Media Updates
WASHINGTON – Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), former chairman of the committee now known as Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today issued the following statement regarding the Department of Labor’s efforts to rescind a regulation used to help root out financial corruption in unions:
“It is extremely disappointing that the Obama administration is choosing a time of financial crisis to cut investigations into financial corruption solely because it may reside in their own political constituency. In a time when the president himself said we need more accountability and transparency in government, cancelling rules to help root out corruption is not the way to go.”
The Associated Press (http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/1010734.html) reported Tuesday that “[t]he Labor Department moved … to rescind a regulation approved during President George W. Bush's last days in office that would have increased scrutiny of union finances to help root out financial corruption. … The agency said it considered the comments of numerous labor organizations that claimed the new rule was overly burdensome … [this is] the latest in a series of pro-labor actions taken since President Barack Obama took office.”
Hatch concluded, “Americans want the administration to eliminate all fraud, not just that which is politically expedient. I urge the Department of Labor to use, instead of stow away, all the tools at its disposal to reduce financial corruption in unions.”
“It is extremely disappointing that the Obama administration is choosing a time of financial crisis to cut investigations into financial corruption solely because it may reside in their own political constituency. In a time when the president himself said we need more accountability and transparency in government, cancelling rules to help root out corruption is not the way to go.”
The Associated Press (http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/1010734.html) reported Tuesday that “[t]he Labor Department moved … to rescind a regulation approved during President George W. Bush's last days in office that would have increased scrutiny of union finances to help root out financial corruption. … The agency said it considered the comments of numerous labor organizations that claimed the new rule was overly burdensome … [this is] the latest in a series of pro-labor actions taken since President Barack Obama took office.”
Hatch concluded, “Americans want the administration to eliminate all fraud, not just that which is politically expedient. I urge the Department of Labor to use, instead of stow away, all the tools at its disposal to reduce financial corruption in unions.”
