[House Hearing, 117 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
EXAMINING THE POLICIES AND PRIORITIES
OF THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
HEARING HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, JUNE 9, 2021
__________
Serial No. 117-17
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Education and Labor
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via: edlabor.house.gov or www.govinfo.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
44-799PDF WASHINGTON : 2022
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR
ROBERT C. ``BOBBY'' SCOTT, Virginia, Chairman
RAUL M. GRIJALVA, Arizona VIRGINIA FOXX, North Carolina,
JOE COURTNEY, Connecticut Ranking Member
GREGORIO KILILI CAMACHO SABLAN, JOE WILSON, South Carolina
Northern Mariana Islands GLENN THOMPSON, Pennsylvania
FREDERICA S. WILSON, Florida TIM WALBERG, Michigan
SUZANNE BONAMICI, Oregon GLENN GROTHMAN, Wisconsin
MARK TAKANO, California ELISE M. STEFANIK, New York
ALMA S. ADAMS, North Carolina RICK W. ALLEN, Georgia
MARK DeSAULNIER, California JIM BANKS, Indiana
DONALD NORCROSS, New Jersey JAMES COMER, Kentucky
PRAMILA JAYAPAL, Washington RUSS FULCHER, Idaho
JOSEPH D. MORELLE, New York FRED KELLER, Pennsylvania
SUSAN WILD, Pennsylvania GREGORY F. MURPHY, North Carolina
LUCY McBATH, Georgia MARIANNETTE MILLER-MEEKS, Iowa
JAHANA HAYES, Connecticut BURGESS OWENS, Utah
ANDY LEVIN, Michigan BOB GOOD, Virginia
ILHAN OMAR, Minnesota LISA C. McCLAIN, Michigan
HALEY M. STEVENS, Michigan DIANA HARSHBARGER, Tennessee
TERESA LEGER FERNANDEZ, New Mexico MARY E. MILLER, Illinois
MONDAIRE JONES, New York VICTORIA SPARTZ, Indiana
KATHY E. MANNING, North Carolina SCOTT FITZGERALD, Wisconsin
FRANK J. MRVAN, Indiana MADISON CAWTHORN, North Carolina
JAMAAL BOWMAN, New York, Vice-Chair MICHELLE STEEL, California
MARK POCAN, Wisconsin JULIA LETLOW, Louisiana
JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas Vacancy
MIKIE SHERRILL, New Jersey
JOHN A. YARMUTH, Kentucky
ADRIANO ESPAILLAT, New York
KWEISI MFUME, Maryland
Veronique Pluviose, Staff Director
Cyrus Artz, Minority Staff Director
------
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held on June 9, 2021..................................... 1
Statement of Members:
Scott, Hon. Robert C. ``Bobby'', Chairman, Committee on
Education and Labor........................................ 1
Prepared statement of.................................... 6
Foxx, Hon. Virginia, Ranking Member, Committee on Education
and Labor.................................................. 7
Prepared statement of.................................... 9
Statement of Witnesses:
Walsh, Hon. Martin J., Secretary, U.S. Department of Labor... 11
Prepared statement of.................................... 13
Additional Submissions:
Chairman Scott:
Committee on Education and Labor letter to Secretary
Walsh dated June 2, 2021............................... 98
NEA letter dated June 15, 2021........................... 101
Fitzgerald, Hon. Scott, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Wisconsin:
Letter dated June 15, 2021............................... 103
Questions submitted for the record by:
Chairman Scott........................................... 106
Ranking Member Foxx...................................... 109
Sablan, Hon. Gregorio Kilili Camacho, a Delegate in
Congress from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana
Islands................................................ 106
Omar, Hon. Ilhan, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Minnesota..................................... 107
Castro, Hon. Joaquin, a Representative in Congress from
the State of Texas..................................... 107
Sherrill, Hon. Mikie, a Representative in Congress from
the State of New Jersey................................ 108
Wilson, Hon. Joe, a Representative in Congress from the
State of South Carolina................................ 118
Walberg, Hon. Tim, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Minnesota..................................... 119
Stefanik, Hon. Elise M., a Representative in Congress
from the State of New York............................. 119
Allen, Hon. Rick, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Georgia....................................... 119
Comer, Hon. James, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Kentucky...................................... 120
Keller, Hon. Fred, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Pennsylvania.................................. 121
Murphy, Hon. Gregory F., a Representative in Congress
from the State of North Carolina....................... 121
Miller-Meeks, Hon. Mariannette, a Representative in
Congress from the State of Iowa........................ 122
Owens, Hon. Burgess, a Representative in Congress from
the State of Utah...................................... 123
Harshbarger, Hon. Diana, a Representative in Congress
from the State of Tennessee............................ 123
Letlow, Hon. Julia, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Louisiana..................................... 124
Responses to questions submitted for the record by:
Secretary Walsh.......................................... 126
EXAMINING THE POLICIES AND PRIORITIES
OF THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
----------
Wednesday, June 9, 2021
House of Representatives,
Committee on Education and Labor,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 12:01 p.m., via
Zoom, Hon. Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott (Chairman of the
Committee) presiding.
Present: Representatives Scott, Grijalva, Courtney, Sablan,
Wilson of Florida, Bonamici, Takano, Adams, DeSaulnier,
Norcross, Jayapal, Morelle, Wild, McBath, Hayes, Levin,
Stevens, Leger Fernandez, Jones, Manning, Mrvan, Bowman, Pocan,
Sherrill, Yarmuth, Espaillat, Foxx, Wilson of South Carolina,
Walberg, Grothman, Stefanik, Allen, Banks, Fulcher, Keller,
Miller-Meeks, Owens, Good, McClain, Spartz, Fitzgerald,
Cawthorn, Steel, and Letlow.
Staff present: Ilana Brunner, General Counsel; Daniel
Foster, Health and Labor Counsel; Rashage Green, Director of
Education Policy; Christian Haines, General Counsel; Rasheedah
Hasan, Chief Clerk; Sheila Havenner, Director of Information
Technology; Eli Hovland, Policy Associate; Eunice Ikene, Labor
Policy Advisor; Ariel Jona, Policy Associate; Andre Lindsay,
Policy Associate; Kevin McDermott, Senior Labor Policy Advisor;
Richard Miller, Director of Labor Policy; Max Moore, Staff
Assistant; Yonatan Moskowitz, Oversight Counsel-Labor; Mariah
Mowbray, Clerk/Special Assistant to the Staff Director; Kayla
Pennebecker, Staff Assistant; Veronique Pluviose, Staff
Director; Banyon Vassar, Deputy Director of Information
Technology; Joshua Weisz, Communications Director; Cyrus Artz,
Minority Staff Director; Gabriel Bisson, Minority Staff
Assistant; Rob Green, Minority Director of Workforce Policy;
Taylor Hittle, Minority Professional Staff Member; Amy Raaf
Jones, Minority Director of Education and Human Resources
Policy; Georgie Littlefair, Minority Legislative Assistant;
John Martin, Minority Workforce Policy Counsel; Hannah Matesic,
Minority Director of Operations; Audra McGeorge, Minority
Communications Director; Jake Middlebrooks, Minority
Professional Staff Member; Maureen O'Toole, Minority Press
Assistant; Ben Ridder, Minority Professional Staff Member;
Mandy Schaumburg, Minority Chief Counsel and Deputy Director of
Education Policy; Kelly Tyroler, Minority Professional Staff
Member; and John Witherspoon, Minority Professional Staff
Member.
Chairman Scott. The Committee on Education and Labor will
come to order. And welcome everyone. I note that a quorum is
present. The Committee is meeting today to hear testimony on
Examining the Policies and Priorities of the U.S. Department of
Labor. This is an entirely remote hearing, and all microphones
are being kept muted as a general rule to avoid unnecessary
background noise.
Members and witnesses will be responsible for unmuting
themselves when they're recognized to speak, or when they wish
to seek recognition. I'll also ask if Members would please
identify themselves before they speak. Members should keep
their cameras on while in the proceeding.
Members will be considered present in the proceeding when
they're visible on camera and will be considered not present
when they are not visible on the camera. The exception to this
is if they are experiencing technical difficulties and inform
the Committee staff of each such difficulty.
If any Member experiences technical difficulties during the
hearing you should stay connected on the platform, make sure
you're muted and use your phone to immediately call the
Committee's IT director whose number was provided in advance.
Should the Chair experience a technical difficulty and need
to step away, Mr. Courtney, Mr. Yarmouth, or any other majority
Member is hereby authorized to assume the gavel in the Chair's
absence. This is an entirely remote hearing, and as such the
Committee's hearing room is officially closed.
Members who wish to sit with their individual devices in
the Committee room must wear headphones to avoid feedback,
echoes and distortion resulting from more than one person on
the software platform sitting in the same room.
Members are also expected to adhere to social distancing,
and safe healthcare guidelines, including the use of masks,
hand sanitizer and wiping down their areas before and after
their presence in the hearing room.
In order to ensure the Committee's five-minute rule is
adhered to, the staff will be keeping track of time using the
Committee's field timer. The field timer will appear in its own
thumbnail picture and will be named 001_timer. There will be no
one minute remaining warning.
The field timer will show a blinking light when the time is
up, and Members and the witnesses are asked to wrap up promptly
when their time has expired. While roll call is not necessary
to establish a quorum in official proceedings conducted
remotely, or with remote participation, the Committee has made
it a practice wherever there's an official proceeding with
remote participation.
I understand that the live feed is having a problem. And so
we'll delay for just a minute while it's taken care of.
[Delay.]
Chairman Scott. I understand that the live feed is back on,
and I will proceed. Members and the witnesses are asked to wrap
up promptly when the time is expired. While a roll call is not
necessary to establish a quorum in official proceedings
conducted remotely, or with remote participation, the Committee
has made it a practice whenever there is an official proceeding
with remote participation for the Clerk to call the roll to
make clear who is present at the start of the proceedings.
Members should say their name before announcing that they
are present. This helps the Clerk, and also helps those
watching the platform and livestream who may be experiencing a
few seconds delay. At this time, I'll ask the Clerk to call the
roll.
The Clerk. Mr. Chairman
Chairman Scott. Chairman Scott is present.
The Clerk. Mr. Grijalva?
[No response.]
The Clerk. Mr. Courtney?
Mr. Courtney. Courtney is present.
The Clerk. Mr. Sablan?
Mr. Sablan. Sablan is present.
The Clerk. Ms. Wilson?
Ms. Wilson. Ms. Wilson is present.
The Clerk. Ms. Bonamici?
Ms. Bonamici. Suzanne Bonamici is present.
The Clerk. Mr. Takano?
Mr. Takano. Mark Takano is present.
The Clerk. Ms. Adams?
Ms. Adams. Ms. Adams is present.
The Clerk. Mr. DeSaulnier?
[No response.]
The Clerk. Mr. Norcross?
Mr. Norcross. Norcross is present.
The Clerk. Ms. Jayapal?
Ms. Jayapal. Jayapal is present.
The Clerk. Mr. Morelle?
