BUSH ADMINISTRATION PLANS TO CLOSE ALL REGIONAL OFFICES OF THE WOMEN'S BUREAU AT LABOR DEPARTMENT
As part of our Agency Watch efforts, the National Partnership for Women & Families has learned that the Department of Labor's 2003 budget - currently being finalized - calls for the elimination of all the Regional Offices of the Women's Bureau. This follows on the heels of the elimination of the White House office for Women's Initiatives and Outreach, and the elimination of the Equal Pay Matters Initiative. Taken together, these actions constitute a real threat to the well being of working women throughout the country.
The mission of the Women's Bureau remains - as it has through all Republican and Democratic administrations since 1920 - to promote the welfare of wage-earning women, improve their working conditions, increase their efficiency, and advance their opportunities for profitable employment. The ten Regional Offices play an invaluable role in ensuring that this mission is carried out effectively at the local level. These offices provide critical services, including educating women about their legal protections against workplace abuse, providing specialized information about training programs and workplace supports to help low-income and low-skilled women, and assisting women who need language or computer assistance. These offices also play a central role in meeting the Department's own goal of helping women become self-sufficient through increasing access to non-traditional occupations.
These offices give the Department important information about the policies and issues that should be addressed locally to increase women's full participation in the workforce. It is clear that the elimination of these offices would end programs that are vital and necessary.
Please act immediately to register your opposition to this pending decision. Before the budget is finalized, call Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao at (202) 693-6000 or write: Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20210 with a CC to the Women's Bureau and tell her you oppose the elimination of these offices.
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