News
House Democrats bringing new scrutiny to education secretary
by Collin Binkley
01.22.19 WASHINGTON (AP) - Wielding control of the House and a new set of investigative powers, Democrats are preparing to bring Education Secretary Betsy DeVos under the sharpest scrutiny she has seen since taking office. DeVos has emerged as a common target for Democrats as they take charge of the House and its committees, which carry the authority to issue subpoenas and call hearings. At least four panels are expected to challenge DeVos on her most polarizing policies, among them her overhaul of camp… Continue Reading
Bernie Sanders introduces bill to raise minimum wage by $15
by Andrew Emett
01.19.19 Introduced with 181 House cosponsors and 31 Senate cosponsors, the Raise the Wage Act was introduced Wednesday by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.). According to the bill, the minimum wage would gradually increase every year until reaching $15/hour by 2024. "Just a few short years ago, we were told that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour was 'radical.' But a grassroots movement of millions of workers throughout this country refused to take 'no' for an answer," assert… Continue Reading
NLRB chairman answers Democrats’ criticism of joint-employer rule
by Ian Kullgren
01.17.19 National Labor Relations Board Chairman John Ring today addressed Democratic criticism of the board's proposed joint employer rule. House Education and Labor Chairman Bobby Scott (D-Va.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) urged the Republican-controlled NLRB on Jan. 8 to keep the Obama-era Browning Ferris decision in place. The 2015 decision made it easier to hold businesses liable for labor violations committed by their franchisees and contractors. The NLRB's proposed rule would revert to an earl… Continue Reading
Scott, top Dems introduce bill to gradually increase minimum wage to $15
by Kara Dixon
01.16.19 WASHINGTON (WAVY) - Top Democrats in Congress have introduced a bill to gradually increase the federal minimum wage. Congressman Bobby Scott, the chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor, was joined with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator Chuck Schumer, Senator Bernie Sanders, and working class Americans at a press conference speaking on the "Raise the Wage" Act. The bill would gradually increase the minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 by 2024. The last time Congress voted to increase the… Continue Reading
House Democrats Propose $15 Minimum Wage With New Majority
by Dave Jamieson
01.16.19 Democrats introduced a bill Wednesday to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour, their first step in an effort to shepherd such a hike through the House as the new majority. The Raise the Wage Act, which has been introduced previously in different forms, would boost the wage floor incrementally until it reaches $15 in 2024, after which it would rise each year according to an inflation index. If it were to become law, the proposal would more than double the current federal rate of $7… Continue Reading
Dems offer measure to raise minimum wage to $15 per hour
by Niv Elis
01.16.19 Democrats in the House and Senate rolled out a proposal on Wednesday to more than double the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2024. "A $15 federal minimum wage affirms the bedrock idea of fairness in our country: that hard work deserves a decent wage," Speaker Nancy Pelosi(D-Calif.) said in backing the proposal. The federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour has not increased in a decade and was based on legislation passed in 2007. It amounts to about $15,000 a year for full-time workers. … Continue Reading
House Democrats call Trump's bluff on minimum-wage hike
by Ian Kullgren
01.16.19 House Democrats, pressing ahead on one of their more ambitious agenda items, introduced a bill Wednesday to more than double the federal minimum wage. The legislation, which would phase in a $15 hourly minimum over a period of six years, enunciates a policy difference with Republicans ahead of the 2020 presidential election. But a bipartisan compromise may be possible, given President Donald Trump's past support for a minimum-wage hike. After six years, the $15 minimum would rise automat… Continue Reading
Democrats introduce bill to hike federal minimum wage to $15 per hour
by Jacob Pramuk
01.16.19 Democrats introduced a bill Wednesday to gradually raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour, a long-shot plan that comes as the party tries to bill itself as a champion of the working class. The proposal to hike the U.S. wage floor from the current $7.25 will likely fail in the GOP-held Senate even if it gets through the Democratic-controlled House. However, the new House Democratic majority sees the measure as a message that it wants to lift low-wage workers and boost the economy - and a… Continue Reading
Lawmakers to unveil bill that would boost U.S. minimum wage to $15 an hour
by Megan Cerullo
01.16.19 Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday are expected to introduce new legislation that would bring the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2024 after wage hikes took effect in 20 different states this year. More than 100 Democrats have signed on as co-sponsors of House Committee on Education and Labor Chairman Bobby Scott's Raise the Wage Act of 2019, which aims to ensure all working Americans earn a living wage. It's expected to give roughly 40 million Americans a bump in pay, according to a … Continue Reading
Democrats offer plan to raise federal minimum wage to $15 per hour
by Jamie Dupree
01.16.19 With the federal minimum wage of $7.25 cents an hour unchanged for ten years, Democrats on Wednesday unveiled a plan in Congress to more than double that pay rate over a six year period, arguing it's past time for lawmakers to make it easier for working Americans to earn enough money to support their families. "President Trump isn't going to stick up for American workers - we Democrats will," Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer said to cheers at a U.S. Capitol news conference. … Continue Reading
