The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a new report today highlighting weaknesses in the U.S. Department of Education’s oversight capabilities, resulting in limited controls to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse in the agency’s grant programs. This report comes in response to a request made by Republicans on the House Education and Labor Committee after troubling information em... Read more »
Good Morning. I would like to thank Chairman Kildee for holding today's hearing. I am pleased the Committee is examining current federal literacy initiatives and ways to improve the reading comprehension skills of all children from birth through high school. Today, 14 percent of Americans over the age of 16 - about 30 million people - have trouble with basic reading and writing skills and cannot r... Read more »
Representative John Kline (R-MN), Ranking Member on the House Education and Labor Committee, and Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY), Ranking Member on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, announced today they are introducing bipartisan legislation to extend the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act (ECASLA). This effort, like the original legislation, would maintain stability... Read more »
It seems many Nevadans do not want to gamble with their privacy at the workplace under the Employee Free Choice Act. The Las Vegas Sun reported Tuesday that efforts are under way in the Silver State to amend its constitution to require the secret ballot for union elections – something that’s set aside under EFCA. The Sun shines a light on the subject here: “An initiative petition has been filed to... Read more »
Citing concerns that the role of scientific evidence may be diminished in vital workplace safety decisions, Rep. John Kline (R-MN) today urged Democratic leaders in the U.S. Senate to hold a public hearing on the nomination of Professor David Michaels to serve as Assistant Secretary for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration before advancing him to a vote by the full Senate for the post... Read more »
President Obama is looking for a few good ideas. Specifically, he’s looking for suggestions about jobs during a forum on economic growth planned for next month. The Washington Post has the details here: “With the nation's unemployment rate at its highest level in 26 years, President Obama plans to bring together CEOs, small business owners and financial experts to sound out ideas for continuing to... Read more »
Our topic today is a timely one, with employers, workers, and their families facing the uncertainty of a widespread influenza outbreak with wide ranging effects. Unfortunately, the uncertainty I mentioned is pervasive. Even the scope of the outbreak is unknown. The Washington Post reported on Friday that “total H1N1 cases in the United States range from 14 million to 34 million, and total deaths r... Read more »
Worker intimidation is just one of many, many reasons why the Employee Free Choice Act should not become law. But, as Wall Street Journal editorial board member Matthew Kaminski recently reported, this practice is allegedly underway already as two unions duke it out in California. On one side is the Service Employees International Union, a big time EFCA booster whose president, Andy Stern, is a fr... Read more »
As we wrote yesterday, unions are pushing for laws similar to the Employee Free Choice Act in many states because their job-killing agenda is going nowhere on Capitol Hill. But in Missouri, supporters of the secret ballot are pushing back. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Thursday that a group trying to protect the privacy of workers in the Show-Me State survived a legal challenge to their eff... Read more »
Frustrated that Washington Democrats have not made good on their promise to pass the job killing, misnamed Employee Free Choice Act, union leadership is putting the pressure on states to carry their agenda. A recent report in the Wall Street Journal highlights how unions are taking a local approach in the same spirit of their national plans to undermine workers’ right to a secret ballot: “Both sid... Read more »
