so tricia smith has bipartisan.m president, as chair of the subcommittee on employment and work place safety, i know the challenges that america's workers are facing today and i know that they deserve a solicitor of labor, like tricia, who's going to fight every single day to protect them. when she is confirmed as the department's top legal counsel, she's going to have the profound responsibility of enforcing more than 180 federal laws and managing more than 450 attorneys nationwide. she's going to be responsible for defending the department in litigation as well as providing legal advice and guidance on nearly every policy, legislative, regulatory, and enforcement initiative of the department. but, most importantly, she's going to be responsible for defending the rights of workers when they're not able to speak for themselves. madam president, tricia has a big job ahead of her. but we need to act now to allow her to get started. we really owe it to our country's workers to have a confirmed solicitor of labor in pla

they too urged speedy confirmation saying that tricia has -- quote -- "consistently demonstrated thehighest integrity an commitment to ethical standards. he is experienced, intelligent, thoughtful, and energetic. we believe this is exactly what the u.s. department of labor needs in a solicitor. once confirmed, she will be among the best solicitors of labor the department has known." and, mr. president, her support transcends party lines. former new york attorney general, republican, had this to say about his fommer employee, patricia smith has proven herself as one of the foremost experts in labor law, which is why president obama saw fit to nominate her. she was an asset to the new york attorney general's office and i'm confident she will be an asset don't of labor." so, mr. president, i'm here as the chair of the subcommittee on employment and work place safety. know the challenges america's workers are facing right now that's why they deserve a solicitor of labor like tricia smith who will fight every day to protect them. if she's confirmed as the department's top legal counsel, s

well, quite frankly, the e-mails that were just shown here by my colleague were not e-mails from tricia smith. they were e-mails from terry gerstein. and quite frankly, to expand it to include occupational safety and health training, was an e-mail to terry gerstein from joel shustow. much was made of this -- i'm going to respond two ways. much of made of this to expanding it to occupational and safe health training. my response was yes. shouldn't people know not only what their rights are, but what their wages are, but shouldn't they have a right to know whether something is unsafe whr-rbgs their health -- whether their health is being in danger? it seems to me this also has to get out there, to know what their rights are to protect their health and their safety. i don't have any problem with that, that they should have that kind of training also. and also to be on the lookout for that. sure, if they're working in hazardous conditions and hazardous materials that being the affect their lives and their livelihood and their future health, somebody ought to know about it. someone should kn

tricia on the democrats' line.e opinion on what is going on in government. i'm wondering if those people have watched the c-span coverage of the subcommittees and the committees that go in in the senate. the filibusters have brought the congress to a halt. i can't understand why people do not watch more of that and see what has happened. the other thing i wanted to talk about with the democratic problems right now it in the elections is, i feel the democrats have lost the ability to keep the public with them when they took the public auction of -- public option out of health reform. people did not believe there would be a change in washington and i think we lost a lot of those independent people. host: i want to show you a live picture from the house energy and commerce subcommittee -- and right now they are questioning brian roberts, chairman and ceo of comcast and jeffrey zucker, chairman and ceo of nbc on the proposed merger. we have live cartridge of that right now on c-span3 and on our website c-span.org. you