Tomorrow the House Committee on Education and the Workforce will mark up the Student Success Act (H.R. 5), legislation to improve our nation’s K-12 education system. In a new video, Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education Subcommittee Chairman Todd Rokita (R-IN) discusses the need for reform and highlights key principles behind the legislation: It’s time for a different approach, one ... Read more »
House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-MN) today joined House Republican leaders at a press conference to discuss the urgent need for Senate action on a permanent fix to the student loan interest rate problem. The House has passed bipartisan legislation that will prevent new subsidized Stafford Loan interest rates from doubling on July 1st. In his remarks, Chairman Klin... Read more »
Enacted in 1931, the Davis-Bacon Act requires the payment of local prevailing wages to workers on federal construction projects. Determining local prevailing wage rates is a complicated process, one that involves the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division conducting surveys to collect wage and benefit information for various job classifications in a given geographic location. Unfortunately, ... Read more »
House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-MN) reaffirmed his commitment to finding a permanent fix to prevent new subsidized Stafford Loan interest rates from doubling on July 1st. In May, the House passed the Smarter Solutions for Students Act, legislation that mirrors President Obama’s call for a long-term, market-based solution to the student loan interest rate problem.... Read more »
‘Obamacare’ benefits mandate could further phase out full-time work President Obama’s health care reform is prompting employers to hire more part-time and temporary workers to escape paying benefits under a mandate that goes into effect next year, amplifying a trend toward transient employment that took hold during the recession, according to a growing number of economic indicators. Hardest hit b... Read more »
On Wednesday, June 19 at 9:00 a.m., the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, chaired by Rep. John Kline (R-MN), will mark up the Student Success Act (H.R. 5). The markup will take place in room 2175 of the Rayburn House Office Building. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act, currently known as No Child Left Behind, has been due for reauthorization since 2007. Despite its best inten... Read more »
On Tuesday, June 18 at 10:00 a.m., the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, chaired by Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), will hold a hearing entitled, “Promoting the Accuracy and Accountability of the Davis-Bacon Act.” The hearing will take place in room 2175 of the Rayburn House Office Building. Enacted in 1931, the Davis-Bacon Act requires the payment of local prevailing wage rates to workers on federa... Read more »
Republicans today introduced two legislative proposals that would protect workers’ right to secret ballot union elections and roll back the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) micro-union Specialty Healthcare decision. The Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions will discuss both proposals during a hearing scheduled for June 26. “The last thing workers need is special interests... Read more »
THE PROBLEM: Unions have long tried to organize small groups or “units” of employees as an incremental step toward organizing an entire workplace. A standard used for decades by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) required a different approach, one that promoted unity in workplaces by including in the proposed unit all employees that had a “community of interest.” The board considered basic... Read more »
THE PROBLEM: Under current federal labor law, workers choose whether or not to be represented by a union through a federally-supervised secret ballot election. However, workers can also organize through a ‘card check’ campaign, in which workers are asked to publicly declare their support for union representation by signing an authorization card. When a simple majority of workers sign a card – by ... Read more »