[No response.]
The Clerk. Ms. Wild?
Ms. Wild. Wild is present.
The Clerk. Mrs. McBath?
Mrs. McBath. McBath is present.
The Clerk. Mrs. Hayes?
Mrs. Hayes. Mrs. Hayes is present.
The Clerk. Mr. Levin?
[No response.]
The Clerk. Ms. Omar?
[No response.]
The Clerk. Ms. Stevens?
Ms. Stevens. Stevens is present.
The Clerk. Ms. Leger Fernandez?
Ms. Leger Fernandez. Ms. Leger Fernandez is present.
The Clerk. Mr. Jones?
Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones is present.
The Clerk. Ms. Manning?
Ms. Manning. Manning is present.
The Clerk. Mr. Mrvan?
Mr. Mrvan. Mr. Mrvan is present.
The Clerk. Mr. Bowman?
Mr. Bowman. Mr. Bowman is present.
The Clerk. Mr. Pocan?
[No response.]
The Clerk. Mr. Castro?
[No response.]
The Clerk. Ms. Sherill?
Ms. Sherill. Sherill's present.
The Clerk. Mr. Yarmuth?
[No response.]
The Clerk. Mr. Espaillat?
[No response.]
The Clerk. Mr. Mfume?
[No response.]
The Clerk. Ranking Member Foxx?
Ms. Foxx. Foxx is present.
The Clerk. Mr. Wilson?
Mr. Wilson. Wilson is present.
The Clerk. Mr. Thompson?
[No response.]
The Clerk. Mr. Walberg?
Mr. Walberg. Walberg is virtually present.
The Clerk. Mr. Grothman?
[No response.]
The Clerk. Ms. Stefanik?
[No response.]
The Clerk. Mr. Allen?
Mr. Allen. Allen's present.
The Clerk. Mr. Banks?
[No response.]
The Clerk. Mr. Comer?
[No response.]
The Clerk. Mr. Fulcher?
Mr. Fulcher. Fulcher is present.
The Clerk. Mr. Keller?
[No response.]
The Clerk. Mr. Murphy?
[No response.]
The Clerk. Mrs. Miller-Meeks?
[No response.]
The Clerk. Mr. Owens?
Mr. Owens. Owens present.
The Clerk. Mr. Good?
[No response.]
The Clerk. Mrs. McClain?
Mrs. McClain. McClain is present.
The Clerk. Mrs. Harshbarger?
[No response.]
The Clerk. Mrs. Miller?
[No response.]
The Clerk. Mrs. Spartz?
[No response.]
The Clerk. Mr. Scott Fitzgerald?
Mr. Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald present.
The Clerk. Mr. Cawthorn?
[No response.]
The Clerk. Mrs. Steel?
Mrs. Steel. Steel is present.
The Clerk. Ms. Letlow.
Ms. Letlow. Letlow present.
Mr. Pocan. Can I ask how you have Mr. Pocan recorded?
The Clerk. Mr. Chairman Mr. Pocan is not recorded present.
Mr. Pocan. OK, I'm present.
Mr. Grijalva. May I ask how Mr. Grijalva is noted?
The Clerk. Mr. Grijalva is not recorded.
Mr. Grijalva. Mr. Grijalva is present.
Chairman Scott. Anyone else? If not, thank you. Pursuant to
Committee Rule 8(c) opening statements are limited to the Chair
and the Ranking Member. This allows us to hear from our witness
sooner and provides all Members with adequate time to ask
questions. I now recognize myself for the purpose of making an
opening statement.
Today we're meeting to discuss the Department of Labor's
Budget for Fiscal Year 2022 and to examine the Department's
priorities to support workers, job seekers, retirees and their
families. I'm going to start by welcoming our distinguished
witness, Secretary Marty Walsh to the Committee of Education
and Labor.
We're grateful for your time and look forward to discussing
your vision on how the Department of Labor can achieve the
strong and shared economic recovery. To understand the
Department's policies and priorities we must first consider the
labor market that you inherited.
For years, the Trump administration made it harder for low-
income and middle-class workers to succeed in America. Our
corporations made record profits and reaped an overwhelming
share of the benefits from the almost two trillion-dollar GOP
tax cut. Many workers continue to work long hours and difficult
jobs, but still have trouble making ends meet for themselves
and their families.
Other policies include the Trump administration's overtime
rule, which has stripped millions of middle-class workers of
their right to receive overtime. The Trump administration's
independent contractor rule, which the Biden administration
recently withdrew, would have cost workers an estimated 3
billion dollars every year in lost wages and benefits.
The Trump administration has abandoned the nearly complete
infection disease standard when it took office. It was almost
complete when the administration came in which would have been
a valuable tool for OSHA to better protect workers against
COVID-19.
So Secretary Walsh your task is to restore the Labor
Department's focus and strengthening workers and their
families. And thankfully, the Biden/Harris administration and
congressional Democrats have taken decisive steps to turn our
economy around and get workers back on their feet.
For example, the Biden administration worked with Congress
to enact the American Rescue Plan which provided emergency
funding to save our childcare system from collapsing, offered
healthcare subsidies to cover the full cost of COVID benefits,
so that laid off workers can maintain affordable health
coverage during the pandemic, provided emergency financial
assistance, including relief checks, the expanded child credit,
improved earned income tax credit.
And assistance is projected to cut child poverty in half,
and we fully protected the hard-earned pensions of over 1
million Americans who were projected to lose those pensions
through no fault of their own. Not a single republican
supported the package, but it is producing results for workers,
businesses, and communities.
The economy has created 2.2 million jobs since the Biden/
Harris administration took office. Unfortunately, we still have
a lot of work to do to ensure that all workers benefit from the
strong economy. Today our economy remains more than 8 million
jobs behind where we were at the start of the pandemic.
This is why it is essential that we create millions of
good-paying jobs by investing in our infrastructure, and
helping workers get the skills and support to fill those jobs.
So Mr. Secretary, we look forward to your testimony on how the
American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan will make smart
investments to build back a better economy to enable workers to
get back to work.
And we're interested to know what the budget does for
affordable childcare, and to make college degrees more
accessible, and how you plan to expand job training at a time
when countless businesses are desperate for talented workers,
and workers looking for new high-quality careers.
We're also interested in what the budget includes for
worker protection agencies, including OSHA, Wage and Hour
Division, and Employee Benefits Security Administration, that
have faced decades of budget freezes and shrinking staff
capacity.
We also want to hear about the policies to reinvigorate the
Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, and what you
will do to prevent worker misclassification, wage theft, and
what you will do to expand overtime pay protections.
And finally, we have to address the historic workplace
safety crisis caused by the pandemic. In January President
Biden signed an executive order that instructed OSHA,
Occupational Safety and Health Administration, to consider
issuing an emergency temporary workplace safety standard, or an
ETS, by March 15.
I understand that you'll give us an update on the status of
that standard. So Mr. Secretary thank you for joining us today,
and I will now at this time recognize our distinguished Ranking
Member for the purpose of her opening statement. Dr. Foxx.
[The statement of Chairman Scott follows:]
Statement of Hon. Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott, Chairman,
Committee on Education and Labor
Today, we are meeting to discuss the Department of Labor's budget
request for Fiscal Year 2022 and examine the Department's priorities to
support workers, job seekers, retirees, and their families.
I want to start by welcoming our distinguished witness, Secretary
Marty Walsh, to the Education and Labor Committee. We are grateful for
your time and look forward to discussing your vision for how the Labor
Department can help achieve a strong and shared economic recovery.
To understand the Department's policies and priorities, we must
first consider the labor market that you inherited.
For years, the Trump administration made it harder for low-income
and middle-class workers to succeed in America.
While corporations made record profits and reaped an overwhelming
share of the benefits from the almost $2 trillion GOP tax cut, many
workers continued to work long hours in difficult jobs and still had
trouble making ends meet for themselves and their families.
Other policies include the Trump administration's overtime rule,
which has stripped millions of middle-class workers of their right to
receive overtime. The Trump administration's Independent Contractor
rule--which the Biden administration recently withdrew--would have cost
workers an estimated $3 billion every year in lost wages and benefits.
And the Trump administration abandoned a nearly complete infectious
disease standard when it took office. That standard was almost complete
when the Administration came in, which would have been a valuable tool
for OSHA to better protect workers against COVID-19.
Secretary Walsh, your task is to restore the Labor Department's
focus on strengthening workers and their families.
Thankfully, the Biden-Harris Administration and congressional
Democrats have taken decisive steps to turn our economy around and get
workers back on their feet.
For example, in March, the Administration worked with Congress to
enact the American Rescue Plan Act, which provided emergency funding to
save our child care system from collapsing, offered health care
subsidies to cover the full cost of COBRA premiums so that laid-off
workers can maintain affordable health coverage during the pandemic,
and provided emergency financial assistance--including relief checks,
the expanded Child Tax Credit, and the improved Earned Income Tax
Credit--that is projected to cut child poverty in half.
We also fully protected the hard-earned pensions of over one
million Americans who were projected to lose those pensions through no
fault of their own.
Not a single Republican supported this package, but it is producing
results for workers, businesses, and communities. The economy has
created 2.2 million jobs since the Biden-Harris Administration took
office.
Unfortunately, we still have a lot of work to do to ensure that all
workers benefit from a strong recovery. Today, our economy remains more
than 8 million jobs behind where we were at the start of the pandemic.
This is why it is essential that we create millions of good-paying
jobs by investing in our infrastructure and helping workers get the
skills and support to fill those jobs.
Mr. Secretary, we look forward to your testimony on how the
American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan would make smart
investments to build back a better economy to enable workers to get
back to work.
We're interested to know what the budget does for affordable child
care and to make college degrees more accessible as well as how you
plan to expand job training at a time when countless businesses are
desperate for talented workers and workers are looking for new, high-
quality careers.
We're also interested in what the budget includes for worker
protection agencies, including OSHA, the Wage and Hour Division, and
the Employee Benefit Security Administration, which have faced decades
of budget freezes and shrinking staff capacity.
We also want to hear about the policies to reinvigorate the Office
of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, what you will do to combat
worker misclassification and wage theft, and what you will do to expand
overtime pay protections.
Finally, we must also address the historic workplace safety crisis
caused by the pandemic. In January, President Biden signed an executive
order that instructed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration
to consider issuing an emergency temporary workplace safety standard,
or E-T-S, by March 15.
I understand that you will give us an update on the status of that
standard.
Thank you, Mr. Secretary, for joining us today. I will now, at this
time, recognize the distinguished Ranking Member for the purpose of her
opening statement.
______
Ms. Foxx. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I thank the
Secretary for being with us today also. A post-pandemic nation
requires political leaders who support job creation and stand
for all workers interests, not special interest. Workers want
to provide for their families and participate in what was,
until last year, the most robust and dynamic economy in the
world.
Sadly, the Democrat's permanent pandemic status quo
continues to inflict severe emotional and financial stress on
Americans. People crave a reason to be optimistic about the
future. Unfortunately, President Biden's proposed budget, puts
Washington's political class ahead of the working class.
