Ranking Member Omar Opening Remarks at Workforce Protections Subcommittee Hearing on Workers’ Compensation Programs
WASHINGTON – Ranking Member Ilhan Omar (MN-05) delivered the following opening statement at today’s Workforce Protections Subcommittee hearing entitled, “Strengthening Federal Workers' Compensation Programs: Ensuring Integrity, Efficiency, and Access.”
“Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to our witnesses for being here today.
“At its core, workers’ compensation represents a fundamental promise to the people whose work makes this country function. To the federal employees [who] deliver our mail, inspect our food supply, protect our borders and airports, care for veterans, fight wildfires, and keep our government running. To the miners who power up the economy. To the longshore and harbor workers who keep trade flowing and maintain our mastery of the seas. When those workers are injured on the job, the federal workers’ compensation programs ensure they are not left to face the consequences alone.
“When a worker is hurt on the job, it often disrupts their life and their family’s life. And a serious injury can mean months without a paycheck, mounting medical bills, and uncertainty about whether a worker will ever return to their job. Workers’ compensation provides stability in those moments through wage replacement, medical coverage, and rehabilitation support.
“Across the country, however, many workers’ compensation systems have slowly been eroded. Over the past several decades, states have reduced benefits, narrowed eligibility, and added administrative hurdles. Too often, injured workers receive less support precisely when they need it most.
“The federal workers’ compensation programs should not repeat those mistakes. The workers covered by these programs, from federal employees to coal miners, carry out work that the public relies on, often in demanding and dangerous conditions. The system that protects them after an injury should reflect that reality.
“Unfortunately, the broader policy environment in recent years has not always prioritized worker protections. President Trump’s deregulatory agenda will roll back safeguards across many areas of workplace policy, and provisions in Trump’s ‘Big Ugly Law’ have contributed to an environment where protecting workers has become more difficult.
“That makes it even more important that programs like the Federal Employees' Compensation Act (FECA) remain strong, accessible, and centered on workers’ needs. We should be careful not to weaken one of the key systems that employees rely on when they are injured in the line of duty.
“We must also ensure that the costs of workplace injury and illness are not borne by workers and their families but instead paid by the employers who created unsafe workplaces. And on that note, I hope we can spend some time in this hearing exploring the Labor Department’s apparent decision to abandon a 2024 final rule on the amount of collateral that needs to be reserved by self-insured coal mine operators. We have seen hundreds of millions of dollars in black lung liabilities shifted onto taxpayers after self-insured operators who had posted too little collateral went bankrupt. Ranking Member Scott and I have asked the Labor Department to come clean with the public about what they’re doing to protect taxpayers, but the Department has so far failed to give us straight answers.
“Encouragingly, this has long been an area of bipartisan cooperation. Members on both sides of the aisle have recognized that supporting injured federal workers is not partisan—it is a matter of fairness and respect for public service.
“That bipartisan spirit from legislation introduced last year by Chairman Walberg and Representative Courtney, theImproving Access to Workers’ Compensation for Injured Federal Workers Act, must be continued. One guiding question: how do these changes help workers?
“Any conversation about changing workers’ compensation must start by centering the conversation around workers and their families. Since the cost of workers’ compensation is often a direct result of unsafe workplaces, workers and their families should not be required to bear more costs in the name of efficiency.
“Reforms should improve efficiency, ensure timely care, and support workers’ recovery and return to work whenever possible. But they must never come at the expense of the core promise FECA was created to uphold.
“Most importantly, the voices of workers and their families must remain part of this conversation. The decisions made here affect people coping with pain, lost income, and uncertainty about their future. Keeping their experiences at the center will help ensure that any reforms strengthen—not undermine—the program.
“I look forward to hearing from our witnesses about how FECA is working in practice and how Congress can ensure it continues to serve the federal workforce effectively.
“Thank you, and I yield back.”
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