News
Democrats introduce labor bill
by Rebecca Rainey
05.02.19 House and Senate Democrats introduced sweeping legislation today to strengthen collective bargaining rights and increase penalties to employers when they violate labor laws. The "Protecting the Right to Organize Act," introduced with 140 House and Senate co-sponsors, would permit the NLRB to level monetary fines against employers that terminate a worker wrongfully or that, in violating the National Labor Relations Act, cause a worker to suffer economic harm. Under current law, the NLRB may orde… Continue Reading
Labor Secretary Skirts Trone’s Question About Ideal Minimum Wage
by Allison Stevens
05.01.19 WASHINGTON - On International Workers' Day, Maryland Rep. David Trone asked Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta a question on the minds of many workers: What do you think the federal minimum wage should be? "Just give me a number, not a long diatribe," Trone told Acosta at a House Education and Labor Committee hearing. But he didn't get what he wanted. Acosta said the issue can't be boiled down to a single number. "I know you want a number, but it's not that simple, or it would already be adopt… Continue Reading
House education chairman blasts Trump administration over diversity, equity
by Nicole Gaudiano
04.30.19 House Education and Labor Committee Chairman Bobby Scott said Tuesday the Trump administration does not promote diversity and equity in education and cited a laundry list of policies that he said are moving the country in the wrong direction as school segregation worsens. Scott, (D-Va.), also called out a "conservative Supreme Court that is likely to strike down school diversity policies rather than approve them." Congress can't "sit on the sidelines" as the White House and courts "push us… Continue Reading
65 years after Supreme Court’s historic Brown v. Board of Education ruling: ‘We are right back where we started’
by Valerie Strauss
04.30.19 The historic Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education turns 65 years old May 17. The decision ordered the desegregation of public schools in the United States while declaring segregated schools "inherently unequal" and unconstitutional. What were the consequences? Researcher and scholar Richard Rothstein wrote this five years ago about the 1954 ruling, and it remains true today: The Brown decision annihilated the "separate but equal" rule, previously sanctioned by the Supreme Cou… Continue Reading
GAO: Inconsistent state policies may affect special education enrollment
by Nicole Gaudiano
04.24.19 Inconsistent state policies and trouble identifying and evaluating some children suspected of having disabilities may contribute to disparities in special education enrollment across states, a GAO report released Wednesday found. Percentages vary across states of those served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the federal law that requires states to ensure that all children with disabilities who need special education services are identified, located and evaluated. In the … Continue Reading
CBO: $15 minimum wage bill would cost employers $48 billion a year
by Ian Kullgren
04.24.19 Rep. Bobby Scott's $15 minimum wage bill would cost private businesses $48 billion a year, the Congressional Budget Office said this week. The CBO's analysis of the Raise the Wage Act, H.R. 582 (116), which would phase in a $15 minimum wage over five years and index it to inflation thereafter, also says that state and local governments would have to pay an additional $3 billion to workers each year. The analysis does not address the question of job losses, saying only that higher wages "… Continue Reading
Democrats close but still short votes needed to pass $15 minimum wage
by Lindsey McPherson
04.24.19 House Education and Labor Chairman Robert C. Scott, D-Va., is confident he can convince enough uncommitted Democrats to support his bill to incrementally increase the federal minimum wage to $15 over five years for it to pass the chamber. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo) Proponents of a $15 minimum wage are bullish about the prospects of the House passing a bill to incrementally double the current $7.25 federal standard over five years, despite Democrats seemingly being short the votes to d… Continue Reading
DeVos Mends Fences With State Chiefs, Faces Critics in Congress
by Andrew Ujifusa
04.16.19 Washington After weathering a political storm over the Trump administration's proposed budget at the end of March, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos continued her run of public appearances into April, and got widely varied reactions from state education leaders and from lawmakers on Capitol Hill on issues ranging from arming teachers to testing. In a discussion at a Council of Chief School Officers meeting, DeVos told states she'd look favorably on changes they might want to propose to t… Continue Reading
DeVos Defends School Choice as Democrats Demand Answers on Arming Teachers
by Andrew Ujifusa
04.10.19 Washington House Democrats who focus on education peppered U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos with questions about her vision for school choice, arming teachers, and federal education law during a lengthy, often confrontational hearing here Wednesday. Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., the committee chairman, set the tone when he highlighted the Education Department's core mission of ensuring equitable opportunities for all students. "Unfortunately under the president's fiscal 2020 budget, it would… Continue Reading
DeVos 'not familiar' with affirmative action guidance her agency scrapped
by Benjamin Wermund
04.10.19 Education Secretary Betsy DeVos told a House panel Wednesday that she is "not familiar" with affirmative action guidance for schools that the Trump administration rescinded last summer or with a major Supreme Court ruling on which portions of the guidance were based. The administration in July rescinded several guidance documents issued by the Education and Justice departments under the Obama administration that called on school superintendents and colleges to consider race when diversifying th… Continue Reading