The Department of Labor's job killing agenda comes at the
worst possible time. Just yesterday the Bureau of Labor
Statistics reported that job openings reached a record high of
9.3 million in April, while hiring lags far beyond. Employers
are desperate to fill good-paying jobs, but qualified workers
are hard to find.
Earn and Learn models teach valuable skills and allow
people to collect a paycheck at the same time. Yet Secretary
Walsh shut down a popular industry-led apprenticeship model in
one of his first decisions after taking office.
If only DOL's anti-worker agenda stopped there. But that
was simply the first wave. The tide of terrible decisions rose
higher. Democrats spent trillions of our grandchildren's
dollars on so-called stimulus policies. They expected massive
growth, instead they're making excuses for one lackluster jobs
report after another.
Through their ill-advised and damaging unemployment
insurance scheme, Democrats wound up creating an incentive for
healthy Americans to stay home. It is not our constituents'
fault they're merely taking the better deal. Eight-hour shifts
are pointless when one could collect the perversely large
unemployment check from the government.
The Democrats ill-conceived spending spree stripped away
the dignity that comes from earning a paycheck. The Department
of Labor then unleashed an ongoing tsunami, which is
obliterating the positive policy initiatives of the Trump
administration.
Along with pushing an unnecessary and ill-timed, one size
fits all national emergency COVID-19 regulation, supporting
socialist healthcare agenda, denying American workers the
opportunity to choose when, where and how they work, and
infringing on religious liberty, the Biden administration has
provoked a strong sense of uncertainty among America's workers
and job creators with its job killing agenda.
The Biden regulatory whiplash is manifest in our lethargic
economic recovery. Job creators need certainty and flexibility
from Federal policymakers. Aggressive and punitive regulatory
actions, coupled with competition from the government for
worker's paychecks place unsustainable cost on small
businesses. Entrepreneurs propel our economy forward by
creating jobs, burying these burgeoning businesses in an
avalanche of red tape hampers job creation.
But that fact isn't stopping the Biden administration from
planning a deluge of detrimental regulations. Perhaps most
frustrating to our fellow citizens trying to build a better
live for themselves, is the Democrats unabashed union
favoritism. Democrats wasted no time gratifying the whims of
big labor after taking hold the levers of Federal power.
I'll give them credit; Democrats know how to reward those
who butter their bread. The problem is they do so at the
expense of American workers and taxpayers. In the first 150
days of the year my colleagues on the other side of the aisle
moved legislation to override the democratic will of the people
by eliminating states' right-to-work laws and shifting
essential privacy protections from workers.
They promoted a $15.00 minimum wage, a radical proposal the
Congressional Budget Office estimates will dump millions of
workers in the unemployment line. Democrats continue to take
care of big labor with a shameful taxpayer funded pension
bailout. The Democrats radical pro-union Boss's Act initiates
government manded union pickpocketing.
The program skims the tops of worker's wages regardless of
whether they choose to be represented by a union and transfers
that money into the pockets of union organizers. Stealing from
the poor to give to the rich is hardly progressive
policymaking.
Democrats trampled on the American workers in their
stampede to appease their political allies. And the latest
Biden budget continues the betrayal of the working class. It
doesn't have to be this way. It shouldn't be this way. We could
work together for families.
Republican policies facilitated unprecedented financial
success for all Americans before COVID-19 devastated their own
economy. The economic hangover created by the pandemic does not
have to last forever. We could return to the dynamic growth of
2019 if Democrats acted in bipartisan good faith.
Republicans have effective ideas to lower drug prices off
of reskilling opportunity for the workforce, and right now
regulatory barriers to entrepreneurial success, but it requires
willingness from the Democrats to work across the aisle.
It requires an interest in elevating everyone, not just
partisan allies. Secretary Walsh has much to explain today, and
I look forward to hearing his testimony. And with that Mr.
Chairman I yield back.
[The statement of Ranking Member Foxx follows:]
Statement of Hon. Virginia Foxx, Ranking Member,
Committee on Education and Labor
A post-pandemic nation requires political leaders who support job
creation and stand for all workers' interests, not special interests.
Workers want to provide for their families and participate in what was
until last year the most robust and dynamic economy in the world.
Sadly, the Democrats' permanent pandemic status quo continues to
inflict severe emotional and financial stress on Americans. People
crave a reason to be optimistic about the future.
Unfortunately, President Biden's proposed budget puts Washington's
political class ahead of the working class.
The Department of Labor's job-killing agenda comes at the worst
possible time. Just yesterday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported
that job openings reached a record high of 9.3 million in April, while
hiring lags far behind. Employers are desperate to fill good-paying
jobs, but qualified workers are hard to find. Earn-and-learn models
teach valuable skills and allow people to collect a paycheck at the
same time. Yet Secretary Walsh shut down a popular industry-led
apprenticeship model in one of his first decisions after taking office.
If only DOL's anti-worker agenda stopped there, but that was simply
the first wave. The tide of terrible decisions rose higher. Democrats
spent trillions of our grandchildren's dollars on so-called stimulus
policies. They expected massive growth. Instead, they are making
excuses for one lackluster jobs report after another. Through their
ill-advised and damaging unemployment insurance scheme, Democrats wound
up creating an incentive for healthy Americans to stay home. It is not
our constituents' fault. They are merely taking the better deal. Eight-
hour shifts are pointless when one can collect a perversely large
unemployment check from the government. The Democrat's ill-conceived
spending spree stripped away the dignity that comes from earning a
paycheck.
The Department of Labor then unleashed an ongoing tsunami which is
obliterating the positive policy initiatives of the Trump
administration. Along with pushing an unnecessary and ill-timed, one-
size-fits-all national ``emergency'' COVID-19 regulation; supporting a
socialist health care agenda; denying American workers the
opportunities to choose when, where, and how they work; and infringing
on religious liberty, the Biden administration has provoked a strong
sense of uncertainty among America's workers and job creators with its
job-killing agenda.
The Biden regulatory whiplash is manifest in our lethargic economic
recovery. Job creators need certainty and flexibility from Federal
policymakers. Aggressive and punitive regulatory actions, coupled with
competition from the government for workers' paychecks, place
unsustainable costs on small businesses. Entrepreneurs propel our
economy forward by creating jobs. Burying these burgeoning businesses
in an avalanche of red tape hampers job creation. But that fact isn't
stopping the Biden administration from planning a deluge of detrimental
regulations.
Perhaps most frustrating to our fellow citizens trying to build a
better life for themselves is the Democrats' unabashed union
favoritism. Democrats wasted no time gratifying the whims of Big Labor
after taking hold the levers of Federal power. I'll give them credit;
House Democrats know how to reward those who butter their bread. The
problem is they do so at the expense of American workers. In the first
150 days of the year, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle
moved legislation to override the democratic will of the people by
eliminating states' right to work laws and stripping essential privacy
protections from workers. They promoted a $15 national minimum wage--a
radical proposal the Congressional Budget Office estimates will dump
millions of workers in the unemployment line. Democrats continued to
take care of Big Labor with a shameful taxpayer-funded pension bailout.
The Democrats' radical Pro Union Bosses Act institutes government-
mandated union pickpocketing. The PRO Act skims the top off workers'
wages regardless of whether they choose to be represented by a union
and transfers that money into the pockets of union organizers. Stealing
from the poor to give to the rich is hardly progressive policymaking.
Democrats trampled on American workers in their stampede to appease
their political allies. And the latest Biden budget continues the
betrayal of the working class.
It doesn't have to be this way. It shouldn't be this way. We can
work together for families. Republican policies facilitated
unprecedented financial success for all Americans before COVID-19
devasted the world economy. The economic hangover created by the
pandemic does not have to last forever. We could return to the dynamic
growth of 2019 if Democrats acted in bipartisan good faith. Republicans
have effective ideas to lower drug prices, offer reskilling
opportunities for the workforce, and break down regulatory barriers to
entrepreneurial success. But it requires willingness from the Democrats
to work across the aisle. It requires an interest in elevating
everyone, not just partisan allies.
Secretary Walsh has much to explain today, and I look forward to
hearing his testimony.
______
Chairman Scott. Thank you. Without objection all other
Members who wish to insert written statements into the record
may do so by submitting them to the Committee Clerk
electronically in Microsoft Word format by 5 p.m. on June 23,
2021.
It is now my honor to introduce our witness Honorable Marty
Walsh who was sworn in as the 29th Secretary of Labor on March
23, 2021. He served as the mayor of Boston, Massachusetts for 7
years before becoming Secretary. Prior to that Secretary Walsh
served as a State Representative in Massachusetts and is the
President of the Laborer's Local 223 in Boston.
He earned a bachelor's degree from Boston College. And we
appreciate the Secretary for participating today and look
forward to your testimony. Let me remind you that we have read
your written statement, and it will appear in full in the
hearing record.
Pursuant to Committee Rule 8(b) and Committee practice,
you're asked to limit your oral presentation to about a five-
minute summary of your written statement. Before you begin your
testimony please remember to unmute your microphone. If you
experience technical difficulties during your testimony or
later in the hearing you should stay connected to the platform
to make sure that you're muted, and use your phone immediately
to call the Committee's IT director whose number was provided
to you in advance.
After your presentation, we'll move to Member questions.
When answering questions please remember to unmute your
microphone. You will see the timer that I referred to in my
opening statement on the screen. Secretary Walsh, it's an honor
to have you with us today and please proceed with your
testimony.
STATEMENT OF HON. MARTIN J. WALSH, SECRETARY, U.S. DEPARTMENT
OF LABOR
Secretary Walsh. Thank you, Chairman Scott and Ranking
Member Foxx, Members of the Committee. I'm grateful for this
opportunity to outline the Biden/Harris administration's plan
for strengthening the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act
and supporting the critical work of the Department of Labor in
the President's fiscal 2022 budget.
Since being sworn in as Secretary of Labor I've been able
to meet with working people in businesses throughout this
country. American workers have carried us through the pandemic.
They've struggled and they've sacrificed. What they want and
deserve is access to high-quality good-paying jobs to support
their families and build back their communities.
So I really appreciate the opportunity to share our vision
for this meeting at this moment. WIOA was a law that was signed
into law in 2014 with the goal of modernizing our workforce
systems to better reflect the needs of the 21st Century
economy. Today we face even greater challenges, so we need
transformative solutions like the President has proposed in the
American Jobs Plan, The American Families Plan in its fiscal
1922 budget.
That means as Congress considers reauthorization of this
law, we have a historic opportunity. We can strengthen WIOA and
build on it by integrating the innovation provided in the
American Jobs Plan. As Members of the Committee know, the
impact of WIOA has been limited by deeply inadequate funding.
The United States spends only 0.1 percent of its gross
domestic products on workforce policy, compared to an average
of 0.6 percent in other wealthy nations. This deficit leaves in
place barriers to opportunity for much of our workforce,
especially in marginalized communities, and it's a competitive
disadvantage for our economy.
