolers right now so that as we are 
building back better, they are part of the building.
    Senator Tuberville. Education is key to freedom. And we 
have got to get these kids away from these computers and 
PlayStation games and get them to use their hands and really 
understand they got to go to work for a living one of these 
days. And appreciate your comments on that. In Alabama, we are 
a right to work state. Next week, Amazon has got 6,000 people 
voting on a proposal to whether unionize or not unionize. And 
we have had several big manufacturing jobs in our state that 
has turned it down. What advice would you give to them when 
they go to vote next week? What can a union do for them that 
hadn't done much in Alabama?
    Mr. Walsh. I don't know if that is my place to be able to 
say that, but I think you vote your heart. You listen to both 
sides of the conversation. I think the key to the PRO Act is 
that you have the right to organize and everyone has the right 
to organize. Everyone should be able to, if they choose, to 
organize, they organize, and the union that they organize with 
will have the opportunity to go in and negotiate good salary, 
good wages, good benefits and working conditions, all that 
stuff. I think that, for the workers, I am not as familiar with 
what is going on in Alabama with Amazon, but I know that the 
workers, I know there has been a lot of interest in workers 
wanting to be covered by a union because they felt some of the 
disparities that they felt on the job site.
    Senator Tuberville. I would just hope that in this job, 
though, you wouldn't feel the need to put your hand on the 
scale at all to convince people to do whatever. But because we 
have been, we have had pretty good success with it. But Mayor, 
good luck to you. And again, I hope people know your name quite 
often in the next few years because this infrastructure bill 
that is coming down the pipe, we are going to need people to 
work. It is not going to happen with money. It is going to 
happen with workers. And you are going to be a big part of 
that. So thank you very much for your time. And thank you. 
Thank you, Madam Chair.
    Mr. Walsh. Thank you, Senator.
    The Chair. Thank you, Senator Tuberville.
    We will turn to Senator Rosen.
    Senator Rosen. Thank you, Madam Chair, Ranking Member Burr. 
Appreciate the work here today. And Mayor Walsh, thank you for 
being with us, for all of your answers, for your commitment to 
serving your community and your Nation. I really appreciated 
the productive meeting that we had. I look forward to learning 
about your plans. We are going to support working families, 
revive our Nation's economy, create jobs, and, of course, train 
America's workforce, to everybody's point, because my State of 
Nevada, working families, like every state, they are the 
backbone of Nevada. Our strong labor unions are what made us a 
middle-class hospitality center. Entertainment, our stages, 
tourism, our tourism-based economy is all possible because of 
our labor unions.
    This global pandemic has just devastated our workforce. It 
has led to record unemployment. I urge this Committee's swift 
nomination of Mayor Walsh to get to work. But COVID-19 has 
devastated communities across this country. It has strained the 
system that we use to deliver relief to struggling families. My 
home State of Nevada, we have seen one of the highest rates of 
unemployment. December last year, 1.5 million initial 
unemployment claims have been filed since the start of the 
pandemic. Our state unemployment agency went from processing 
20,000 claims a week and each week in February 2020, to more 
than 300,000 by August. From 20,000 to 300,000. And so I am 
grateful to all of our agency employees who work nights and 
weekends to power through all of that to get the benefits out 
to Nevadans.
    But I am frustrated that it took so long to get that 
financial support out. Our personnel had to use outdated 
technology and without adequate Federal Government support. So, 
Mr. Walsh, how can the Department of Labor really support our 
state unemployment agencies for weathering this crisis? They 
are going to continue to weather this so they can get the 
workers the benefits they are entitled. How do we invest in 
technology upgrades to make this happen across all 50 states?
