[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 655 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 655

 To exempt certain 16- and 17-year-old individuals employed in logging 
                   operations from child labor laws.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 15, 2017

  Mr. Risch (for himself and Mr. King) introduced the following bill; 
     which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, 
                     Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To exempt certain 16- and 17-year-old individuals employed in logging 
                   operations from child labor laws.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Future Logging Careers Act''.

SEC. 2. CHILD LABOR LAW EXEMPTIONS FOR LOGGING OPERATIONS.

    The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 201 et seq.) is 
amended--
            (1) in section 3 (29 U.S.C. 203), by adding at the end the 
        following:
    ``(z) `Logging operation'--
    ``(1) means --
            ``(A) a mechanized operation;
            ``(B) the bucking or converting of timber into logs, poles, 
        ties, bolts, pulpwood, chemical wood, excelsior wood, cordwood, 
        fence posts, or similar products;
            ``(C) the collecting, skidding, yarding, loading, 
        transporting, or unloading of such products in connection with 
        the activities described in this paragraph;
            ``(D) the constructing, repairing, or maintaining of--
                    ``(i) roads or camps used in connection with the 
                activities described in this paragraph; or
                    ``(ii) machinery or equipment used in the 
                activities described in this paragraph; or
            ``(E) any other work performed in connection with the 
        activities described in this paragraph; and
    ``(2) does not include the manual use of chainsaws to fell or 
process timber or the use of cable skidders to bring the timber to the 
landing.
    ``(aa) `Mechanized operation'--
    ``(1) means the felling, skidding, yarding, loading, or processing 
of timber by equipment other than manually operated chainsaws or cable 
skidders; and
    ``(2) includes the use of whole tree processors, cut-to-length 
processors, stroke boom delimbers, wheeled and track feller-bunchers, 
pull-through delimbers, wheeled and track forwarders, chippers, 
grinders, mechanical debarkers, wheeled and track grapple skidders, 
yarders, bulldozers, excavators, and log loaders.''; and
            (2) in section 13(c) (29 U.S.C. 213(c)), by adding at the 
        end the following:
    ``(8) The provisions of section 12 relating to child labor shall 
apply to an employee who is 16 or 17 years old employed in a logging 
operation in an occupation that the Secretary of Labor finds and 
declares to be particularly hazardous for the employment of children 
ages 16 or 17, except where such employee is employed by his parent or 
by a person standing in the place of his parent in a logging operation 
owned or operated by such parent or person.''.
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