ASSOCIATED PRESS • December 16, 2024
President Joe Biden on Monday established a national monument honoring the late FDR-era Labor Secretary Frances Perkins, the first woman to serve in a presidential Cabinet and a driving force behind Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs after the Great Depression. Perkins is “one of America’s greatest labor leaders, and that’s not hyperbole,” Biden said. Perkins “cemented the idea” that “if you're working a full-time job, you shouldn't have to live in poverty,” Biden said. The outgoing Democratic president signed the proclamation establishing the monument in Newcastle, Maine.