WASHINGTON –Today, U.S. Representative Kevin Kiley (R-CA), chairman of the Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, introduced a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to overturn the Department of Labor’s (DOL) final worker classification rule that threatens the gig economy and jeopardizes the ability of 27 million Americans to work as independent contractors. This comes as the DOL final rule was released earlier this year. U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, introduced the companion CRA resolution in the U.S. Senate.
Independent contractors, or freelancers, make their own hours to fit their schedule and decide where and how they want to work. The Biden administration rule attempts to restrict the ability of American workers to be an independent contractor and take advantage of the flexibility it provides. The rule creates a non-exhaustive, six-factor litmus test for unelected bureaucrats to interpret and decide who is and who is not classified as an independent contractor. It also casts as large a net as possible and gives less legal certainty to independent contractors impacted by the regulation.
“Independent contractors, entrepreneurs, and small businesses are fed up with the Department of Labor continually breathing down their necks,”said Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC), chairwoman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee. “The bicameral Congressional Review Act resolution led by Representative Kiley and Senator Cassidy offers Congress the opportunity to take a unified stand against the Department’s thirst for more government control over America’s workforce. Entrepreneurial opportunities and flexibility should be encouraged, not extinguished with heavy-handed mandates from the federal government.”
“Gavin Newsom and Julie Su’s AB 5 severely restricted independent contracting in California, destroying thousands of livelihoods and harming California’s economy. As Acting Secretary of Labor, Su and the Biden Administration have announced a new Department of Labor rule, modeled after on the same job-killing AB 5 that will cost millions of independent professionals across the country their livelihoods while restricting the freedom of many millions more to have flexible work arrangements. Our legislation under the Congressional Review Act nullifies this terrible regulation and protects independent contractors,”said Representative Kiley. “Washington should support workers, not regulate them into oblivion.”
“The Biden administration’s priority should not be to do whatever makes it easier to forcibly and coercively unionize workers. It should be to increase individual freedom and opportunity,”said Dr. Cassidy. “This new Biden rule does the opposite, jeopardizing 27 million workers’ ability to make their own hours and make a living without being pressured into joining a union.”
Recently, Cassidy penned an op-ed in Fox News blasting the new DOL rule and its negative effects on American workers. He also highlighted the growing number of organizations opposed to the new policy, including the American Trucking Associations (ATA), the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), the Coalition for Workforce Innovation (CWI), the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF), the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), TechNet, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