The President recognizes the critical role workforce
development plays in strengthening our economy and our
competitiveness on the world stage. That's why WIOA proposed
historic investment of 100 billion dollars over 10 years in
workforce development.
Much of this is planned investment dedicated to building
the capacity of our current workforce system. It would support
evidence-based programs developed through WIOA funding. Scaling
these innovations will help meet the growing needs of employers
and bring more workers into well-paying middle class jobs.
The President and I are also deeply committed to the equity
in the American workforce. We have made equity a central
component of WIOA's recommendations in the full budget. Many
communities continue to face systemic racist, and persistent
economic inequality. They lack real access to critical job
training programs and in demand jobs.
The President is committed to ensuring everyone can get a
good paying high-quality job, including women, people of color,
people with disabilities, veterans, transitioning service
Members and their spouses. That commitment is central to
building back better and it's a core goal of the WIOA law.
For these reasons the administration's recommendations
focus on four priority areas aligning WIOA with key proposals
in the American Jobs Plan, expanding access to high-quality
training and service matched to good jobs, improving data,
transparency, and accountability to promote equitable outcomes,
and integrate workforce education and public assistance systems
to reach workers and deliver for regional economies.
I am eager to work with the Committee to fully realize
WIOA's potential and truly meet the needs of the 21st Century
economy and its workers. At the same time, we also recognize
that training is not enough. Training must lead to good quality
jobs, jobs that pay family sustaining wages and benefits, jobs
with opportunities to create advancement through training and
education, jobs with access to paid leave, and the assurance
that workers can use their voice and organize to improve pay
and working conditions.
That's why the President's budget proposal advances the
full mission of the Department of Labor. It not only invests in
our workforce system, but it also takes a step to provide the
first comprehensive update to the UI system in decades. It
calls for the reauthorization of the Trade Adjustment
Assistance program, and it protects workers safety, paycheck's
rights, and benefits by increasing funding through the
Department's enforcement agencies.
I look forward to discussing these proposals with this
Committee as well. Under President Biden's leadership we have
the opportunity to build back better by building up our ability
to serve the working people of America. I look forward to
continuing our work together on these issues and other
priorities.
And before I end my statement I would just like a minute
Mr. Chairman just to let people know OIRA has concluded their
review of the ETS. Normally there's a long delay between the
conclusion of review and the publication of OSHA standards in
the Federal Register, but our team is working to release the
ETS on OSHA's website by this time tomorrow, and speed up the
release of the specifics.
We know there's lots of interest in the content of this
rule, and we want to get more information on it. OSHA has
tailored a rule that focuses on healthcare, that science tells
us that healthcare workers, particularly those who have come
into regular contact with people either suspected of having or
being treated for COVID-19 are most at risk.
OSHA has tailored a rule that reflects the reality on the
ground. The success of all government vaccination efforts plus
the largest guidance from CDC in changing the nature of the
pandemic. We also expect to release some updated guidance for
general industry which also affects the CDC's latest guidance
and tells employers how to protect workers who have not yet
been vaccinated.
So with that I'll take questions on that. I look forward to
the questions Mr. Chairman.
[The prepared statement of Secretary Walsh follows.]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Martin J. Walsh
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Scott. Thank you very much and I certainly
appreciate your testimony and we'll now have questions from
Members beginning with the gentleman from Arizona Mr. Grijalva.
Mr. Grijalva. Thank you. Thank you very much Mr. Chairman
and thank you Secretary for being with us. As we heard, as you
will hear today many of my republican colleagues have talked
about the so-called labor shortages, particularly in the
leisure and hospitality sector caused by in part, in large
part, according to them, by the supplemental unemployment
benefits that were provided, and continue to be provided during
this pandemic.
The jobs report from Friday showed that employment in the
sector actually increased by close to 300,000 in May as the
restrictions on the pandemic ease up in parts of the country.
My question is it with all that being said, and do you think
that the real and persistent issue that our country faces and
the Biden administration and yourself and congressional
Democrats are trying to solve is a shortage of good paying
jobs, high-quality jobs, wages that are being paid?
Or is it just caused by supplemental unemployment benefits
that were provided during the pandemic as a recovery and a
relief measure. Secretary if you would please, thank you.
Secretary Walsh. Thank you, Congressman, for your question.
First and foremost I just want to say how grateful I am for the
unemployment insurance system from the beginning of this
pandemic before when COVID-19 really started hitting our cities
across America. I was the mayor of Boston and if we didn't have
the unemployment insurance, and Congress didn't act on
unemployment insurance in the CARES Act and the American Rescue
Plan, we would have had a lot more devastation in our cities
and towns across America.
People would have lost their homes. People would have been
thrown out of their apartments. People wouldn't be able to put
food on the table. We would have had a lot of crises. In the
beginning of COVID-19 the economy literally was shut down what
seemed like overnight, but over several days.
To regenerate and restart our economy it's going to take
more than simply flipping a switch as the President said the
other day. I think that a lot of the concern people have is we
have right now in America over 268 million people have been
vaccinated. People still haven't been fully vaccinated. I think
this is adding to people and the concern of going back to work.
I think people are concerned about their health. I think
lots of industries still aren't open yet. The encouraging signs
are that the last 4 months we've seen in addition to 540,000
new jobs added to the economy for each of the last 4 months,
and as you've pointed out Mr. Congressman you've talked about
the hospitality industry.
We've seen a lot of gains for two consistent months there.
We've seen that President Biden's economic plans are working.
The American Rescue Plan is working, and we're seeing Americans
every day more and more go back to work. And I think that we
still have some inefficiencies that we have to deal with in
childcare in learning hybrid schools. So I'm encouraged that
with the signs that we're seeing and through the month of May
and I want to continue to be encouraged as long as the
pandemic, the numbers continue to go down as we move forward
here.
But I will say this. I do not feel that the $300.00 bonus
is keeping people out of work. If that was the original
intention of your question. Thank you, Congressman.
Mr. Grijalva. Thank you very much and with that Mr.
Chairman thank you for the hearing, and the Secretary for being
with us and I yield back.
Chairman Scott. Thank you and I'll be recognizing Members
in order of seniority, and we ask you to notice the time. We're
going to keep within the five-minute rule. So thank you Mr.
Grijalva and the next person to ask questions will be the
gentleman from South Carolina Mr. Wilson.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you, Chairman and thank you Ranking
Member Virginia Foxx, both of you for your leadership of the
Committee. Secretary Walsh I represent the historic Savannah
Rivers site in Aiken, South Carolina. Many of the patriots who
worked at this site are the persons who were successful through
a cold war victory.
Now they're eligible for energy employees' occupational
interest compensation program, the EEOICP. This office has had
an issue about complaints when it comes to navigating the
program, and also barriers to appropriate care. Do you have
plans to work with the stakeholders to develop a more
transparent, equitable, and claimant friendly adjudication
process as Congress has intended?
Secretary Walsh. Thank you, Mr. Congressman. I absolutely
will work with you on. And look forward to working with you. We
should probably connect maybe after the hearing or over the
next couple of days, and obviously your constituents are
concerned, and the industry is concerned as a whole workers, so
I look forward to working with you on that.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you very much for that offer, and we will
be in touch, and I appreciate your sincerity on that.
Additionally, the energy employees program in 2019, the
ombudsman report mentioned complaints regarding collection
notices received for a bill that they thought was paid for by
the program, or in obtaining emergency home healthcare
services.
A paraphrase from the report is that, ``Stress from health
problems combined with the problems we're trying to resolve
these medical bills in fear of financial impact arising from
unpaid medical bills have led some claimants to assert they
wish they had not filed a claim in the first place.''
What steps do you plan to take to improve the medical claim
adjudication process and delivery of promised goods to ensure
that the medical providers are compensated in a timely manner?
Secretary Walsh. Certainly, Congressman this is an
important issue, and we can definitely work better to make this
program work on behalf of the workers and the people affected
by it.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you very much. Another question would be
the U.S. Department of Labor has recognized the apprenticeship
of South Carolina, a division of the South Carolina technical
college system as a national model for providing apprenticeship
expansion and to collaboration among State agencies engaged in
workforce development.
Through Federal grants and supplemental State funding the
apprenticeship of South Carolina has been able to offer
superior customer service to South Carolina businesses when it
comes to navigating the burdensome Federal apprenticeship
program. And I'm really grateful that the proposed courier and
newspaper in Charleston, South Carolina where people have a
very similar accent to yours in Boston, that in Charleston the
newspaper there has endorsed this program.
And what are your efforts to promote apprenticeship
programs?
Secretary Walsh. Thank you for talking about this area.
When I was going through my hearing back in March, Democrats
and Republicans all agreed on needs for workforce development
in community colleges. And it's a great opportunity for us to
really make major investments in our community colleges to help
young people that go to college, or people going to college
whether they're on a pathway to college, or a pathway to a
career.
So part of the WIOA reauthorization, part of the investment
in the American Jobs Plan, all of this is what we really need
to take advantage. When I say advantage, a good advantage, of
our community college system that's already in our country to
be able to make the investments in those colleges, so they can
make the investment in the American workforce, so I look
forward to working with your community college in your
district, but also community college all across this country,
and thank you for bringing this up in the hearing.
I think this is one of the most important things when we
think about the future of workforce development, community
colleges need to be at the table from the first day to the
last.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you again for your insight on that. And
finally a question in regard to the Inspector General's alert
memorandum issued in February of this year, identified more
than 5.4 billion dollars of potentially fraudulent unemployment
insurance payments between March 2020 and October 2020,
anticipating that the actual amounts could be significant
higher.
I'm grateful that with the leadership in our home State
with Governor Henry McMaster in South Carolina, that we've been
diligent in adopting tools to mitigate fraud through a cross
system checking careful staff scrutiny of applications and
implementation of fraud indicators. What are you proposing for
other states?
Secretary Walsh. Well right now through the American Rescue
Plan there was a 2 billion dollar investment in our team at ETA
is working right now on policy and looking at how do we look at
all of the issues that came up during the pandemic, both before
the pandemic, and how do we make sure that the UI system works
on behalf of the American worker, so we can eliminate the
problems that we're seeing.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you very much and I yield back Mr.
Chairman.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. Next will be the gentleman from
Connecticut, Mr. Courtney.
Mr. Courtney. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Mr. Secretary,
it's good to see you again. Thank you for your May 4th visit up
to Groton, to visit the electrical shipyard and the home and
the birthplace of the Fitzgerald Act Registered Partnership
Program and I think we all got a very good opportunity to see
the success of the Registered Apprenticeship Program, with both
the building trades and the shipyard workers.
I'm going to ask you a question about that in a second, but
I wanted to spend a minute. On April 4th, the House passed an
OSHA bill, the Workplace Violence Prevention for Healthcare
Workers and Social Workers. It passed actually with over 60
percent bipartisan margin.
As you pointed out, the healthcare workforce has been the
true front line during the pandemic, but there's a colliding
epidemic of workplace violence that this Committee has
documented through GAO. The Department of Labor has had
voluntary guidance out there for a number of years, but it's
not working, and the COVID pandemic did not abate the incidents
of assaults and unacceptable levels of violence in the
healthcare sector.
