Committee Republicans Vote for Bills that Harm Workers and Undermine Protections for College Athletes
WASHINGTON – Today, Committee Republicans voted to advance four bills that would undermine worker protections, make child labor violations easier, and ban college athletes from receiving their fair share of the wealth they create.
“After passing the ‘One Big, Ugly Law’ which sacrifices the health coverage of over 10 million Americans to pay for tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy, Committee Republicans are now seeking to advance a number of bills which will make it harder for Americans to make ends meet and care for themselves and their families,” said Ranking Member Scott.
H.R. 1319, the Modern Worker Empowerment Act, amends the Fair Labor Standards Actand the National Labor Relations Act to establish a single, narrow test to determine whether an individual is an independent contractor or employee. This bill would make it more difficult for workers who have been misclassified as independent contractors to receive overtime pay, fair wages, and other basic rights under the law.
H.R. 1320, the Modern Worker Security Act, encourages businesses to offer non-cash benefits to independent contractors and legitimizes a system where some workers must settle for poor-quality ‘portable benefits’ instead of real benefits, such as health care or workers’ compensation.
H.R. 4366, the Save Local Business Act, rewrites the rules on who is considered a joint employer, stripping workers of protections they have relied on for decades. This bill also makes child labor violations easier by narrowing the definition of employment, effectively turning back the clock to a time when children did not benefit from the broadest possible protection of the law.
H.R. 4312, the SCORE Act, provides a series of blank checks to college athletic programs without securing any additional protections for college athletes. The SCORE Act would imposes obligations without oversight, fails to include concrete protections for students, and outright bans college athletes from ever having labor and employment protections.
Read Ranking Member Scott’s opening statement here.
Read Democratic amendments and letters of opposition to H.R. 1319, H.R. 1320, H.R. 4366, and H.R. 4312 here.
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