    Mr. Walsh. Thank you very much, Senator. And the first way 
we do it is by working collaboratively together with the Senate 
and the Congress to think about where the commitment is to 
upgrading the technology system. I know that in Massachusetts 
we are one of, I believe there are 30 states that have upgraded 
the technology over the last decade for the UI system, but that 
system, again, probably needs upgrading again. When I became 
the Mayor of Boston in 2014, 2013--got elected, in 2014 became 
the Mayor. We started to invest in technology and IT. We 
started to invest on the capital side of IT. And, we made 
investments in our--with the police and fire, with their radio 
systems. We have made investments across the board. And really 
what we have to do is make further investments as a Government 
in technology.
    UI is one of those areas that obviously there is a big 
spotlight on today and shows one of the glaring shortfalls, if 
you will, in technology for Government as a whole. But there 
are many other areas where there is a shortfall as well in 
technology for Government as a whole. I can't speak really 
articulately about the Federal Government yet because I am not 
here yet. But I am just making an assumption that with the 
Federal Government's IT system is no further along than states 
and cities all across this country. So I really think that we 
have to work collaboratively together to fix a system that 
needs upgrading. I know that this is a priority as well of the 
President and the Vice President and certainly of all the 
folks. We bring all these young people into work in Government, 
and when they get here, they kind of--they laugh at the way we 
are as far as technology is.
    Maybe we should start listening to some of these young 
people around us to understand how do we advance our technology 
better. Ranking Member Burr is looking at me now shaking his 
head. So the two of us, we are kind of on the same page, I 
think right now.
    Senator Rosen. I want to keep on the same because I am 
actually a former computer programmer, systems analyst. So I 
kind of make a joke. I was an applications programmer. I wrote 
apps before they were called apps. But I am passionate about 
improving IT and our STEM workforce and our cyber workforce. 
There are good paying jobs. Right now they are available, more 
than half a million at least across this country. And of 
course, we see many cyber attacks that are crippling our 
schools and hospitals.
    I know you have seen that the ransomware attacks, the Solar 
Winds attack. So again, working on this theme of IT and 
security, I was hoping that you would commit to really helping 
us build this technology workforce and cyber strength within 
our Department of Labor to protect all of that. And so I was 
hoping to commit to work on that with us as well.
    Mr. Walsh. Absolutely, Senator. And that certainly will 
make our agency more efficient, be able to carry out work on 
behalf of workers more effectively. And for a moment there you 
and I spoke the other day about technology. So certainly you 
have a better knowledge than I do on this and that a lot of 
people have on this. But I do think if we can become an agency 
that is more effective both on the ground level with OSHA 
requirements, but also with technology, it will only help and 
advance the American worker and the American industry.
    Senator Rosen. Well, I want to--just as I close, we are 
going to try to get those apprenticeships, internships, return-
ships, all the things we talked about, to get people trained 
into these great really good paying jobs that will move us 
forward. So thank you. I have expired my time.
    The Chair. Thank you, Senator Rosen.
    We will turn to Senator Lujan.
    Senator Lujan. Thank you so much, Madam Chair Murray, and 
also Ranking Member Burr for holding this hearing today. And 
thank you Mayor Walsh for joining us today, sir. 
Congratulations on your nomination, and I look forward to 
working with you to increase wages and expand apprenticeships 
and technical training programs and strengthen worker 
protections. Mayor Walsh, my father, my late father was a union 
ironworker, my late grandfather a union carpenter, my brother 
is IBW.
    As you may guess, I am a strong supporter of Davis Beacon 
protections, which provide workers with bare, family sustaining 
wages. However, I have heard some concerns that the inclusion 
of unnecessary laborers and craftsmen subcategories and the 
Department of Labor's vocational service undermines the ability 
to establish a fair wage. Mayor Walsh, if confirmed, will you 
commit to working with me to address these issues in the wage 
categories, take a look at them, and within the wage survey 
process?
    Mr. Walsh. No, absolutely, Senator. I would love to work 
with you on that. To be honest, I don't have a lot of 
information on it right now. So it is an area that obviously 
right off the bat, if confirmed, love to get together sooner 
rather than later.
    Senator Lujan. Appreciate that Sir. What steps would you 
take to ensure robust enforcement of Davis Bacon?