Again, I was pleased to see in your budget you've allocated
funding for OSHA to implement a workplace violence standard
rule, and I hope again you will help us in the Senate to try
and achieve the same bipartisan success which again multiple
healthcare professional groups and labor groups are supporting
this bill.
This is really about preventing burnout in a key sector of
our economy.
Secretary Walsh. Thank you, Congressman. It's great to see
you again and we did have a great visit that day. I want to
thank you. And I want to thank you on your leadership in this
important issue. You know all across America we hear violence
happening around healthcare, nurses, aides, doctors, and it's
really an issue.
OSHA strongly supports your bill that's being considered by
the Senate. You know we're going to continue to push in
addition to that, to that legislation. Now is the time for OSHA
to take the steps necessary toward developing a standard of
addressing workplace violence.
I look forward to working with you and other Members of
this Committee and Members of the House and Senate to talk
about that. I know that during the Obama administration OSHA
granted rulemaking petitions seeking such a standard, but the
last administration took no action on that decision, so I look
forward to working with you.
This is an issue that I'm quite honestly, I worked on a bit
when I was a State legislator back 25 years ago, in the
Massachusetts House of Representatives, so I look forward to
working with you on it.
Mr. Courtney. Great. Well I really appreciate that. Again
turning to apprenticeships and workforce development, as I said
the two of us had a chance to sort of see first-hand how you
can size up a workforce really fast as is happening at Electric
Boat and also use solid standards in terms of making sure that
the training programs both pre-apprenticeship and
apprenticeship have real quality and high standards.
Again your testimony, your written testimony notice that
again the House passed, the National Apprenticeship Act which
is the first update to the Fitzgerald Act which passed in 1937.
Could you talk about the way the WIOA funding and initiative in
the Jobs Plan sort of dovetails in with the Apprenticeship
Program?
Secretary Walsh. Yes no, absolutely. First and foremost,
just for the Members of the Committee on that trip that when we
visited Electric Boat that day there were two young people
there that were apprentices. And both of them express now they
have an opportunity to earn a living now by being in the
apprentice program working for a company that actually does
contracting with the Federal Government, which is important,
it's a win/win.
And how one of them said that college was not for him. And
if this opportunity was not presented to him, he wouldn't have
had a way to earn a living. So right there there's proof in
that apprenticeships work, workforce development works.
What we're looking at doing is making a major investment in
apprenticeship programs through the American Jobs Plan. The
President has allocated, I think I'm trying to get the exact
figure, I think 285 million dollars which will create 2 million
more registered apprentice programs in this country.
And it will benefit every single district in the United
States of America with young people that quite honestly might
make decisions instead of going to college, they don't want to
go to college, get into the workforce. And the minute they
start working as an apprentice, they start giving into the
economy.
They start paying taxes. They start being a part of
society, they start earning a wage, earning a living,
healthcare, all of that, so this investment of 200 plus billion
dollars I should say, not millions, billions, is a great
investment for the future of the workforce.
Ranking Member Foxx in the very beginning talked about
people not being in the workforce. Some of this is about
creating an opportunity for some of those folks that want to
better their life, want to be able to get in a better job, and
there's no better way of doing it than through the WIOA
reauthorization, the investment in the American Jobs Plan, and
really looking at workforce development and apprenticeships.
Mr. Courtney. Very well said. Thank you. I yield back.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. Next is the gentleman from
Michigan Mr. Walberg.
Mr. Walberg. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Mr. Secretary
thank, you for being with us virtually today. First let me
start by saying that I sincerely appreciate your efforts as
mayor of Boston to combat human trafficking. Eliminating this
scourge in society is something I care very deeply about, and
next week my good friend and colleague, Representative Sablan
and I will reintroduce our Enhancing Detection of Human
Trafficking Act to ensure the Department of Labor employees
have the skills they need to detect cases of human trafficking
in the workplace.
And I look forward Mr. Secretary to working with you on
this issue as I know it's something we both care deeply about.
Changing subjects, as we all know on May 13th the CDC said
that fully vaccinated people can begin returning to normal
life, mask free without the need for physical distancing in
most settings. I hate to ask it this way, but I need to ask you
a yes or no question. Does the Department want citizens and
State leaders to follow the guidance put out by the CDC, yes or
no?
Secretary Walsh. Kind I just before I answer that question
let me just first your first point, thank you very much for
acknowledging that. We did a lot of work in the city of Boston.
I look forward to working with you on human trafficking. We
created a division within the Boston Police Department for
human trafficking, and I'm not going to publicly say some of
the other things we did because it's protection of the
traffickers but thank you for that.
The answer to your question is, is it's hard to say yes or
no, but yes, I'd like to see people back to work. But there's a
but there with the virus.
Mr. Walberg. Your Department has decided to continue
forward with an emergency temporary standard ETS that employers
must adhere to in the workplace. Now the Department of Labor
rule has not yet been published, but per the President's
executive order the Department must consider the requirements
for masks to be worn in the workplace, and that concerns me.
Secretary Walsh. I just want to clarify it just on the
medical.
Mr. Walberg. Where everyone is fully vaccinated should
workers wear a mask.
Secretary Walsh. Sorry I don't know if you've heard in the
beginning just really quickly, just so I was clear. Maybe I
wasn't clear. This is just in the healthcare field. The
standard is just for healthcare. All the other industries it's
going to be a guidance, so we're just talking in hospitals, in
healthcare settings with nurses, doctors, where you have
potentially high risk of contact with COVID patients.
So this isn't blanketed across the industries.
Mr. Walberg. I'm glad to hear that. But I contend again if
you're fully vaccinated, you're protected. And I think we ought
to follow the science at some point in time, and even giving
guidance I think is not truthful in the fact that if you want
to follow the science CDC says it's right. We've seen the
impact.
Even here in Michigan because of the vaccinated individuals
we have dropped below any surge going back to July of last
year. So I think the answer should be let's let people go back
to work and do it in a normal fashion. Cases are down and
continuing to decline. Hospitalizations are down, and as the
President noted on June 2, over 170 million Americans have
received the vaccine.
Is the Department's position a grave danger still exists to
American workers?
Secretary Walsh. I think that the answer to that is
impossible for me to be able to answer that fully. I'm not a
scientist unfortunately, and I think that you know I like the
signs of where we're headed with COVID-19. I love the fact that
our numbers are going down, however people are still dying, and
people are still getting infected.
But I want us to continue. Listen, in my previous role as
mayor one of the worst things that could happen.
Mr. Walberg. With all due respect I suggest we follow the
science because you know to not do that, why would the
Department of Labor continue its policy of issuing one size
fits all rule when the CDC is saying vaccinated people can
start living normally?
Let me move on from that. I don't think we're going to
fully agree on that, but I hope we can move forward. The most
recent jobs report reported 9.3 million vacant job openings in
March. That's more than 1 million higher than at the end of
April. And the fastest growth rates since July 2020.
Additionally, your own Inspector General pointed out that
there's been at least 39.2 billion in wasted fraud in the
pandemic unemployment programs, that by the end of September.
Secretary Walsh given the plunge in COVID-19 cases,
unprecedented challenges in business that all sides are
experiencing, in my district and many other places, is it time
for this Federal emergency employment insurance to be
immediately terminated?
Secretary Walsh. I'll give you a simple answer to that, no.
Mr. Walberg. But I'll tell you.
Chairman Scott. The gentleman's time is way over. If you
want to complete your thought, the gentleman from Michigan
complete his thought.
Mr. Walberg. I guess to complete the thought it says that
what we're seeing in the real world with job providers here in
the 7th District of Michigan and other places this is having a
significant impact on people getting back to work. I think it's
time to end it. Thanks for the discretion and I yield back.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. The gentleman from Northern
Mariana Islands Mr. Sablan.
Mr. Sablan. Yes thank you. Thank you very much Mr. Chairman
and Secretary Walsh good morning and thank you very much for
joining us. Mr. Secretary I negotiated the Marianas eligibility
for PUA and FPUC based on the government's experience in
administering the Disaster Unemployment Assistance Program. And
with no underlying UI system, delays were understandably
expected.
However, according to your Department's Office of the
Inspector General, it took 111 days for the first payment to be
issued, the highest reported delay in implementation of
jurisdictions. My constituents report delays in payments that
range from weeks to months, in some cases, approved individuals
have been waiting over a year for payments since filing a claim
last June.
According to claims data provided in April by your
Department, the Marianas received over 383 million dollars, but
has spent 190 million of that--so just under half. What actions
Mr. Secretary is your Department taking to make sure that the
aid Congress made available is getting to the people who it was
intended for in my district?
Secretary Walsh. Thank you. Thank you Representative, and I
appreciate your concern. I want to first say to you the
Department is committed to working obviously with you and your
office in Congress and OIG to ensure the proper administration
of the UI program.
The program's administration and integrity, we need to work
hard to improve the distribution I should say of benefits. I
drew a blank there for a minute. We need to continue to work
hard so that this doesn't happen again. No worker should have
to go through this. No area of our country should have to go
through this, and I look forward to working hard with you and
folks in ETA so that we correct this problem.
We've noticed during the pandemic obviously there were some
problems and some situations that arose in different
situations, so we have work to do here.
Mr. Sablan. Yes thank you Secretary Walsh for that. Again,
you know at the risk of repeating myself, my Marianas
constituents have reported instances of PUA checks returned for
insufficient funds, or inconsistent pay dates where the payment
was scheduled and then did not occur. Mr. Secretary will you
please agree to commit to working with me and your Office of
Inspector General to review the Commonwealth's government's
administration of the PUA and FPUC programs and provide the
Commonwealth Department of Labor the necessary steps to get the
programs on track.
People are waiting for benefits meant for them for months,
some a year or more.
Secretary Walsh. The answer, the short answer to your
question is yes. And there's lot of lessons learned throughout
this pandemic and the shortfalls of our system as I mentioned
earlier, and I didn't probably articulate correctly in the
beginning. You know when the pandemic hit many cities and towns
and states and territories around the country had issues with
how do we administer a program so quickly?
I will not blame the people at the Department of Labor,
they did an amazing job getting hundreds of billions of dollars
out of the front door, but it surely showed inequities in our
system, and even today we still have communities of color that
were disproportionately impacted by not getting benefits out
the door.
So there's lots of lessons that were learned. I want to
thank you and Congress for passing the American Rescue Plan for
the two-billion-dollar investment. That money that was invested
in the system is for us to look at the system, look at the
areas where we fell short. Look at the areas where there was
problems, look at the areas where there was fraud, and how do
we help strengthen the 53 systems that are around the country
right now?
We're currently in the process of having those
conversations, and we are going to continue to have those
conversations. So thank you for bringing this up today.
Mr. Sablan. I appreciate that and you know of course it's
not a massive volume, my government, my Commonwealth government
took the longest to actually get the first check out of 111
days, the highest known in the Nation, but Mr. Secretary thank
you very much. Mr. Chairman I yield back.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. Yes, next we have the gentlelady
from New York, Ms. Stefanik.
