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Elaine Chao

Elaine Lan Chao (born March 26, 1953) currently serves as the 24th United States Secretary of Labor in the Cabinet of President George W. Bush. She is the first Chinese American, and the first Asian-American woman to be appointed to a President's cabinet in American history. Chao is the President's only original cabinet member, making her the longest serving cabinet member during President Bush's administration. She is married to U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), the current U.S. Senate Minority Leader.

Childhood and education

Chao was born in Taipei, Taiwan, to James S. C. Chao (趙錫成 Zhào Xīchéng), a Shanghainese entrepreneur, and Ruth Mu-lan Chu (朱木蘭 Zhū Mùlán), a historian. Her parents had fled to Taiwan from mainland China after the Chinese Communists took over as a result of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. At the age of eight, Elaine Chao and her family immigrated to the United States, where her father had already settled a few years earlier. She attended Syosset High School on Long Island, New York.

Chao received her B.A. in Economics from Mount Holyoke College in 1975 and her MBA from the Harvard Business School in 1979. Chao also studied at MIT, Dartmouth College, and Columbia University. She is the recipient of 31 honorary doctoral degrees from colleges and universities around the world.

Career

George H.W. Bush Administration

In 1986, Chao returned to Washington D.C. as Deputy Administrator of the Maritime Administration in the US Department of Transportation. From 1988 to 1989, she served as Chairwoman of the Federal Maritime Commission.

In 1989, President George H. W. Bush nominated Chao to be Deputy Secretary of Transportation, the number two position in the department. From 1991 to 1992, Chao was Director of the Peace Corps. She was the first Asian American to serve in all these positions. She expanded the Peace Corps's presence in Eastern Europe and Central Asia by establishing the first Peace Corps programs in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, and other newly independent states of the former Soviet Union.

United Way and Heritage Foundation

Following her service in the government, Chao worked for four years as President and Chief Executive Officer of United Way of America. She is credited with returning credibility and public trust back to the organization after an embarrassing financial mismanagement scandal involving former United Way of America president Bill Aramony. From 1996 until her appointment as Secretary of Labor, Chao was a Distinguished Fellow with the conservative Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank.

Labor Secretary

During Secretary Chao's tenure, the Department of Labor updated the white collar overtime regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which has been on the agenda of every Administration since 1977. For the first time in history, overtime protection is now explicitly guaranteed for blue collar workers, police, firefighters, EMT's, factory workers, construction workers and hourly workers. The most significant regulatory tort reform of President Bush's first term, the new regulations provided millions of workers with strengthened overtime protection. In 2003, the Department achieved the first major update of union financial disclosure regulations in more than 40 years, giving rank and file members enhanced information on how their dues are spent. The Department has set new worker protection enforcement records, including recovering record back wages for vulnerable low wage immigrant workers. The Department has also launched comprehensive reform of the nation's publicly funded worker training programs. In 2006 and 2007, the Department successfully implemented the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2006 (MINER Act). On August 17, 2006, President Bush signed the Pension Protection Act, which protects the 44 million workers whose retirement security rests upon private sector defined benefit pension plans.

After Donald Rumsfeld had stepped down from his position as Secretary of Defense in November 2006, she became the only original Cabinet member still serving in the Bush Administration in the same position to which she was appointed.

Timeline

1983: White House Fellow, Office of Policy Development, the White House
1986: Deputy Administrator, Maritime Administration, US Department of Transportation
1988–89: Chairwoman, Federal Maritime Commission
1989: Deputy Secretary of Transportation
1991–92: Director, Peace Corps
1992–96: President and Chief Executive Officer, United Way of America
1996: Distinguished Fellow, Heritage Foundation
2001–Present: U.S. Secretary of Labor

Family

Elaine Chao is married to Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican Leader of the United States Senate. She is the eldest of six daughters in her family.