Remarks Prepared for Delivery by
U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao
2004 Opportunity Conference Washington,
D.C. Tuesday, October 12, 2004
Good afternoon and thank you, Armando [Ojeda, President & CEO,
U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce].
Welcome to the 2004 Opportunity Conference! What a terrific
turnoutfor the second year in a row!
I want to thank Melanie Sabelhaus, Deputy Administrator of the U.S.
Small Business Administration, for the terrific support the SBA gives us every
year.
I also want to thank other members of President George W. Bush's
Administration for their participation: Brian Montgomery, Special Assistant to
the President and Cabinet Secretary; Eddy Badrina, Executive Director of the
White House Initiative on Asian American and Pacific Islanders; Karl Reichelt,
Chief Acquisitions Officer of the U.S. General Services Administration; Sam
Mok, Chief Financial Officer of the U.S. Department of Labor, and Shinae Chun,
Director of the Women's Bureau.
And of course special acknowledgements go to our 14 Hispanic and Asian
Pacific American partner organizations as well, including those led by
Susan Au Allen, J.R. Gonzales and Karen Kerrigan. And I want to thank
our special guests who traveled here to participateIllinois State Treasurer
Judy Baar Topinka, Diamond Bar, California City Councilman Wen Chang and
Maryland Secretary of Labor James Fielder. We are so glad to have you
here.
And many thanks to Anna Hui and Karen Czarnecki and their teams for
making all the arrangements for this great event.
And I want to thank you 1,140 strong
from 39 states and territoriesfor traveling from as far away as American
Samoa to invest in yourself and your community at the second annual Opportunity
Conference.
We have a great program for you today. Whether you're a small business
owner, a new entrepreneur or a faith-based and
community organization leader, we want you to leave here today with
new knowledge, new
contacts, new opportunities and new tools to grow and succeed.
All of you are key players in your community because you contribute to
economic development at the grassroots level. The goal of this conference is to
help youand also to help the government, by understanding your needs and
how federal government agencies can serve you better.
The Asian Pacific and Hispanic communities are at the forefront of
entrepreneurship in our country, opening up record numbers of small and
medium-sized businesses. And faith-based and community groups have an important
role to play in economic development by providing critical support services
through housing, job training and other services to workers.
As President George W. Bush has said many times before, small businesses
are the engine of economic growth, creating two out of every three new jobs. So
not only are you building a better future for your family and your community,
but your hard work is strengthening the economic security of our nation.
The two Opportunity Conferences sponsored by this Administration are the
only ones devoted exclusively to strengthening the
economic development of the Asian Pacific and Hispanic American communities.
These are two of the fastest growing population groups in the 21st century
workforce.
That's why the menu of workshops is so inclusive. You'll find panels on
accessing capital, financial literacy, marketing and partnering with
faith-based and community organizations.
There are panels to help you with key workforce issues, including
complying with our nation's labor laws. And there are workshops on accessing
federal grants and the federal procurement process. These are very important
opportunities.
Each year, the federal government purchases billions of dollars of goods
and services from the private sector. Learning how to access these
opportunities is important not only to you, but to the federal government.
This Administration values diversity and the skill sets that the
Hispanic and Asian Pacific communities bring to the table. The President and I
understand that as our country becomes more diverse, it is crucial for the
federal government to be able to serve the unique needs of all communities.
I know that for those of you who are relative newcomersand
entrepreneurs starting out in this countryit's tough to know what
information, services and programs are available. This conference will help
point you in the right direction. That's why I initiated the Opportunity
Conferenceto help fulfill the President's vision of a society that
respects and reflects our nation's diversity.
The ability to network and gain new knowledge is so important for
newcomers. I remember how difficult it was for my family and me, when we first
came to America, to understand how things are done and where to go for help.
It's difficult to learn how to work within mainstream American culture, to
speak a new language and to master a new way of doing things. I know for many,
the challenge is to maintain our individual heritage for ourselves and our
families as we participate fully in mainstream America.
The workplace today is becoming much more diverse. It is common to find
workers from many different cultures in the same workplace. That means
communication skills are more important than ever before. Whether you are
trying to sell a product, a service or an ideaor supervising
othersyou will be more successful if you can communicate effectively.
Effective communication is the key to articulating your goals and motivating
others.
You will find that teamwork is another key building block in creating a
successful business or organization. So today I want you to think of this
Administration, under President George W. Bush, as part of your
team.
I am very proud to work for a President and an Administration that has
done so much to reach out to our communitiesboth in terms of appointments
and programs. President George W. Bush has appointed more Hispanic and
Asian Pacific Americans to top positions in the federal government than any
other President in United States' history.