Ms. Stefanik. Secretary Walsh I wanted to followup on the
question that my colleague Mr. Walberg asked regarding the
additional Federal unemployment assistance. Recent data from
the Bureau of Labor and Statistics reported a record 9.3
million job openings as workers are incentivized to sit at home
because of this additional $300.00 per week of enhanced Federal
unemployment insurance.
According to a recent report from the University of
Chicago, 42 percent of American workers are earning more
through unemployment insurance that they are making in their
pre-pandemic jobs. I'm hearing from small business and
manufacturers all across my district, and all across the
country who are absolutely desperate to fill these vacant job
openings.
So as the American people are focused on reopening our
economy and you go to any main street in America you see for
hire signs. I believe in the American people and small business
believe that we need to end this additional $300.00 per week.
[Inaudible.]
And small businesses across this country, and why to stay
at home rather than incentivizing reopening. Am I coming
through now Bobby?
Chairman Scott. Yes, you are.
Ms. Stefanik. OK.
Chairman Scott. Yes, you just got back.
Ms. Stefanik. Great. So the question, is the incentive is
such that more workers are staying home rather than getting
back to work. And you go to any main street across America and
there's a for hire sign at small businesses. Why are we
continuing to promote this incentive for workers to stay home
rather than getting back to work?
Secretary Walsh. Thank you very much for your question and
concern. I think that I want to start with the fact is that the
President's economic plan is working. For the last 4 months
we've created more jobs than any other administration in
American history, more than 2 million people are now working
that were not when President Biden took office, and we're
seeing wages go up as well.
Both are positive steps, and you know we just need to
continue to work with companies.
Ms. Stefanik. What we're seeing Mr. Secretary that the
labor force participation is down. That's what we saw in the
most recent jobs report that was released, and again you go to
any small business, the No. 1 issue they raise is that they're
unable to hire workers.
In my district in upState New York you go to any main
street and that is the issue, the lack for hiring. I guess my
followup question is are you going to collect data from states
who have wowed down this Federal unemployment assistance and
compare it to states that have not, so we can truly see the
impact of this Federal employment assistance.
Secretary Walsh. Actually in that question no State has
done it yet, they've only mentioned it, but no one has actually
taken that action.
Ms. Stefanik. Well when they do that will that data be
collected?
Secretary Walsh. I'm assuming. Well I can look at it and
see if it is. The unemployment extension runs out in September.
So I'm not sure when they're going to take action on it.
Ms. Stefanik. Great. So that's not my question. My question
is willing the Department collect that data?
Secretary Walsh. Of course I said it. At the beginning I
said I would look into it.
Ms. Stefanik. OK great, so I'll take that as a yes that
they will look into that data so we can see the comparison
because my bet, and you talk to any small businesses, I bet
we're going to see much stronger job growth in states that wind
it down than in states that don't.
My second question is regarding the payroll audit
independence termination program, the PAID program. This was of
course as you know established by the Trump administration in
2018 to encourage business owners to conduct payroll audits and
to self-report violations of any are discovered. We of course
want workers to be paid what they are owed.
Between its inception and July of last year this successful
program resulted in more than 7 million dollars in back wages
paid to more than 11,000 workers. It secured four times the
amount of back wages compared to traditional full enforcement
investigations and more than 10 times the back wages per labor
department's staff hours invested, and yet despite the success
this administration has chosen to end this program, why was
that decision made?
Secretary Walsh. I'm not familiar with this program. I'd
have to get more information on it, I honestly am not familiar
with this program at all.
Ms. Stefanik. OK. So as the Secretary of the Department
you're not familiar with the decision to wind down a successful
program to get workers? wages that they're owed?
Secretary Walsh. Like I said to you I will look into it,
and I will get back to you on this.
Ms. Stefanik. OK that's very concerning. I look forward to
the response on that. It was an effective program, and I'm very
concerned that the Secretary of Labor is not familiar with the
decision made to wind down the program. Thank you I yield back.
Secretary Walsh. Thank you.
Chairman Scott. The gentlelady's time has expired. Next is
the gentlelady from Florida Ms. Wilson.
Ms. Wilson. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you Secretary
Walsh for coming before our Committee today. As Chair of the
Higher Education and Workforce Investment Subcommittee I
welcome your full investment in job training and workforce
development.
I also look forward to working directly with you on a
robust reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and
Opportunity Act. And as an original cosponsor of the PRO Act I
great appreciate President Biden's and your support for this
landmark legislation. I had the opportunity to Chair three
hearings on the PRO Act during the last Congress.
I applaud you and President Biden for fighting to build
back our economy and we all share the commitment to ensuring
that all workers are allowed to organize and collectively
bargain. As you all know, unions are the backbone of American
economic prosperity.
With that I have a few questions Secretary. The
administration is calling for a 1.5-billion-dollar
appropriation for dislocated workers. Would the administration
support an expansion of eligibility for dislocated worker
program through reauthorization that would take into account
gig workers who wouldn't automatically qualify for these
services?
Secretary Walsh. We are looking into that now as we move
forward here, and I look forward to working with you on that
Congresswoman to see exactly some of the areas you want us to
look at as well.
Ms. Wilson. Thank you so much and thank you for allowing
virtual enrollment for Job Corps centers. And as we move past
that, when will Job Corps resume normal enrollments and non-
residential enrollments particularly for vaccinated students?
And when will Job Corps begin complying with current guidelines
on vaccinations including no longer requiring vaccinated
students to quarantine upon entry?
Secretary Walsh. Thank you for that. I had a conversation
yesterday with some of the job corps folks to talk about we
talked about the online signup. You know we talked about making
sure as we reopen job corps, as we get people back into the
classrooms and back into the facilities that we do it safely
and to make sure we continue to buildup a team.
I'm hoping that they're working on proposals now. I was in
Memphis a couple weeks ago. I had a chance to visit a Job Corps
in Memphis. They have a beautiful facility there, beautiful
grounds, and they had no kids and a few instructors. So I
thought to myself what a shame that this place is not filled
with lots of life and doing some amazing training, so we are
working there.
But we also have to make sure that we in some cases, make
sure that our young people have access to the vaccine that want
to take the vaccine, and then also we want to make sure as
we're building up the team there, part of this is also a
culture of teamwork, working together, the young people working
together. So our ETA folks are working really hard to make sure
that we can continue.
And Job Corps folks I really should say, and the staff,
working to make sure we can open up Job Corps safely and
effectively and make a big impact on many young people's lives.
Ms. Wilson. Thank you so much. As the economy reopens, why
is it important that workers be able to earn at least $15.00 an
hour, at least?
Secretary Walsh. You're asking me why? Listen, you know, I
know you know this. The minimum wage in this country is too
low. There's no way that a family of one can raise themselves
on $7.25. A $15.00 minimum wage is a baseline that would be
able to help people earn higher wages, a better living. I think
that that's something that we owe to the people in this
country.
And I think it's something that we're able to do in many
states around the country, including my home State of
Massachusetts. The impact of raising that minimum wage did not
cause any job loss. As a matter of fact it was quite honest it
was job gain. We're seeing increases in opportunities in
Massachusetts and other states that have raised minimum wage,
so I would love to work with you, and to see Congress and the
Senate pass the minimum wage bill.
That's something that President Biden is very adamant
about. It's something that the American people are adamant
about, and it's about helping all people right now. If we saw
anything during this pandemic, we saw the inequities in my city
where we saw food lines. We saw food lines in Dallas. We saw
food lines all across this country, something that we weren't
used to seeing except around holidays where poor people and
homeless people came out.
We owe the American people more, and I hope that we can get
the $15.00 an hour minimum wage passed in both branches of the
government on the President's desk.
Ms. Wilson. Thank you so much. I appreciate you including
that in your budget for a Federal minimum wage. And what can we
do to make sure that we impose civil penalties against people
who retaliate against workers who try to join a union?
Secretary Walsh. I think one of the things the President
put in the American Jobs Plan the PRO Act, and that's something
that is and there is some other legislation up on capitol hill
that would be looking out for the rights of workers.
So I think again it's having a conversation, a dialog, with
all Members of Congress about the importance of making sure
that we protect worker's rights.
Ms. Wilson. Thank you so much. I yield back.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. The gentleman from Georgia, Mr.
Allen. You're on mute.
Mr. Allen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman can you hear me now? Mr.
Secretary thank you for joining us today. Mr. Chairman thank
you for having this hearing. Mr. Secretary my State of Georgia
was one of the first states to reopen during the COVID crisis.
We are currently closing in on pre-pandemic economic
numbers. The biggest problem we're having, and you've heard
this over and over again, is workers returning to the
workforce. As you heard the number of workers who are not
working, we've probably got another 20 million workers who are
trapped on some form of welfare, and we know that work programs
and the ability to go back to work creates a tremendous
opportunity for those folks who have been stuck in generational
welfare.
Secretary Walsh, Labor and Management Reporting and
Disclosure Act reporting requirements serve as the primary
means by which more than 7 million private sector union Members
receive information on how their dues are spent.
On May 27, your Department's Office of Labor Management
Standards published a proposed rule to rescind the Trump
administration's final rule on labor organization trust. The
Trump administration rule established the form T-1 which labor
organizations are required to submit to OLMS disclosing assets,
liabilities, receipts and disbursements for trust in which the
union has a significant stake.
Please explain how repealing this DOL rule that ensures
financial transparency for union Members is in the best
interest of American workers.
Secretary Walsh. Mr. Congressman the fundamental question
exists regarding the rule's legal basis and policy
jurisdictions. But under the current rule the initial T-1
report must be filed as soon as September 28. Did I lose you
Mr. Congressman?
Mr. Allen. No sir I'm here.
Secretary Walsh. Oh I thought something was beeping here.
So whether the jointly trusted trust can be considered under
the rule of unions, so basically this rule did not change the
way we can go in and check labor, and check labor unions.
Mr. Allen. OK. Well we will continue to discuss that, and
we'll do that offline, but I want to make sure that you
understand exactly what my concern is there.
Secretary Walsh. Mr. Congressman if I can try really
quickly, I apologize.
Mr. Allen. Yes.
Secretary Walsh. We already collect the information and the
rule that we rescinded was redundant, so we already collect
that information. I apologize for not giving you the correct
answer.
Mr. Allen. OK. Secretary Walsh you testified before the
House Appropriations Committee hearing in April, and my
colleague Representative Andy Harris asked you if the
Department of Labor would consider extending the RRASA stand-
alone telehealth exemption.
Currently employers are allowed to offer standalone
telehealth benefits to employees who are not eligible for full
benefits, including seasonal or part-time workers. At the time
you said that you would have to circle back with him. It's been
probably a month since the hearing, and I'm sure you've had the
opportunity to formulate some type of policy response.
What does the Department of Labor support, or does the
Department of Labor support extending the RRASA stand along
telehealth exemption?
