Press Releases

Ranking Member Scott Statement on Labor-HHS-Education Funding Package

09.27.18 WASHINGTON - Ranking Member Bobby Scott (VA-03) issued the following statement following passage of the Conference Report to Accompany H.R. 6157, the Department of Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act of 2019. "This funding package is a bipartisan rejection of President Trump's proposed cuts to education, workplace safety and training, and programs that expand access to affordable health care for families across the country. In fact, many programs targ… Continue Reading

GAO Report: Trump Administration Causes Confusion, Uncertainty in Loan Forgiveness Program

09.27.18 WASHINGTON- Today, Congressman Bobby Scott (VA-03), ranking member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce and Congresswoman Susan Davis (CA-53), ranking member of the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development, released a GAO report that found serious shortcomings in the Trump administration's implementation of the popular Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. Established in 2007, PSLF offers loan forgiveness to public servants who work for a qualified employ… Continue Reading

Top House Democrats: Proposed Change to Child Labor Rules Could Endanger Young People and Patients

09.26.18 WASHINGTON - Ranking Member Bobby Scott (VA-03), Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03), and Congressman Mark Takano (CA-41), and Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard issued the following statement after the U.S. Department of Labor released a proposed rule to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to operate patient lifts in health care settings. "This rushed proposal to repeal restrictions on teens' use of patient lifts could endanger the safety of young workers and the patients they serve. It appears the De… Continue Reading

Committee Democrats Highlight Importance of Civil Rights Protections During Hearing on Campus Free Speech

09.26.18 WASHINGTON - Today, during a full Committee hearing examining First Amendment rights on college campuses, Committee Democrats described how the Trump administration's one-sided approach to free speech protections is politicizing and undermining the practice of free expression. Democratic members highlighted examples of the administration engaging in a partisan defense of free speech, while ignoring the federal government's responsibility to support colleges and universities in protecting the civ… Continue Reading

Scott Repeats Call for Hearings to Examine Troubling State of Education in Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands One Year After Hurricane Maria

09.20.18 WASHINGTON - Today, Ranking Member Bobby Scott (VA-03), the top Democrat on the Committee on Education and the Workforce, sent a second letter to Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (NC-05) requesting hearings before the full Committee to examine the troubling state of education in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. The U.S. Virgin Islands Board of Education reported a drop of nearly 4,000 students enrolled in schools in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, while Puer… Continue Reading

House and Senate Democrats Condemn DeVos for Her Latest Attempt to Put Predatory Corporations and Institutions Over Students

09.17.18 WASHINGTON - Led by Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA), ranking member of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, 108 Members of Congress submitted a comment letter to Secretary DeVos urging the Department of Education (ED) to suspend the new, aggressive rulemaking process that could abandon key protections and give free rein to predatory institutions. "Over the past 18 mon… Continue Reading

Ranking Member Scott: NLRB Proposed Rulemaking Would Let Employers Evade Responsibility to Workers

09.14.18 WASHINGTON - Ranking Member Bobby Scott (VA-03) issued the following statement after the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced its proposed rulemaking to narrow its standard for determining whether two or more entities are joint employers under the National Labor Relations Act. "The NLRB's proposed change to the joint employer standards will prevent millions of American workers from successfully negotiating for better pay and working conditions. Rather than supporting the traditional … Continue Reading

Scott Urges DeVos to Protect Students from Predatory For-Profit Colleges and Reverse Proposal to Eliminate Gainful Employment Rule

09.13.18 WASHINGTON - Ranking Member Bobby Scott (VA-03), the top Democrat on the Committee on Education and the Workforce, submitted a public comment to the Department of Education today urging the Department to abandon its proposed repeal of the "Gainful Employment" (GE) rule. The GE rule sets the enforcement standard to ensure that career programs and for-profit institutions, many of which have a demonstrated history of leaving students with debt they cannot repay, comply with federal law. In the let… Continue Reading

Waters, Scott, Brown and Murray Call on SEC to Increase Investor Protections

09.12.18 WASHINGTON -- Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Financial Services; Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce; Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking Committee, and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, sent a letter to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Jay Clayton urging the S… Continue Reading

Scott, Bonamici to Congressional Leadership: Stop Secretary DeVos from Wrongly Spending Education Money on Guns

09.10.18 WASHINGTON - Ranking Member Bobby Scott (VA-03) and Vice Ranking Member Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01) wrote a letter to House and Senate leadership urging them to prohibit the use of federal funds to purchase firearms or firearms training for teachers in the final Fiscal Year 2019 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) funding bill. This comes on the heels of a letter Secretary DeVos wrote to Congress where she shirks her secretarial responsibility and communic… Continue Reading

