Melonie Trottman writes in today’s Wall St. Journal - “Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has spent her first few months in office focusing on handing out $46 billion in stimulus money. Now, her department is adding staff and signaling it will soon begin putting in practice the more assertive regulation of business she promised early in her tenure.

Ms. Solis has begun hiring 670 new investigators to enforce labor regulations.

There will be 150 investigators added in the Wage and Hour division to enforce wage rules and child-labor laws. Another 100 staff will be added to ensure contractors on stimulus projects are in compliance with applicable laws. The additions will boost the division’s staff by more than one-third…

The Obama administration is also naming more of the people who will hold senior posts in the Labor Department, few of whom have business backgrounds, a shift from most of former President Bush’s appointees.

M. Patricia Smith, the nominee to be the department’s top lawyer, is commissioner for New York State’s labor department, and is known as a tough regulator who has stepped up worker protection.”

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