Thursday, the Obama Administration announced that it will rescind rules requiring the disclosure of financial information for Big Labor slush funds and front groups. And, the Obama Administration is giving you only 11 (eleven) days to comment!
At least they are consistent! Just as they did for union conflict-of-interest disclosure reporting that SEIU’s Andy Stern may be ignoring and just as it rescinded union-boss perk disclosures, the Obama Administration continues to rollback union financial disclosures.
It is not surprising that Obama’s Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis would rescind these financial disclosure rules since she is the former treasurer of the Big Labor funded American Rights at Work (ARAW) lobbying and political group. These disclosures would reveal much about the group’s expenditures on behalf Big Labor’s agenda; the very types of expenditures Solis would have signed-off on as ARAW Treasurer.
Union officials have fought these financial disclosures since 2003. One of the AFL-CIO lawyers involved in opposing these disclosure requirements was Deborah Greenfield. Now, Greenfield is the Obama Administration’s Acting Deputy Solicitor of Labor and Director of the Office of the Secretariat. As Deputy Solicitor, Greenfield oversees these regulations.
This looks like the same old Washington insider influence that Presidential Candidate Obama, President-Elect Obama, and President Obama promised that he would not allow.
But, there is more. Not only are Solis and lawyer Greenfield potentially violating President Obama’s declared prohibition against conflicts-of-interest, there are many more union insiders at the Department. The Senior Advisor to Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Mary Beth Maxwell, greatly benefits from this rescission because she was the Executive Director of ARAW. ARAW’s financial activities while Maxwell was in charge are currently due to be disclosed. However, in eleven days these ARAW financial disclosures will be lost forever.
If you want to take action, you have eleven days to make your comments and to demand that the DOL stop this nonsense.
To comment on these regulations at the official site, click here, your comments should be identified by RIN 1215-AB75 (Document ID LMSO-2009-0004-0001). Click Submit Comment next to the pencil and paper image.
ACT NOW, if you want to be heard. And, please feel free to comment on BigGovernment.com comments section below and share with us your actions.
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