Ranking Member Scott Statement on August Jobs Report

09.07.18 WASHINGTON - Ranking Member Bobby Scott (VA-03) issued the following statement after the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the economy added 201,000 jobs in August, with the unemployment rate at 3.9 percent. "Today's jobs report once again shows that the Republican tax bill is nothing but a broken promise to American workers. The White House predicted passing their tax scheme would increase the average family's annual income by at least $4,000. Nine months later, the typical worker's wa… Continue Reading

Scott, Foxx Praise House Passage of Bipartisan Financial Aid Legislation

09.05.18 WASHINGTON - Ranking Member Bobby Scott (VA-03) and Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (NC-05) issued the following statement after the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1635, the bipartisan Empowering Students through Enhanced Financial Counseling Act. Sponsored by Reps. Brett Guthrie (KY-02) and Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01), the legislation will improve financial aid counseling for students receiving a Pell Grant or a federal loan. "The decision to take out student loans can have lifelong consequences f… Continue Reading

Democrats Promote Benefits of Registered Apprenticeships, Increase Economic Mobility for American Workers

09.05.18 WASHINGTON - Today, at a hearing of the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development (HEWD), Committee Democrats promoted high-quality registered apprenticeship programs as a proven path to help American workers develop the skills they need to qualify for good-paying jobs and rewarding careers. The hearing, entitled "On-The-Job: Rebuilding the Workforce Through Apprenticeships," gave Democrats an opportunity to highlight the benefits of registered apprenticeships programs, which a… Continue Reading

Representatives DeSaulnier, Pocan, Norcross, and Dingell Issue “Future of Work, Wages, and Labor” Report and Legislative Action Plan

09.05.18 WASHINGTON- On the heels of Labor Day, Democratic Representatives Mark DeSaulnier (CA-11), Mark Pocan (WI-02), Donald Norcross (NJ-01), and Debbie Dingell (MI-12) today issued the findings of their "Future of Work, Wages, and Labor" initiative - launched in early 2016. The Members spent over two years traveling across the country and meeting with experts, labor leaders, and workers to develop policy proposals that address longstanding problems in the workforce and new trends like automation and … Continue Reading

Ranking Member Scott: “Outrageous” That Secretary DeVos Will Allow Federal Education Funds to be Spent on Guns

08.31.18 WASHINGTON - Ranking Member Bobby Scott (VA-03) released the following statement in response to a letter from Secretary Betsy DeVos that stated the Department of Education will allow schools to use taxpayer money to arm teachers. "Arming teachers will recklessly endanger both students and educators. It is outrageous that Secretary DeVos will allow federal education funds to be spent putting guns in the classroom. If Secretary DeVos refuses to adhere to congressional intent and the administratio… Continue Reading

Committee Democrats to DeVos: Proposed Borrowers Defense Rule Will Hurt Defrauded Students

08.31.18 WASHINGTON - All 17 Democratic Members of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, led by Ranking Member Bobby Scott (VA-03), sent a letter to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to express their strong opposition to the Department's proposed rule on borrower defense to repayment. The letter details seven major concerns the Members have with the proposed rule and calls on the Department to abandon its proposal. The proposed rule, "severely limits eligibility of defrauded borrowers to seek a… Continue Reading

Ranking Member Scott: Draft DeVos Proposal on Sexual Misconduct is a Major Step Backwards

08.30.18 WASHINGTON - Ranking Member Bobby Scott (VA-03) released the following statement in response to a report from the New York Times that revealed Secretary DeVos's draft proposal to rewrite policies for addressing sexual misconduct on campus. "The draft regulation regarding sexual harassment and misconduct that is reportedly under consideration by Secretary DeVos would be a major step backward in our collective effort to provide a safe learning environment for all students. The proposed rule creat… Continue Reading

House Democrats to Secretary DeVos: Don’t Spend Education Money on Guns

08.28.18 WASHINGTON - Ranking Member Bobby Scott (VA-03) and more than 170 House Democrats sent a letter today to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos calling on the Department to issue formal guidance prohibiting the use of federal education funding to buy guns for teachers and school staff. The letter comes in the wake of a New York Times report revealing the administration's consideration of a proposal that would allow schools to redirect federal K-12 education funding, for services like mental health coun… Continue Reading

Ranking Member Scott Reacts to Resignation of CFPB’s Student Loan Watchdog

08.27.18 WASHINGTON - Ranking Member Bobby Scott (VA-03) issued the following statement after Seth Frotman, Student Loan Ombudsman at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, announced his resignation in a letter to Acting Director Mick Mulvaney. In the letter, Frotman says the Bureau has "abandoned the very consumers it is tasked by Congress with protecting." "Seth Frotman's resignation from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is further evidence that the Bureau's current leadership is failing t… Continue Reading

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