Labor’s Solis quits; Cabinet keeps 3 others

Holder, Sebelius, Shinseki stay; Lew likely at Treasury

— The reshuffling of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet gained speed Wednesday when Labor Secretary Hilda Solis announced her resignation, but White House officials said three others, including Attorney General Eric Holder, would remain in their jobs.

Obama hailed Solis, who presided over a period of high unemployment, as “a tireless champion for working families” during “the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.” In a statement Wednesday,the president said, “Her efforts have helped train workers for the jobs of the future, protect workers’ health and safety and put millions of Americans back to work.”

Solis had been the first, and only, Hispanic-American woman in a top Cabinet post. Her resignation, after the resignation of Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson and the withdrawal of Susan Rice from consideration for secretary of state, intensifies debate over whether there will be enough racial and gender diversity in Obama’s second-term Cabinet.

Obama has been restock-ing his Cabinet ahead of his inauguration Jan. 20, this week unveiling nominees to lead the Defense Department and CIA. Today he is expected to nominate White House Chief of Staff Jacob Lew to be treasury secretary. Earlier, he named Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., as his choice for secretary of state. All four nominees are white men.

White House aides said, however, that Holder, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki would remain in their current posts. People familiar with Holder’s thinking said he does not expect to stayin office for Obama’s entire second term, and perhaps for as little as a few months.

Obama relied heavily on support from women and minority groups in the election, and some supporters have voiced concerns about a lack of women in top Cabinet jobs. But White House press secretary Jay Carney defended the president’s hiring record Wednesday, saying that Obama believes that “diversity is important.”

“Women are well-represented here in the president’s senior staff,” Carney said. “These stories are in reaction to a couple of appointments.” He suggested waiting to see the “totality” of the president’s second-term Cabinet before rendering judgment on the diversity of his senior staff.

Solis has been widely expected to resign to run for office in Los Angeles, most likely for the powerful Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

She has defended the administration’s record on job creation despite a stubbornly high unemployment rate that now stands at 7.8 percent nationwide and is far higher for blacks and Hispanics.

Solis made the department more aggressive in ferreting out rule violations regarding the minimum wage, overtimeand other matters. Last year the Labor Department collected more back pay for wage violations than in any previous year, more than $280million on behalf of 300,000 workers.

She has also come under criticism from some coal mine safety experts for failing to shake up the department’s Mine Safety and Health Administration or implement effective new regulations in the wake of the Upper Big Branch coal mine explosion in West Virginia, which killed 29 workers.

“What regulatory scheme has grown out of Upper Big Branch that has changed mine safety?” said Davitt McAteer, a former Mine Safety and Health Administration director and author of a report on the disaster. “The answer is nothing.” While acknowledging potential obstacles to changes in other parts of the government, McAteer said, “You’ve got to be able to put a package together and push it through, but that hasn’t happened.”

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka issued a statement saying that Solis, who came from a blue-collar family, had “brought urgently needed change” to the Labor Department. He said that, under her, the department “talks tough and acts tough on enforcement, workplace safety, wage and hour violations and so many other vital services.”

In a Tweet on Wednesday, Solis said, “We’ve accomplished much over the last 4 years, but none of it would have been possible without our greatest asset: America’s workers.” THE SKILLS OF LEW

If confirmed by the Senate, Lew, 57, would be Obama’s second treasury secretary, replacing Timothy Geithner,the last remaining principal on Obama’s economic team, at the head of that team.

While Lew has much less experience than Geithner in international economics and financial markets, he would enter the job with far more expertise in fiscal policy and in dealing with Congress than Geithner had when he became secretary at the start of Obama’s term. That shift in skills reflects the changed demands of the times, as emphasis has shifted from the global recession and financial crisis of the president’s first years to the continuing budget fights with Republicans in Congress to stabilize the growth of federal debt.

Lew’s departure would create an important vacancy for whatwould be Obama’s fifth White House chief of staff, a turnover rate that is in contrast with the stability of Geithner at the Treasury Department. The leading candidate is said to be Denis McDonough, currently the deputy national security adviser in the White House.

HOLDER GONE SOON?

Sebelius, a former Kansas governor and insurance commissioner, had been widely expected to stay on to shepherd Obama’s health-care overhaul to its fulfillment. The big push to cover some 30 million uninsured Americans starts next year.

Holder, who served in the Justice Department during the Clinton administration, has faced a rocky tenure as attorney general, dealing with civil-rights and terrorism cases along with a botched probe of gun smuggling along the Southwest border.

He ordered a review of CIA interrogations during the George W. Bush era amid disclosures that agency interrogators once threatened to kill a Sept. 11 suspect’s children and suggested another would be forced to watchhis mother be sexually assaulted. The outcome of the exhaustive inquiry - it lasted three years and resulted in no criminal charges - prompted more criticism, this time from human-rights groups.

Shinseki has sought to manage a large agency closely watched by returning troops as the war in Iraq ends and another one winds down in Afghanistan. He has dealt with problems ranging from homeless veterans, rising troop suicides and veteran unemployment and growing mental-health care needs.

No replacement has been named for Jackson at the EPA, although several names are reportedly under consideration, including Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire and Jackson’s deputy, Bob Perciasepe.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu, meanwhile, is expected to leave sometime after the inauguration, while Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s plans are unknown. Contenders to replace Chu include former North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan, former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Gregoire.

The only current Republican in the Cabinet, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, has not indicated whether he will leave the administration.

HAGEL PREPARING

Obama’s pick for defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, is meeting with senior Pentagon staff members to try to set the record straight about his stand on Iran, saying he backs strong international sanctions against Tehran and believes that all options, including military action, should be on the table, defense officials said Wednesday.

In private meetings with top military and defense leaders and staff members this week, Hagel sought tocounter critics who say he is soft on Iran and would be the most antagonistic secretary toward Israel. Senior defense officials who have met with Hagel said he told them that his views on Iran have been misrepresented and that he has long backed international sanctions.

Hagel, a former Republican senator from Nebraska, has been given space on the Pentagon’s third floor and a small staff so he can begin preparing for what will likely be a contentious Capitol Hill hearing on his nomination.

CLINTON: OFF FAST TRACK

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton may have fueled speculation about her future political ambitions by saying she’s getting “off the very fast track for a little while.”

Clinton has said she plans to rest and then serve as an advocate for women and children. That hasn’t stopped some of her fellow Democrats as well as Republicans such as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich from predicting she may run for president in 2016.

Asked during an event Wednesday at the State Department about her approaching “retirement” as secretary of state, Clinton said, “I don’t know if that is a word I would use, but certainly stepping offthe very fast track for a little while.”

The event with departing U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Dan Rooney was Clinton’s first public appearance since she was sidelined by health problems last month.

Information for this article was contributed by Steven Mufson, David Nakamura, Sari Horwitz and Al Kamen of The Washington Post; by Ken Thomas, Sam Hananel, Matthew Daly, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Pete Yost and Lolita C. Baldor of The Associated Press; by Mark Landler, Steven Greenhouse, Jackie Calmes and Annie Lowrey of The New York Times; and by Terry Atlas of Bloomberg News.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 01/10/2013

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