The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“Nomination of Martin Joseph Walsh (Executive Session)” mentioning Susan M. Collins was published in the Senate section on pages S1665-S1666 on March 22.
Of the 100 senators in 117th Congress, 24 percent were women, and 76 percent were men, according to the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Senators' salaries are historically higher than the median US income.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
Nomination of Martin Joseph Walsh
Mr. BROWN. Madam President, this pandemic has made it clearer than ever: It is not corporations that drive our economy; it is American workers.
With Marty Walsh, for whom we will vote in a moment on confirmation for the Department of Labor, workers will finally have someone on their side, as the Department that is supposed to look out for them. The Department of Labor is supposed to be the voice for workers in our government. It is their job to make sure workers' rights are protected, that people are safe on the job, that everyone can organize a union and get the overtime pay they have earned.
For 4 years, we have had a Department of Labor full of corporate lawyers. In fact, the Secretary of Labor was a corporate lawyer who made millions of dollars in court attacking labor unions and getting very well paid for it. That Department was full of people who made their careers fighting for corporate boards and CEOs, trying to squeeze every last penny out of workers and skirting labor laws.
And we saw the results. The DOL stopped fighting to raise the overtime pay threshold. In my State, tens of thousands of workers and, nationally, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of workers failed to get a raise as a result.
A year into the pandemic, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA, still has not issued an emergency temporary standard to protect workers from coronavirus. When 1,300 workers last year got sick at a Smithfield meatpacking plant, they fined the company a pathetic $10 per worker.
With Marty Walsh, that corporate infiltration of the Department of Labor ends now. Mayor Walsh will put the focus back where it should be: fighting for the people who make this country work.
We know that for far too many Americans, hard work doesn't pay off. They have seen corporate profits go up. They have seen executive compensation skyrocket. They have become more productive in the workplace, and yet their wages are flat.
Hard work has never paid off for many Americans like it should. That is why voters sent a clear message in last year's election: They are tired of corporations running our economy.
Corporations have had their chance. They failed. If corporations won't deliver for their workers and create an economy where everyone's hard work pays off, with a middle class that is growing instead of shrinking, then we have to step in and fight for workers.
That is what Marty Walsh will do as the Secretary of Labor. He can work with OSHA to finally issue the emergency temporary standard, forcing corporations to take critical steps to protect their workers on the job. He can crack down on corporations that use subcontracting and independent contractors and other tricks to pay workers less and to deny them benefits.
He can get to work on a new overtime rule so that hundreds of thousands more workers will finally get the overtime pay that they have earned. He can defend workers' rights to organize to give them power in their workplace and crack down on corporate union busting.
And, as we know, Marty Walsh has the deep experience in the labor movement to get this done. Too many people in this town don't understand what it is like not to have a voice on the job, to have no power over your schedule, to work hard at a job that doesn't even pay the bills. They don't understand collective bargaining and the power that a union card gives you over your career and your finances and your future.
Marty Walsh does understand that. At the age of 21, he joined the Laborers' Union Local 223 in Massachusetts. He knows what a union means to workers. He knows what workers are up against when they organize.
Like President Biden, he is not afraid to talk about the labor movement, and he doesn't recoil from using the word ``union.'' He is not afraid to take on corporations that exploit their workers.
We already see that change in action. President Biden and Vice President Harris have joined Senator Booker and me and so many of us in standing in solidarity with Amazon workers organizing in Alabama.
Ultimately, it comes back to the dignity of work, the idea that hard work should pay off for everyone, no matter who you are, where you live, or what kind of work you do. Mayor Walsh understands that when work has dignity, people have power over their lives and their schedules--and they are paid a living wage. When work has dignity, everyone can afford healthcare and housing and childcare. They can save for retirement. They can take time off to care for their loved ones.
Mayor Walsh has lived those values. He successfully helped push his State to raise the minimum wage to $15. He cracked down on wage theft. He fought for paid family leave.
He knows how important it is for the people in the room making decisions to actually reflect the diverse workers who make our country successful. It is the job of the labor movement. It is the job of DOL to fight for all workers.
As we work to build back better with a big investment in American infrastructure, Mayor Walsh understands all of the opportunities for workers that come with that. He comes from the building trades. He understands that we can put hundreds of thousands of tradespeople to work building houses and schools and public transit, retrofitting homes and offices and schools. We have a tremendous opportunity to rebuild our economy with workers--not corporations but with workers--at the center.
If you love this country, you fight for the people who make it work. As Secretary of Labor, that is what Marty Walsh will do. I urge my colleagues to support him.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
(The remarks of Ms. Collins pertaining to the introduction of S. 883 and S. 885 are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.''
Ms. COLLINS. I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
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