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center agrees to discontinue using race during admissions
by Sophie Tatum and Tessa Weinberg
04.10.19 A top House Democrat on Wednesday grilled Education Secretary Betsy DeVos over whether the administration was doing enough to encourage black men to enroll in medical school. Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Virginia, asked DeVos what the administration was doing to increase the enrollment of black men in medical school, noting that there are fewer enrolled now than there were in 1978 DeVos, after being pressed, answered that she doesn't think the department has "an offensive measure" to do so, and said it… Continue Reading
DeVos returns to Capitol Hill to face House Democrats
by Kimberly Hefling
04.10.19 QUICK FIX - Democrats will get another chance to grill Education Secretary Betsy DeVos today when she returns to Capitol Hill to appear before the House Education and Labor Committee. - The Trump administration has indicated a new approach on the affirmative action front after it reached an agreement with Texas Tech University's medical school to end the practice. - The National Urban League is calling on Congress to hold hearings focused on equity-related issues under the Eve… Continue Reading
Scott warns ESSA's flexibility isn't 'a blank check'
by Nicole Gaudiano
04.09.19 Scott urged state leaders to "embrace greater transparency" in their current state plans on resource allocation and student outcomes. House education chairman Bobby Scott told K-12 education chiefs on Tuesday that many state plans under the Every Student Succeeds Act are "falling short," warning that the law's flexibility "is not a blank check." Scott (D-Va.), speaking at the Council of Chief State School Officers legislative conference in Washington, said he is concerned that many plans m… Continue Reading
Democrats to introduce anti-right-to-work bill
by Sean Higgins
04.08.19 Congressional Democrats are planning to introduce legislation that would invalidate all right-to-work laws, stripping employees in 27 states of the right to decide whether they wish to join or otherwise support a union. The legislation, dubbed the "Protecting the Right to Organize Act" includes several other changes that would benefit unions. A House Education and Labor Committee source confirmed that Democrats plan to unveil the bill in a matter of weeks. Right-to-work laws prohibit union-man… Continue Reading
Vets to Congress: Cut off for-profit colleges' incentive to recruit student veterans
by Kimberly Hefling
03.29.19 Veterans groups are cautiously optimistic that Congress is edging closer to changing a law they've long argued turns GI Bill recipients into "dollar signs in uniform" who are aggressively targeted by for-profit colleges. Their new outlook follows nearly a decade of lobbying to alter the so-called 90/10 rule, which says for-profit colleges can't get more than 90 percent of their revenue from federal student aid. It doesn't count veterans and military service education benefits like the GI Bill a… Continue Reading
A border 'breaking point'
by Rebecca Rainey
03.28.19 QUICK FIX - Border Patrol is on pace to arrest 520 percent more families at the border this month than it did this time last year. - The House passed legislation strengthening penalties for businesses that fail to pay women wages equal to those of their male counterparts. - The Communication Workers of America told lawmakers Wednesday that the Republican tax cuts hurt workers. GOOD MORNING! It's March 28 and this is Morning Shift, your daily tipsheet on labor and immigration … Continue Reading
House Approves Paycheck Fairness Act
by Lisa Nagele-Piazza
03.28.19 The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Paycheck Fairness Act (H.R. 7) in a 242-187 vote March 27. If the bill is ultimately signed into law, it would prohibit employers nationwide from asking job applicants about their salary history and require them to prove that pay disparities between men and women are job-related. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., reintroduced the bill in January. It has been reintroduced many times since 1997 but has failed to pass both chambers of Congress. Business group… Continue Reading
House approves bill to close gender pay gap
by Sarah Ferris
03.27.19 The House on Wednesday cleared a bill aimed at closing the gender pay gap, marking its first vote on the issue in nearly a decade and notching another political win for the Democratic Party. All 242 Democrats voted for the measure to tackle gender-based wage discrimination, which Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her top lieutenants had declared a top priority, with a record 102 women serving in their caucus. Seven Republicans backed the measure, including its sole Republican co-sponso… Continue Reading
Democrat Wants to End Tax Deductions for Some College Donations
by Melanie Waddell
03.18.19 The multimillion-dollar college admissions scam that has ensnared celebrities and financial executives is drawing the ire of lawmakers. Sen. Ron Wyden, R-Ore., ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, has announced that he plans to introduce legislation that would end the tax benefit for donations made to colleges and universities before or during the enrollment of children of the donor's family. "Headlines about the wealthiest Americans buying access to our elite colleges and universit… Continue Reading
Congressman Bobby Scott spearheads education, pay equity bills
by Stacy M. Brown
03.18.19 (NNPA Newswire) - The controversial blackface and sexual assault scandals that have rocked the Virginia leadership and the drama that regularly surrounds President Donald Trump simply act as distractions, said Democratic Virginia Rep. Bobby Scott. Those distractions lead the media and others to take their eyes off what's vital to everyday life, particularly for African Americans, said Scott, the chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor. The congressman highlighted two important b… Continue Reading