Acting Secretary Su issues statement on President Biden’s designation of the Frances Perkins National Monument

WASHINGTON – President Biden, alongside Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su and Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, today announced the designation of the Frances Perkins National Monument in Newcastle, Maine, at the homestead of former Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins. Secretary Perkins was the first woman cabinet secretary and the longest serving Secretary of Labor.

Acting Secretary Su has issued the following statement:

“Honoring Frances Perkins with a national monument does more than acknowledge her work to establish Social Security, unemployment insurance, minimum wage and overtime pay, it is a challenge for us,” said Acting Secretary Julie Su. “We must all remember that the gains we enjoy today were not gifts, they were hard-fought victories because Frances Perkins dared to believe that workers should thrive and not just survive.”

The nation’s fourth Labor Secretary, Perkins was the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet and a lifelong champion for American workers. She was the central architect of the New Deal, a series of domestic programs, public work projects and financial reforms and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to address the Great Depression. Perkins’ efforts helped bring millions of Americans out of poverty and provided them with social service benefits. Hers is a legacy of lifelong labor advocacy and social reform. 

The Frances Perkins National Monument is her family homestead in Newcastle, Maine, owned continuously by the family for 270 years. The new National Monument will be managed by the National Park Service.