    Mr. Walsh [continuing]. I missed the last part of that 
question, sorry.
    Senator Lujan. What steps would you take to ensure robust 
enforcement of Davis Bacon?
    Mr. Walsh. Yes, I think when it comes to Davis Bacon 
prevailing wage, we have to make sure that we are, again, go 
back to the statement I made earlier, these dollars that are in 
Davis Bacon or a prevailing wage, this is Federal money that we 
are paying to do contracting with. So we need to make sure if 
we have regulation that says the money is going to pay the 
worker and is going to, obviously do the project that they are 
being paid for, it is important that we enforce that.
    Davis Bacon, I mean my father was a laborer and my brother 
is a laborer, my family are laborers. Many of the projects that 
they worked on over the years, some of those projects have been 
Davis Bacon, but there are parts of this country, I know there 
is some concerns about the Davis Bacon not being enforced. So I 
will do everything I can to make sure that Davis Bacon is 
enforced. But also--it is also about protecting the American 
workers' money because it is taxpayers' money.
    Senator Lujan. I appreciate that, Mr. Mayor. And as you 
know and you just eloquently shared and the questions that we 
have had from other colleagues on the Committee, wage theft 
impacts workers across all industries and it especially impacts 
low wage workers. And I appreciate your background and that of 
your family, and that is why I have great faith that you are 
going to be a strong Secretary of Labor. And I know that you 
appreciate the importance of protecting the wages of working 
men and women. And I have really appreciated what I have 
learned about your work as Mayor, where you did take steps to 
ensure that the city contractors abided by a fair wage and hour 
laws. And that is something you will bring to the Department of 
Labor.
    Mr. Mayor, one area that I wanted to raise that it matters 
to us in New Mexico is a program with the acronym EEOICPA. 75 
years ago, Mr. Mayor, the Trinity Test site in New Mexico 
became ground zero for the detonation of the first atomic bomb. 
While this day demonstrated America's scientific leadership, it 
also marked the beginning of a history of illness and suffering 
that has spanned generations due to radiation exposure.
    That is why I have been a proud champion and really 
appreciate the work of our Madam Chair, on these important 
programs. Senator Udall, who succeeded in the Senate and his 
father worked on an initiative called the Radiation Exposure 
Compensation Act amendments to recognize and to compensate all 
the downwinders and uranium miners for their participation in 
America's national security. These are folks, Mr. Mayor, that 
live in proximity to where that work and research took place, 
and they were downwind.
    Some counties in some states in America receive 
protections, but others like New Mexico, where the bomb 
actually went off, were left out. But it is also why I have 
been a strong supporter of the Energy Employees Occupational 
Illness Compensation Program Act, which protects the interests 
of Federal energy researchers, workers, contractors who were 
injured, became ill on the job, and many due to radiation 
exposure. And that is why we lost my dad.
    My dad got sick on the job because he didn't have those 
protections. And I committed to him and to my mom that I would 
do everything that I can to make sure other families don't have 
to go through what he experienced. If confirmed. Mr. Mayor, 
what will you do to strengthen the program's outreach efforts 
to learn about it and to ensure timely determinations of 
eligibility so that those who are made sick or died are 
compensated?
    Mr. Walsh. Yes, Senator the first thing I said quickly on 
that is we have to put the safety protocols in place on the 
front end and not the back end. You know my father as well. 
When he passed away before he died, 25 percent of his lung was 
not working because of working on job sites, breathing in 
asbestos, and working with dirt and soot and everything else. 
So my commitment to you first and foremost is to put rules and 
regulations in place that actually protect the worker up front 
so that when they become parents and grandparents, that then 
they are not struggling. I will absolutely be willing, eager to 
sit down with you and talk to you about what enforcement we can 
do moving forward and how we can help not just the current 
American worker, but the past worker as well.
    Senator Lujan. Madam Chair Murray, as I yield back my time, 
I also thank you for your leadership on this issue. It saves 
people's lives, as you know, and helps families. So just thank 
you, and appreciate your response, Mr. Mayor, and look forward 
to working with all of you. Thank you so much.
