Hi All
I am asking you to consider contacting key legislators to urge your support of important policy provisions contained within the draft bill funding the Labor Department for the next fiscal year.
Your Help Needed:
While we are pleased that these priorities, described below, have been included within the bill, this is just the first step toward enacting any of them. For such a provision to be adopted, ultimately both the House and Senate will need to approve them in legislation that is sent to the President. Obviously, this will be an uphill battle and, while not impossible, the window of opportunity is now small. The likelihood of any of these provisions making it into final legislation will be strengthened if the Subcommittee meets and approves the draft legislation. Consequently, we encourage you to communicate your support for these provisions to all Members of Congress, but in particular to the Republicans on the House Labor-HHS Appropriation Subcommittee.
Those members are:
Rep. Denny Rehberg (MT), Chairman (note that as Chairman, Rep. Rehberg is largely responsible for the draft bill, so communications with him should be more along the lines of thanking him for his leadership) Rep. Jerry Lewis (CA-41) Rep. Rodney Alexander (LA-05) Rep. Jack Kingston (GA-01) Rep. Kay Granger (TX-12) Rep. Mike Simpson (ID-02) Rep. Jeff Flake (AZ-06) Rep. Cynthia Lummis (WY)
Background:
Enacting any legislative initiatives to rein-in overactive government agencies, such as the Labor Department and National Labor Relations Board, will be exceedingly difficult given the political makeup of both the House and Senate. Nevertheless, there are small windows of opportunity to achieve these kinds of legislative victories. The appropriations process funding the government for the next fiscal year presents one such opportunity. For example, during the Clinton Administration, Congress was successful in enacting funding limitations on rulemakings, such as one before the NLRB dealing with presumptively valid bargaining units and, for a time, limiting the Labor Department’s ability to move forward on ergonomics regulations.
Draft Legislation
Today, the House Appropriations Subcommittee responsible for legislation funding the Labor Department, NLRB, and various other agencies made public its draft bill. I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know about some important provisions included in this draft. These provisions include:
Department of Labor (pages 2-38):
Specific funding limitations include:
Section 111 – prohibits implementing, administering, or enforcing the final regulations relating to the use of Project Labor Agreements for federal construction projects Section 112 - prohibits administering, implementing, or promoting DOL’s ‘‘Bridge to Justice’’ program that refers individuals with complaints relating to employment violations to private attorneys Section 113 - prohibits the development of or promulgation of the FLSA “Right to Know” regulation being developed by DOL Section 114 – prohibits the development of or promulgation of the DOL’s proposed “persuader” regulation Section 118 - prohibits the development of or promulgation of the DOL’s H-2B Wage Methodology regulation Section 119 – prohibits the development of or promulgation of the MSD column reporting regulation being developed by OSHA Section 120 - prohibits the development of or promulgation of the Injury and Illness Prevention Program (I2P2) regulation being developed by OSHA Section 123 – prohibiting funds used to initiate, administer, promulgate, or enforce any ‘‘significant regulatory action’’ unless DOL provides 30 days notice to House and Senate Appropriations committee
In addition, section 110 amends the Davis-Bacon provisions of the U.S. Code to require the Secretary of Labor to use Bureau of Labor Statistics surveys in establishing prevailing wages utilizing sound statistical sampling techniques.
The text of the bill may be accessed here:
http://appropriations.house.gov/UploadedFiles/FY_2012_Final_LHHSE.pdf
Tom Delaney
Director of Government Affairs
Professional Landcare Network