Secretary Walsh. We still I don't have a full answer for
the Congressman or for you today. We are still working on that
situation and looking at what the reforms would look like and
what the rules would look like.
Mr. Allen. OK sir. And I've got about 45 seconds. In
crafting the 86 billion taxpayer bailout of multi-employer
pension system, congressional Democrats completely disregarded
the extreme burden it placed on the American taxpayer, most of
whom will not benefit from open-ended and extensive provisions.
To put matters into a perspective according to the most
recent TPGC data, a multi-employee system is collectively
underfunded by 673 billion. You are Chair of the TPGC's Board
of Directors. I've been in Congress four terms, and we've done
nothing to fix this. What is your solution?
Secretary Walsh. Thank you for that. Thank you for
acknowledging that you've been in Congress for a long time and
now I'm trying to fix it, so I appreciate that. The Rescue Plan
does address some of the funding issues. I had a meeting
actually earlier today with the folks dealing with this issue,
and it's a complicated issue.
It's not a smooth one. You had mentioned the taxpayers
paying to try and help this plan. Many of the folks that are in
this plan are taxpayers as well living in districts around this
country and on the verge of losing their pension, so I'm just
really rolling my sleeves up on this issue and getting involved
in it.
It's one of the areas where when President Biden called me
and asked me to be the Secretary of Labor I didn't realize I
was going to be the Chairman of this Committee, and now that
I'm the Chairman of his Committee you know I'm grateful that
the Rescue Plan did get some funding and we have some work to
do there, there's no question about it.
Mr. Allen. No question we've got to fix the problem sir
thank you. I yield back.
Secretary Walsh. Thank you, Congressman.
Chairman Scott. The gentleman's time has expired. The
gentlelady from Oregon, Ms. Bonamici.
Ms. Bonamici. Thank you, Chairman Scott and Ranking Member,
Foxx, and thank you so much Secretary Walsh for joining us
today. I'm very grateful for your leadership and the steadfast
commitment from the Biden administration to make workers a
priority, and I appreciate your partnership in helping to
secure 100 billion dollars for workforce development programs
in the American Jobs Plan. And I look forward to continuing to
work with you to advance these efforts.
With regard to the conversation about getting people back
to work I speak with employers regularly, and the concerns I've
heard frequently as recently as yesterday is that people can't
find affordable childcare, and they can't find affordable
housing. So moving on Mr. Secretary, many policies to support
dislocated workers are fragmented and they put the burden on
the worker to prove the cause of their displacement.
For example, workers eligible for trade adjustment
assistance receive benefits like income support, and help with
their job search and training, but these services do not exist
for workers who have been dislocated by causes other than
trade. The administration recently proposed an 18 billion-
dollar investment for comprehensive support for dislocated
workers to help more people access training for good paying
high-quality jobs without suffering further economic
insecurity.
So Secretary Walsh will this program be available to all
workers regardless of the cause of dislocation? And how can
this Committee expand benefits to serve more workers regardless
of the cause of dislocation in our WIOA reauthorization?
Secretary Walsh. Yes thank you Madam Congresswoman. The
short answer is yes. I just want to just quickly add a little
bit, you know, and a lot of questions have come up about COVID.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created widespread economic
disruption and further highlighted pre-existing deficiencies in
the availability of opportunities for all Americans to find
good paying safe employment.
So as we continue to move here, I know you also brought up
childcare. Thank you for the American Rescue Plan for 39
billion dollar investment to go to our childcare facilities
around this country so that they could open up, and quite
honestly stay open in a lot of cases.
And also thank you to the 16 billion dollar investment to
our small businesses in this country and our restaurants, many
of which are on the verge of shutting down. So you know we need
to do everything we can with obviously with the funding for
dislocated workers in the program and the formula. So thank you
for your interest and thank you for your question on it.
Ms. Bonamici. Thank you so much. And also Mr. Secretary we
know that registered apprenticeships provide these life-
changing opportunities. I've spoken with many people who have
gone through the programs, but women still make up less than 10
percent of apprentices nationwide.
Black, African-American women, or workers also make up less
than 10 percent of apprentices, and Asian-American workers make
up less than 2 percent. In my home State of Oregon women's
participation in trades apprenticeships is more than double the
national average and that's in large part because of the work
of pre-apprenticeship programs like Oregon Tradeswomen.
But these opportunities need to be accessible to workers,
not just in Oregon but across the country. So Secretary Walsh
how will the Department help more individuals who have
historically faced barriers to employment, access registered
apprenticeships, and what resources are needed to make sure
that more diverse populations can participate and succeed in
registered apprenticeships?
Secretary Walsh. No thank you that's a great point, and
it's a top priority of the Department of Labor. It is something
that as we think about these funds making sure that the money
impacts the most impacted communities such as women, whether
it's in the trades or other areas of apprenticeships, people of
color.
One of the things that I know pretty well is this area as
the mayor of Boston we created programs with the building
trades and with the hotel workers to create pathways into those
industries, and the biggest people that get the biggest support
of this are people of color and women.
And we've seen it in our unemployment numbers where
unemployment in the black community in this country is 9.1
percent, in Latino it's 7.3 percent, we saw millions of women
pushed out of the workforce, they're not coming back into the
workforce. We need to get back into the workforce, so we're
going to be real intentional about this, and also President
Biden signed an executive order in equity, executive order,
making sure that not just for the Department of Labor, but all
the cabinets across the government are working issues of equity
and inclusion in all different levels.
Ms. Bonamici. Thank you so Mr. Secretary and as I yield
back Mr. Chairman the issue of childcare is as you know Mr.
Chairman and Committee Members, going to be essential to our
economic recovery. I have had so many conversations with people
who say I want to go back to work but I don't have affordable
childcare, so we need to solve that issue as well, thank you
Mr. Secretary for your service and I yield back the balance of
my time.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. Next is the gentleman from
Indiana, Mr. Banks.
Mr. Banks. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you Mr.
Secretary for being with us today. As you know this morning
probably you've seen the news that Chipotle announced a 4
percent increase in all of their menu prices across the board
to keep up with rising labor costs.
I'm curious Mr. Secretary is that a good sign or a bad sign
for our economy?
Secretary Walsh. I think the fact that they want to pay
their workers more is a good sign. We have a number of
restaurants in my district in Northeast Indiana Mr. Secretary
who have closed permanently because they can no longer find
workers to open their doors and operate their restaurants. Is
that a good sign or a bad sign for our economy?
Secretary Walsh. I would be willing to bet that a lot of
the restaurants in this country that have closed wasn't due to
finding workers, it was due to the pandemic and the impacts the
pandemic had on them. I think the number is about 25 percent of
restaurants in this country went out of business due to the
pandemic.
Loss of customers, didn't have any ability to pay their
rent, didn't have the ability to pay their overhead. Many of
them tried to keep their employees on the payroll but they
couldn't, and I think that that's the impact, and
unfortunately, the impact of COVID-19 and that's why I think
it's really incumbent upon us to pass the American Job Plan and
American Families Plan because it does deal with what companies
and businesses all across this country have been dealing with
for the last year in the pandemic.
Mr. Banks. OK. Interesting response to both those
questions. Your Departments Fiscal Year 2022 budget requests a
174 million dollar increase for WIOA State grants that help
dislocated workers, low income adults and youth find work,
citing the pandemic as the main reason for that gigantic
increase.
Yet the Biden administration has continued to push the
$300.00 enhanced unemployment benefits which is causing workers
to stay home instead of finding a job. How will offering more
money to stay home not undermine the effectiveness of WIOA
funding that you are requesting to help get workers back to
work?
Secretary Walsh. I wouldn't necessarily characterize the
unemployment benefit as pay to stay home. I think that the plan
benefit was expanded because of a pandemic, a global pandemic
that did lots of harm. In the WIOA funding even pre-pandemic
and now during and post pandemic, sometime soon in the future,
we want to be able to train America's workers to meet the need
for the employers in this country who are telling us that they
need workers that are trained whether it's in manufacturing,
high-tech, biotech, life sciences, jobs like that that they
would like to be able to use American workers to work on those
areas.
So I think that we could be real intention about the
investments in the workforce development programs to make sure
that workers all across this country have opportunities to get
better paying jobs and better their lives for themselves and
their families.
Mr. Banks. So President Biden has already rushed nearly two
trillion dollars in new spending as you know, with plans for
more. More than 4 trillion dollars for climate change and so-
called infrastructure legislation to come. These plans will
lead to more borrowing, tax hikes, and the fed printing more
money at all hours of the day.
These actions are a recipe for further inflation that rob
Americans of their hard-earned dollars, reduce their purchasing
power, and would derail small businesses and bolster the
President's monopolistic donors. All of this will stunt job
growth and harm American workers.
How does your department plan to deal with that crisis that
will only worsen if the Biden agenda gets enacted?
Secretary Walsh. Well thank you Mr. Congressman for that. I
think that I'm very encouraged that the American Jobs Plan is
an amazing investment all across America. I've talked to mayors
all across this country. I've talked to governments across this
country. And when you talk about infrastructure, we talked
about roads and bridges, we're talking about broadband access.
We're talking about clean drinking water, eliminating lead
pipes. We're talking about electric grids to create better
opportunities for the energy and economy of the future. We're
talking about the CARES economy. We're talking about money into
new housing. We're talking about money into training and
workforce development.
We're talking into a whole bunch of free community college,
university pre-K, kindergarten, actually the way that I look at
this plan, the way the President looks at the plan it's about
enhancing America. It's about keeping us competitive and the
world leader in the economy and the environment, in new
infrastructure.
I know that you know again when I'm talking to mayors I was
in Wisconsin, in Pennsylvania the last 2 weeks, and
collectively those two states have over 5,000 bridges in
desperate need of repair because action hasn't happened.
Mr. Banks. Let me ask you a final question. Is it a good
sign for our economy that the American people are spending more
dollars substantially every time they pump gas and go to the
grocery store? Is that good for our economy?
Secretary Walsh. Actually the President's plan is working
right now. I think when you talk about that and the way that
the President wants to pay for these plans is by raising the
corporate tax rate, so corporations pay taxes. In some cases,
they're paying zero, and he's made a commitment to every
average American that makes $400,000.00 or less, will not pay
one more cent in taxes.
Mr. Banks. My time has expired.
Chairman Scott. The gentleman's time has expired thank you.
The gentleman from California Mr. Takano.
Mr. Takano. Mr. Secretary thank you for being here today.
Are you aware of a new study that was published by the World
Health Organization and the International Labor Organization
that says that working 55 hours or more a week is a serious
health hazard, and that the pandemic poses serious risks of
having Americans and workers around the world work too long?
Secretary Walsh. I haven't seen the study that you're
referring to, but certainly I have had many conversations in my
life about the impacts of people's work hours and as a mayor we
also looked at certain industries, whether it's public safety,
or public works in different parts of the city where people
were working a certain amount of hours and the impacts that
they would have on their families.
Mr. Takano. Well specifically related to the pandemic the
fact that people are teleworking, working from home, that the
distinction between work and home has blurred, and that's
leading to the risk that people are working such long hours.