    The Chair. Thank you, Senator Lujan. I look forward to 
working with you on that as well.
    Senator Hickenlooper.
    Senator Hickenlooper. Thank you, Madam Chair Murray. I 
appreciate being allowed to participate in this. Ranking Member 
Burr, appreciate your comments as well. Mayor Walsh, what a 
pleasure to get to meet you, even if it is only virtually at 
this moment. As you probably know, I am a small businessperson 
myself, but I am also a former Mayor and I am very eager to see 
you confirmed, and then you have to address that question that 
so many Mayors get asked, was being Mayor the greatest job you 
ever had in your life? I have two quick questions for you. I 
started out as a geologist and got laid off in the mid 80's and 
was out of work for a couple of years. And ended up opening one 
of the first brew pubs in the country that evolved a number of 
other ones. We had about 14. I told my wife that I had an 
empire. It was very, very small empire but an empire, 
nonetheless.
    My older brother was an automobile mechanic most of his 
life. My sister was a schoolteacher her whole life. I have I 
think a sense of the needs of a small business and how so many 
of these professions depend upon education. But they also, 
especially small businesses, need to get support. And I think 
in many cases, almost not just encouragement, but have 
incentives line up properly so that they can compete with the 
larger companies. A lot--there is a lot of discussion around 
COVID with the DPA, Defense Production Act.
    In that specifically, there are, there is language to 
really promote small businesses to participate when DPA is 
invoked and utilized. Are you looking at that? And do you have 
any ideas about how to make sure that small businesses get 
their share of those--of that work?
    Mr. Walsh. Thank you, Senator . Or maybe I should call you 
Mr. Mayor, because when you are Mayor, you are always a Mayor 
so thank you for that question, Mayor. What we have done in the 
city of Boston during this time was in some places we did ease 
regulations. We eased regulations to have outdoor dining for 
restaurants. We worked with the city, through the city with 
some grant programs to buy PPE. We created a program in the 
city of Boston not too long ago to help small businesses with 
their rent.
    We are working with them in different ways, and I think 
that as we think about moving forward here, people have 
different definitions of small businesses, but when I am 
talking about small business, I think what you are talking 
about small businesses is the businesses that are on our main 
streets right now all across America that are struggling. And 
so I certainly look forward to working with economic 
development, with you, with other folks on how do we create 
opportunity so we can keep our small businesses alive.
    Those small businesses employ lots and lots, millions and 
millions of Americans. And if we don't do something to continue 
to support our small businesses, I know in the American rescue 
plan, there is a component in that, but if we don't do 
something to support our small businesses or have those small 
businesses come back during this COVID time and after COVID, we 
are going to have bigger challenges in America to rebound our 
economy.
    Senator Hickenlooper. Thank you. We agree on that. Also, as 
a former Mayor, we share the experience of working with 
turnaround, the issues of workforce, and recognize worker 
shortages, the ebb and flow of the workforce, and also the 
importance of supporting senior citizens and keeping them in 
their homes. And it seems like we could be addressing both of 
these issues at the same time, if we can help reduce workforce 
bias against seniors and help them find and stay in jobs that 
offer them meaningful work. So as workforce demands ebb and 
flow, do you have experiences as a Mayor or ideas about how to 
kind of address this problem, address bias and help get and 
keep seniors in the workforce?
    Mr. Walsh. Yes, I think that one of the things we have to 
do, and I don't have all the Federal rules and regulations, but 
we have to look and see how do we create opportunities for 
seniors to be able to do programs that can get benefits. So, 
for example, in Boston, we have a program in the city of Boston 
where seniors can do volunteering and we give them some credit 
on their taxes. It doesn't impact their retirement. It doesn't 
impact their Social Security. They have small hours they can 
work. We should be looking at those opportunities. How can we 
enhance opportunities for seniors to make some money, even 
seniors that might be getting a very modest retirement or a 
very modest Social Security check?