Hopes fade for bipartisan bills in age of confrontation
by Scott Wong and Mike Lillis
01.15.19 The new Congress has just begun, but the window for bipartisan legislating is rapidly closing. President Trump and newly empowered House Democratic leaders have been optimistic about reaching agreements on a short list of high-profile legislative priorities, including efforts to bolster the nation's infrastructure and lower prescription drug costs. But the bipartisan deal-makers are quickly getting squeezed: On one end, the 25-day government shutdown - the longest in U.S. history - is dominati… Continue Reading
Dems Seeks Details On How CMS Spends Marketplace User Fees
by Staff
01.15.19 House and Senate Democratic leaders continued their expected oversight efforts on Thursday (Jan. 10) by demanding CMS explain why it continues to charge states using the federal technology a user fee of up to 3.5 percent of premiums even as the agency has slashed money for exchange advertising and outreach services that those funds are meant to support. The letter was signed by Energy & Commerce Chair Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Ways & Means Chair Richard Neal (D-MA), Education & Labor Ch… Continue Reading
Led by Bernie Sanders, Democrats Introduce Legislation to Raise the Minimum Wage
by Tonya Riley
01.15.19 On Wednesday, a coalition of congressional Democrats introduced legislation that would raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour by 2024. "Just a few short years ago, we were told that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour was 'radical,'" Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who sponsored the legislation in the Senate, said in a statement. "But a grassroots movement of millions of workers throughout this country refused to take 'no' for an answer." He added, "The current $7.25 an hour … Continue Reading
House Dems to introduce $15 minimum wage bill
by Juliegrace Brufke
01.14.19 House Democrats are slated to introduce legislation on Wednesday aimed at gradually raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2024. Under the legislation - spearheaded by House Committee on Education and Labor Chairman Bobby Scott (D-Va.) - the minimum wage would be indexed to match the changes to the median wage starting in 2025. It would also gradually eliminate provisions allowing tipped workers to be paid less than the minimum wage. "By gradually increasing pay for millions… Continue Reading
House Panel OKs Short-Term Health Blocker Bill
by Allison Bell
01.10.19 Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va. (Photo: House Education and Labor) Members of the House Education and Labor Committee voted 26-19 Tuesday to support H.R. 1010, a bill that would block the Trump administration's short-term health insurance duration regulations. If the bill took effect as written, it would limit the benefit period for short-term health insurance policies to three months. Today, a state can let the same short-term health insurance policy stay in place, with renewals, for up to three ye… Continue Reading
Labor Board’s Joint Employer Rule Should Be Nixed, Democrats Say
by Hassan A. Kanu
01.09.19 House Democrats asked the federal labor board to withdraw a proposed "joint employment" regulation, further complicating the controversial effort to reverse a key Obama administration policy. The joint employment question determines which business entities are responsible for alleged unfair labor practices in the workplace and for collective bargaining with unions. The issue is crucial for franchises and the many American businesses with a workforce that includes contracted or outsourced worker… Continue Reading
Scott, Warren ask IG to investigate teen medical lift proposal
by Ian Kullgren
01.08.19 House Education and Labor Chairman Bobby Scott (D-Va.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) today asked the Labor Department Inspector General to investigate a Trump administration proposal that would allow teenagers to operate patient medical lifts unsupervised. In a letter, Scott, Warren and three other lawmakers asked the IG to determine whether DOL "deviated from agency regulatory and data quality requirements" by relying on a 2012 SurveyMonkey poll conducted by the Massachusetts health depa… Continue Reading
House Democrats prepare fusillade of Trump investigations
by Adam Cancryn
01.07.19 Democrats want to investigate the Trump Hotel deal and President Donald Trump's taxes. They want to haul up conflicted Cabinet officials and dig into controversial changes to the census and food stamps. They want to put Education Secretary Betsy DeVos under oath and investigate child detentions at the border. The threat of subpoenas, investigations and oversight hearings will dominate the new House Democratic majority's agenda, targeting the White House's most controversial policies and personn… Continue Reading
18 Key Education Stories to Watch This Year (According to the Experts): Congress, Courts, Choice, Classroom Innovations & More
by Beth Hawkins, Mark Keierleber, Carolyn Phenicie, Esmeralda Fabian Romero, Kate Stringer, and Taylor Swaak
01.07.19 We've spent the past two months canvassing a wide spectrum of policy experts, advocates, and observers about the year ahead and the key education issues, story lines, and showdowns they see dominating the 2019 conversation surrounding America's schools. (Get all our 2019 coverage delivered straight to your inbox by signing up for The 74 Newsletter.) Many of their answers are revealing and noteworthy; here are 18 of their most surprising responses: New Coalition Eyes 2019 as the Year to Priorit… Continue Reading
Scott takes over at House Education and Labor committee
by Dave Ress
01.04.19 Rep. Robert C. "Bobby" Scott, D-Newport News, is the new chairman of the House Education and Labor committee. He said his focus will be to expand access to quality education, a rewarding job and affordable health care, calling these the building blocks of a strong middle class. "We have been granted the opportunity to advance a vision for a country where everyone can succeed, not just the wealthy few," Scott said. "I look forward to working with my colleagues to pursue a unifying agenda that… Continue Reading