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Left Turns

A Surprising Admission From an Unlikely Source

Well, this is very interesting.

A federal judge recently blocked enforcement of the Obama administration’s fatally flawed blacklisting rule. At the time, Rep. John Kline (R-MN), chairman of the Education and the Workforce Committee, said:


The administration has spent significant time and taxpayer resources concocting this regulatory scheme, when they should have been focused on enforcing existing policies designed to hold federal contractors accountable. The best way to ensure fair pay and safe workplaces is to enforce current protections, and in light of this decision, it’s time for the administration to do just that.


The chairman’s statement reflects what House Republicans have been saying for months, and now, this sensible point of view has been surprisingly echoed by two senior Democrat leaders.

You might want to sit down for this.

None other than Reps. Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) had this to say after the judge’s decision was handed down: 


We urge the Department of Labor to uphold business integrity by denying contracts to labor standard violators. The Department has full authority to hold contractors accountable under current law, regardless of this injunction. We look forward to working with this Administration and the next one to ensure that our labor laws are enforced …


Did the co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus basically admit that the president’s blacklisting rule is unnecessary and the administration already has the legal tools it needs to protect workers?

Apparently so, and we couldn’t have said it better ourselves.  

Now that everyone agrees there are already policies in place to hold federal contractors accountable, let’s hope the administration will spend more time enforcing current protections and less time pushing its duplicative and unnecessary regulatory scheme.


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