    Because one of the problems I see every day is that seniors 
have to make decisions whether to eat or pay prescription 
drugs. That is a real thing. That is not just something that 
the elected officials say. That is a real thing. I have seen it 
up front and personal in the city of Boston. So I would love to 
be, as the Department of Labor, workforce development, work 
with all of you to be creative on what we can do to allow 
opportunities for our seniors so that seniors that are sitting 
in their home, maybe watching this today, that are struggling, 
that aren't always talked about, we need to do more than talk 
about it. We need to take action.
    Senator Hickenlooper. Well, thank you. We agree and I look 
forward to working with you on that. I think we are out of 
time. But I will look forward to, in future time, to discuss a 
partnership like Senator Tuberville mentioned, but also those 
apprenticeships to start high school really are not just with 
trade, but with every kind of job and profession. But that is a 
future discussion.
    Mr. Walsh. Thank you, Senator.
    The Chair. Thank you very much, Senator Hickenlooper. That 
does complete our first round of questions. So, Senator Burr, I 
will turn to you for any additional questions or comments 
before I do my final.
    Senator Burr. Thank you, Madam Chair. I have just got a 
little housekeeping to do. Mayor, thank you for being here 
today. Thank you for either answering or attempting to answer 
or promising to get back with Members on all their questions. I 
am sure when you leave here today, you are going to think, is 
it too late for me to back out. And to answer the question, it 
is too late. You are too far.
    I am going to ask you six questions. The answer to each of 
them is yes, oversight is important function of Congress, and 
hopefully that can be done in a bipartisan way. But if not, I 
intend to exercise my oversight authority as Ranking Member of 
this Committee, just as Senator Murray did, as Ranking Member. 
Question one, would you commit to providing me and my staff 
with the information that I or other minority Members of the 
Committee request of the Department of Labor within the 
requested timeframe?
    Mr. Walsh. Yes.
    Senator Burr. Do you commit to providing me and my staff 
with the documents I or other minority Members of the Committee 
request from the Department of Labor within the timeline?
    Mr. Walsh. Yes.
    Senator Burr. Do you commit to providing me and my staff or 
other minority Members of the Committee with briefings requests 
from you and your staff within the requested timeline?
    Mr. Walsh. Yes.
    Senator Burr. Do you commit to providing the Department of 
Labor Inspector General and the General Accounting Office with 
any information, briefings, and documents they might request?
    Mr. Walsh. Yes.
    Senator Burr. Do you commit to testifying when called 
before a Congressional Committee?
    Mr. Walsh. Absolutely. Any time.
    Senator Burr. Mayor, thank you for being here. I look 
forward to the Madam Chair expediting your confirmation and 
look forward to supporting you.
    Mr. Walsh. Thank you.
    Senator Burr. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    The Chair. Thank you very much, Senator. And I have a 
couple of additional questions and comments. Mayor, thank you 
again for all your willingness to be here today. Since the 
beginning of the pandemic, we have seen at staggering levels of 
unemployment, including 22 million jobs lost at the height of 
the pandemic. While some jobs have returned, there are still 9 
million fewer individuals working today than there was a year 
ago. And those individuals are disproportionately workers of 
color, immigrants, and workers with a high school diploma or 
less. President Biden has pledged significant investments to 
restart the economy and create quality jobs for individuals who 
are still experiencing the unemployment and underemployment due 
the pandemic.
    As we make investments in our key sectors, we have to also 
invest in workforce training programs that lead to quality 
credentials, and we need to eliminate barriers to make sure 
anyone who needs training opportunities to get them. So Mayor 
Walsh, with respect to job training and apprenticeships, what 
would be your priorities at the Department of Labor to support 
an inclusive recovery so all types of workers experiencing 
unemployment or underemployment have pathways to quality jobs?