Let me name just a few. Some of the President's top Hispanic appointees
include former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Mel Martinez; Alberto
Gonzalez, Counsel to the President; Hector Barreto, Administrator of the Small
Business Administration; Gaddi Vazquez, Director of the Peace Corps; Richard
Carmona, U.S. Surgeon General; Cari Dominguez, Chair of the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission; Fred Juarbe, Assistant Secretary for Veterans Training
and Employment; and Eduardo Aguirre, Director of the Bureau of Citizenship and
Immigration Services.
President Bush has tapped the Asian American community for top positions
in his Administration, as well. This includes for the first time
ever two cabinet members.
Over 220 APA appointees have been named to the highest levels of our
Government. They include: Sichan Siv, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Economic
and Social Council; David Chu, Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and
Readiness; Dr. Margaret Chu, Director, U.S. Department of Energy; Phyllis
Fong, Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Agriculture; Michael Liu,
Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Public and Indian
Housing; Joseph Jen, Undersecretary of Agriculture; Karan Bhatia, Assistant
Secretary of Transportation for Aviation and International Affairs; Chiling
Tong, Associate Director for Minority Business Development, U.S. Department
of Commerce; Marina Tse, Principal Associate Deputy Under Secretary, U.S.
Department of Education; Ed Moy, Deputy Director of Presidential Personnel;
and Susan Ralston, Executive Assistant to the Senior Advisor to the President.
Also with us today are Gopal Khanna, Chief Information Officer of the U.S.
Peace Corps; Dr. Paul Jhin, Director of the Office of Planning, Policy and
Analysis of the U.S. Peace Corps, and several members of the President's
Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders: Betty Wu, William
Afeaki, Vellie Dietrich-Hall, Jimmy Lee, Rudy Pamintuan, Ken Wong, Nina Collier,
Joe Mellokaran and Derrick Nguyen.
And I am proud of the fact that the U S. Department of Labor has the
largest number of Asian Pacific American appointees in the federal government.
At the Labor Department, we are doing our part to reach out to the
Hispanic and Asian Pacific American communities. This Administration's goal is
to protect Asian Pacific and Hispanic American workers and to help faith-based
and community organizations and entrepreneurs thrive and succeed.
So the Labor Department is translating its publications and Web sites on
health, safety and fair compensation into multiple languages. And the
Department is aggressively enforcing worker safety and fair compensation laws
to ensure that vulnerable immigrants are protected on the job and are fully
compensated for their work.
For the Hispanic community, this year the U.S. Labor Department
sponsored the first-ever Hispanic Safety and Health Summit. The Department
signed a worker protection agreement with the Mexican government to improve
workplace protections for Mexican workers in the United States. And the
Department launched a special initiative to help Hispanic workers develop
greater English proficiency and workplace skills so they can move up
the economic ladder and access new opportunities in high growth fields.
As a result of these and other initiatives, there has been a historic
decline in workplace fatalities and fatality rates for Hispanic workers. In
2002, workplace fatalities among Hispanic workers declined
for the first time in seven years. This shows that the
Department's aggressive enforcement programs and policies are working.
For the Asian Pacific American community, the Department has formed
partnerships with Asian Pacific American organizations all across the country
to educate Asian Pacific Americans about their workplace rights and to
encourage workers to report violations. The partnership with Asian Pacific
American community groups in Houston, Texas, for example, has helped the Labor
Department collect more than $187,000 in wages for 248 employees.
The Department is also aggressively enforcing wage and hour laws in the
garment manufacturing, health care and hospitality industries where many
vulnerable immigrants are employed. Last year, the Labor Department recovered
more than $212 million in back wages for workers. And the Department obtained
more than $1.2 million in unpaid wages for several hundred Asian garment
workers in Northern California.
And to keep track of the big-picture employment trends in the Asian
Pacific American communities, the U.S. Department of Labor's monthly
unemployment report now includes, for the first time in history, specific
data on Asian Pacific and Hispanic Americans.
In addition to this conference, the Department has also launched many
programs to help entrepreneurs in your communities. Project
G.A.T.E.Growing America Through Entrepreneurshipis one of them. It
promotes small business development, especially in historical underserved Asian
Pacific and Hispanic American populations.
You can learn more about thisand other programs for your
communitiesby visiting the DOL booth in the exhibit hall. We are also
distributing a copy of the Labor Beacon a publication of hope
and opportunity outlining many recent initiatives for your communitiesto
everyone at this conference.
Many in our communities are unaware of these and other resources to help
them. So that's why this conference is so importantto support
entrepreneurs like you and others who are the foundation of our free enterprise
and job creation system.
As we try to play a greater role in mainstream America, I hope you will
know that you are contributing to the diversity that makes our country the
strongest economic system in the world.
America is the land of opportunity. I hope you believe that with all
your heart. If you have a plan, have the courage of your convictions, and
never give up, you will
succeed. Maybe not in the way you originally planned, but you will
succeed. We want to help you make that happen. We hope this
conferenceand the resources it offers will help you and your family
realize your dreams.
So please enjoy this conference. The whole purpose of this Conference is
to serve you. God bless you. God bless America.
Thank you.
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