The U.S. House of Representatives today gave final approval to the controversial spending package crafted by congressional Democrats under the guise of economic stimulus despite the fact that not a single Republican voted for the bill. Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA), the top Republican on the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee, issued the following statement: “The single most important ... Read more »
The U.S. House Education and Labor Committee today convened its first hearing of the 111th Congress to examine workers’ rights and violence against labor union leaders in Colombia. Noting that nearly 600,000 American workers lost their jobs in the month of January, the panel’s top Republican, Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA), expressed deep concern for the plight of Colombian workers but questi... Read more »
To help workers who are struggling to balance the demands of work and family, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) today introduced the Family-Friendly Workplace Act (H.R. 933), a bill that will eliminate barriers in federal law that prevent private sector workers from choosing more flexible work arrangements. McMorris Rodgers is a long-time advocate for working women and men and has proposed simila... Read more »
The Department of Labor reported this morning that the U.S. economy shed 598,000 jobs in the month of January, the largest single-month total since 1974, bringing the unemployment rate to 7.6 percent. In response to these staggering figures, the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee’s top Republican, Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA), issued the following statement: “There is no doubt about t... Read more »
For the third time in less than two years, congressional Democrats today advanced the most fundamental shift in civil rights law in decades while preventing Republicans from offering a single amendment. With final passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, the bill now goes to the President without a single Republican amendment ever having received the consideration of the full U.S. Hous... Read more »
The bill before us was the first substantive piece of legislation considered by the 111th Congress. In a matter of days, it could be one of the first substantive measures signed into law by the 44th President of the United States. And despite all the promises of openness and bipartisanship, at the end of the day it will have been considered not once, not twice, but three separate times in the Hous... Read more »
Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA), the senior Republican on the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee, today harshly criticized Democrats’ $825 billion stimulus package, arguing that it fails to create jobs and provide necessary tax relief to working families and small businesses. Instead, McKeon noted, the bill is little more than a bloated government spending package cobbled together in the... Read more »
Later today, the U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on a pair of bills that will dramatically increase the number and cost of pay discrimination lawsuits filed against American businesses, including small businesses. These bills—H.R. 11, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and H.R. 12, the Paycheck Fairness Act—together will make it easier for trial lawyers to bring costly lawsuits by... Read more »
Discrimination in the workplace is wrong. Paying women lower wages for the same work is wrong. It’s also illegal. Congress enacted protections to ensure equal pay for equal work in 1963, when the Equal Pay Act was added to the Fair Labor Standards Act. Congress acted again to protect women and all Americans from workplace discrimination with enactment of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Together... Read more »
I rise in opposition to this ill-considered and over-reaching legislation. Proponents of this bill claim it simply reverses a May 29, 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision and clarifies congressional opposition to wage discrimination. In reality, however, this bill will set into motion a series of unintended consequences that will ripple through the economy and plague workers, small businesses, and the... Read more »
