Both Parties Praise Labor Nominee at Senate Hearing : Cabinet: Lynn Martin is expected to win easy confirmation. The former U.S. representative says she will stress skills training.

Labor Secretary-designate Lynn Martin won bipartisan praise Wednesday at her Senate confirmation hearing, where she stressed that “skills training may be the most important task we undertake.”

Martin also said she would move to protect retirement pension plans and emphasize on-the-job safety. Although she voted against the civil rights bill as a Republican member of Congress last year, Martin has been in the forefront of many women’s issues. Wednesday, she expressed concern about the so-called glass ceiling that prevents women and minorities from reaching top management positions. She said she is “anxiously awaiting” a study of the problem by the department.

Skills training, she said, will rank highest on her list of priorities because it is crucial “to the future of our country and its work force.”

Martin gave few specifics about what she would do if confirmed and sidestepped questions about any disagreements with President Bush over policy, saying her advice as labor secretary is best given to the President privately.

But she said: “I could not serve a President who did not share the goals of opportunity and change.”

During the last session of Congress, Martin voted to override Bush’s veto of legislation increasing the minimum wage. The override failed, but Bush later signed a compromise bill. She also strongly supported the family leave bill that was vetoed successfully by the President.

Democrats and Republicans expressed strong support for her. Sen Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) praised her “intellect, energy and sensitivity,” and Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) told her that Congress “looks forward to working with you.”

“I think you are the first labor secretary nominee to vote to override a President,” said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of the Labor and Human Resources Committee.

Martin, who is expected to win easy Senate approval, was nominated by Bush in December to succeed Elizabeth Hanford Dole, who resigned to become president of the Red Cross.

Among those endorsing Martin was Democratic Sen. Paul Simon, who turned back Martin’s bid to unseat him in last year’s Illinois Senate race.

Describing her as “feisty” and “a team player,” Simon said: “Within the Administration where there are vacuums, she will move in (to fill them) and do an effective job.”

Martin promised the senators on the committee that she would actively offer information and assistance to the business community to help companies comply voluntarily with labor laws. “A good portion of Labor Department regulations mandate what management and labor can’t do,” but the department “must also be a can-do agency,” Martin said.

She avoided answering questions about whether unemployment compensation should be expanded beyond the 26-week limit.

“The department covers what the law says it will cover,” Martin told the committee, saying she would work with it on the problem “in the most expeditious way.”

No representatives of organized labor testified at Wednesday’s hearing, but on Tuesday AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland criticized Martin’s voting record on issues that he said were important to the nation’s workers, pointing to her vote against civil rights legislation.

Martin, a former schoolteacher, served in Congress for 10 years.

“If it were not for Paul Simon, I would not be here today,” Martin joked.

A longtime political ally of Bush, she supported his 1980 bid for the presidency and served as national co-chairman during his successful 1988 campaign.