    Mr. Walsh. Thank you, Senator, Madam Chair. That question 
obviously, came up a few times today. I think it is really 
important that we begin to continue to invest in recovery in 
this country. President Biden's, his plan of building back 
better is going to take significant investments on the 
workforce development side of it. Many of those jobs that the 
American people had previous to COVID might not be coming back 
and we know that. We also have to look at how do we train older 
American workers that might have been out of the workforce for 
a while, but due to COVID have to come into the workforce or 
working in an industry that is growing. So that needs to be a 
priority of the Department as soon as, if confirmed, they get 
there. And I know they are working on it now, but really put a 
stronger emphasis on it now when I get there.
    The Chair. Okay. Thank you. And I am also really deeply 
worried about the multi-employer pension crisis in this 
country. Nearly 1.5 million people rely on about 120 
multiemployer pension plans that are in dire financial straits 
and expected to go bankrupt very soon. On top of that, the 
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, which provides extra 
security for retirees when plans go bankrupt, is also projected 
to become insolvent by 2026.
    If the PBGC fails, it will throw the financial security of 
millions of workers and retirees into jeopardy. If those funds 
fail, not only will millions of Americans face economic 
devastation, but it will also be catastrophic for the thousands 
of employers, particularly small businesses, who are trying to 
do right by their workers. So this is an urgent crisis that 
really needs a swift resolution. Mayor Walsh, I just wanted to 
ask you, will you commit to working with me to address that 
critical issue?
    Mr. Walsh. Senator, I absolutely do commit to work with 
you. And this is one of the largest crises of the moment. And I 
feel that it is our obligation as a Government to protect 
workers and protect their futures. And by protecting their 
futures, meaning--means protecting their pensions, their hard 
earned dollars earned that they have worked for to get at the 
end of their work career.
    The Chair. Thank you. And now, before we wrap up, I just 
wanted to take this opportunity to talk about another 
especially important issue, one that Mayor Walsh is very 
familiar with, organizing collective bargaining and the 
benefits of unionization. Union workers build the American 
middle class. Joining a union empowers workers to bargain for 
fair wages, better benefits and safe working conditions, all of 
which are workplace issues of critical importance during this 
COVID-19 pandemic.
    Moreover, a union means workers are treated with the 
respect and dignity that they are often denied. For decades, 
unions have been under attack by corporate special interests, 
which put margins over people, profit margins over people, and 
the law that was meant to protect workers' rights, democracy, 
and workplace, the National Labor Relations Act is in desperate 
need of revision. The Protecting the Right to Organize Act, 
called the PRO Act, would ensure workers' fundamental rights 
are respected.
    The PRO Act provides for fair union election procedures, 
meaningful remedies when employers break the law, and other 
updates to bring the NLRA into the 21st century. This law is 
critical for every worker, but especially for women and workers 
of color who disproportionately have jobs with lower wages and 
fewer, if any, benefits. Passing the PRO Act is not just a 
labor issue, it is an equity issue.
    Mayor Walsh, I know from your own experience, you truly 
know the full value of collective bargaining and what is meant 
to work or to have a union by his or her side. And I look 
forward to working with you in the Biden administration as true 
partners in protecting the right to organize.
    Mr. Walsh. Thank you, Madam Chair Murray. I look forward to 
work with you on that as well, and Members of this Committee, 
and the entire House and Senate.
    The Chair. Thank you. Thank you very much. We will end our 
hearing for today, and I appreciate the participation of the 
Members of this Committee. Mayor Walsh, thank you for answering 
all of our questions and sharing your experience and your 
insights with us. I look forward to working with you as we 
tackle the immense challenges facing our workers, our retirees, 
and our families across the country.
    For any Senators who wish to ask additional questions of 
the nominee, questions for the record will be due by Friday, 
February 5th, at 5 p.m. The hearing record will remain open for 
10 days for Members who wish to submit additional materials for 
the record. It is my intention to schedule a vote in Committee 
on Mayor Walsh's nomination as quickly as possible so we can 
move his nomination forward and he can begin the important work 
of leading the Department of Labor. This meeting is now 
adjourned.

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    [Whereupon, at 12:28 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]

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