It's estimated, and even before the pandemic, it's estimated
that long working hours led to about 745,000 deaths worldwide
in 2016, a 29 percent increase over the year 2000.
I mean I'm setting this as a prelude to the issue of
overtime. It was suggested that one of the ways to address this
health risk is to ensure that we enforce overtime laws. And
many people don't know that in addition to giving the Federal
Government the ability to set the minimum wage in our country,
the FLSA also gives the government the ability to set overtime
standards.
By extending overtime protections to millions of workers we
can boost wages, but also help prevent employees from working
excessive hours. Now my office sent you a letter supported by
some Members of this Committee to encourage your Department to
address a salary threshold in line with a historical high point
of salary thresholds, the 55th percentile, which really
translated by the year 2023 would be around $85,000.
Currently the overtime threshold is around $35,000. Do you
think that the current overtime salary threshold is too low?
Secretary Walsh. Yes definitely.
Mr. Takano. And so do you have any plans to revisit the
issue and re-regulate in this area?
Secretary Walsh. Well currently right now doing that,
reviewing that regulation and rule right now is literally as we
speak, we have people at the Department of Labor working on
that.
Mr. Takano. And you know prior to the Trump administration
not appealing a judge's case, which overrules the previous
administration, Obama administration's attempt to raise the
threshold, the salary threshold was stuck at a very, very low
place for 10 years. Do you think that we need automatic and
regular updates of the threshold to protect workers?
Secretary Walsh. Yes, we do.
Mr. Takano. And are you also planning to do that as part of
your review?
Secretary Walsh. That will be part of the review.
Mr. Takano. Well I'm glad to hear that Mr. Secretary. You
know with my remaining time I want to know if you know anything
about the equal participation of faith-based organizations and
the Federal agencies? programs rule that is currently which
would require that people participating, Americans'
participating in certain programs would have to you know attend
things that are religious in nature. Are you aware of that
rule?
Secretary Walsh. Is this a religious exemption rule you're
talking about?
Mr. Takano. No, the rule is entitled The Equal
Participation of Faith-Based Organizations in Federal Agency's
Programs and Activities Rule, and currently the rule. There are
organizations that have filed against the rule. I'm wondering
if you know much about this rule and are prepared to comment on
it?
Secretary Walsh. Yes no, I'm not prepared to comment on it.
Let me look into it and get back to you on that.
Mr. Takano. OK. Similarly, I'd like you to look at the
implementing legal requirements regarding the equal opportunity
clause's exemption. That might be the rule that you were
thinking of. The final rule is under a stay and OFCCP has
proposed to rescind the rule. Can you say anything about that?
Secretary Walsh. No let me look into that one. I'm trying
to get some notes on it right now. And I don't have information
in front of me on either one of those.
Mr. Takano. All right. My time is up. I would appreciate
your being in touch with me about those two rules.
Secretary Walsh. I will Congressman thank you.
Mr. Takano. Thank you.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. Next on the republican side Mr.
Thompson and Mr. Grothman, Mr. Comer, do not appear to be here.
The next would be the gentleman from Idaho Mr. Fulcher.
Mr. Fulcher. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Mr. Secretary
thank, you for being here and participating today and also for
your service to the city of Boston, and I hope you appreciate
how I said that. I've been working on it many times. I'm from
Idaho, we don't say Boston, we always say Boston.
Secretary Walsh. You did pretty good there, you did all
right there it wasn't bad. You were pretty close.
Mr. Fulcher. I have to park my car in Harvard yes. Anyway.
Thank you for your service and I appreciate the question by
Congressman Takano because where I think he was trying to go is
where I would like to discuss it as well. If I understand it
correctly it was March 23, the Department of Labor announced
plans to rescind the rule protecting equal participation of
safe based organizations in Federal contracting.
And that rule as I understand guarantees protections of the
Constitution Federal law for religious contractors so they can
participate in the Federal contracting system while following
their religious beliefs. And so that's the basis for that, and
I believe that's what Congressman Takano was talking about as
well.
And so since overturning this rule could adversely impact
religious organizations and discourage participation in the
Federal contracting process, that was my question too. Do you
agree with that?
Secretary Walsh. Let me just get my notes in front of me.
In the current proposed recission is not yet public. I think it
was the Congressman's second point, your first point. Currently
it's under review with the Office of Management and Budget
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
Once a notice of proposed change recission is published for
public comment the Department will consider all comment on all
the proposals, so I'm not at liberty to be able to discuss it
right now but is under review.
Mr. Fulcher. OK and I thank you for that and thank you for
considering it. If I may a word of encouragement. I believe
that there are very good reasons for faith-based organizations
to have that equal protection and for that rule to remain in
place. And just three general categories.
Politically speaking, over half of Americans subscribe to
spiritual religious affiliations first of all. That's just from
a practical standpoint. From a political standpoint rather,
practically speaking I believe you can make a strong argument
that it's our religious principles that are the basis for our
rule of law, for our civility, for social structure and
personally I believe for our prosperity.
And then last there's legal precedent now, at least two
Supreme court cases in 2014 Brewell versus Hobby Lobby in the
2018 Masterpiece Cakeshop versus Colorado Civil Rights
Commission. So Mr. Secretary that's basically where I wanted to
go with the dialog.
And I just believe that moved to disadvantage faith-based
organizations just will have a very devastating and negative
impact, so I urge your involvement and your consideration in
that regard, and any comments you'd like to have before my time
is up.
Secretary Walsh. Oh thank you and I look forward to working
with you on this and thank you for your great Boston accent
today.
Mr. Fulcher. All right thank you Mr. Secretary, and Mr.
Chairman I yield back.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. I haven't heard Boston
pronounced correctly in a long time. I went to college in that
area and so I know how it's supposed to be said, and down in
Virginia we don't pronounce it that way, but it was an
interesting reminder.
The gentlelady from North Carolina Ms. Adams.
Ms. Adams. Thank you, Mr. Chair and Boston is correct.
Thank you for convening the hearing today and to my colleagues
for their questions. Secretary Walsh it's good to see you
again. Thank you for your testimony today.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, today nearly
four out of five private sector workers have no access to paid
leave. 95 percent of the lowest wage workers, mostly women, and
workers of color lack any access to paid family leave.
During the COVID-19 pandemic a disproportionate number of
women, especially women of color left the labor force, and this
is because industries where women are over-represented have
been hardest hit by lay-offs and women have had to increase
their care responsibilities making it more challenging to
balance work and family responsibilities.
So Mr. Secretary how could pay medical and family leave at
the Federal level help women return to work?
Secretary Walsh. Thank you, Congressman, for that question.
Well, there's a lot of things I could speak as, paid family
leave and medical leave for women would be a tremendous
benefit. In one of my last roles as mayor of Boston I signed an
executive order having 12 paid weeks of paid family leave for
people working in city government, prior to that we had 8 paid
weeks.
It makes a tremendous impact in the entire workforce. The
pandemic certainly has showed us as you mentioned, the
disproportionate affects it has on women, women of color in our
communities. It underscores the importance of why paid family
leave is needed and medical leave is needed. We saw families
who were home taking care of loved ones.
They had to take them out of nursing homes and put them in
their home because they were concerned about their health. They
were concerned about the care, and you know we need to continue
to move forward. The American Families Plan as the President
has talked about, and I talked about and you actually talked
about the other day would create a program that would ensure
workers receive partial wage replacement for the time to bond
with a new child, care for a seriously ill loved one, deal with
the loved ones military deployment.
We also need to support our military men and women who and
their families are serving our country. Also women that find
themselves, find safety from sexual assaults, stalking,
domestic violence, healing from their own serious illness. It's
time for us to deal with this. It's time for us to really think
about how we move forward, and I hope that as we continue to
move forward the American Families Plan, the American Jobs Plan
has some really important investments in it that really helps
the American worker.
The last thing I'll say it's a respect issue. It's
respecting the American worker as well. It's a way for us to
respect the worker and their benefits. I was on a call, it
would have been a meeting where I was on the call with three
large employers in the United States of America about 3 weeks
ago and they were talking about the importance, they have
family leave in their companies.
And they talked about it as a way to respect and help their
workers and these are big companies in America that support it,
so I don't think a lot of people are against it, now it's time
for us to take action on it.
Ms. Adams. Right thank you. You know, during the pandemic,
employees have made difficult decisions to leave the workforce
to care for loved ones or to battle illness. Can you tell us
why job protection is a crucial policy, as Congress works to
draft and pass the paid family medical leave in the American
Families Plan?
Secretary Walsh. I think, you know I know this. I mean my
experience as Secretary of Labor and then you go back at any
level I had it's important for us to continue to support the
American worker with different supports. I think that you know
I've heard over the last few weeks about the $300.00 is a
handout. That's not a handout. That's unemployment benefits
that people earned and the Congress voted on.
I think whether it's paid family leave, worker protection,
40-hour work week, overtime rules, all of these are worker
protections that we need to make sure that are in place. If we
didn't have these worker protections many of our workers would
be taken advantage of.
Ms. Adams. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. You know we've had
some issues in terms of OSHA and inspections. Let me just ask
you, do you think it's too ambitious for Congress to provide
enough funding for OSHA to inspect each facility once every 100
years? I mean in your view is once a century too frequent? If
not, what is the right benchmark?
Secretary Walsh. I think we need to get to a point where
OSHA is doing inspections, but not only inspections but helping
companies to make sure there are safe working conditions for
their workers. Right now we're responding to crisis. OSHA for
the most part goes out to a situation after a crisis occurs,
after a tragedy happens.
The investments from the American Rescue Plan are going to
help us staff up to where we were in 2017, but really a major
investment in OSHA to work with companies across America to
have safe workplaces before they're dangerous is something I'd
like to see. So it's hard to answer your question, but I think
we should be able to inspect worksites at least once every 2
years at the minimum, not once every 100.
Ms. Adams. Thank you very much. I'm out of time. Working
hard is not enough if you don't make enough, I appreciate your
position on minimum wage. Chairman I yield back.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. The gentlelady's time has
expired. The gentleman from Pennsylvania Mr. Keller.
Mr. Keller. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the
opportunity to be able to be with everybody today and discuss
things that are happening the Department of Labor. Secretary
Walsh I was disappointed to see the Department of Labor rescind
the Trump administration's rule establishing policies and
procedures for issuing sub-regulatory guidance.
This commonsense rule sought to limit what has
unfortunately become a common practice at the Department of
treating informal guidance as legally binding. A short-cut
which eliminates legal protections for employers and workers
found in former rulemaking such as advance notice to the public
when an opportunity for stakeholders to comment.
Do you believe there's a legal difference between
regulations and guidance?
Secretary Walsh. Thank you, Congressman, for your question.
We are always going to follow the Administrative Procedures
Act. I mean we're always going to follow that guidance.
Mr. Keller. OK. So I guess it's a yes or no. Do you believe
there's a difference between, a legal difference, between
regulations and guidance?
Secretary Walsh. Yes.
Mr. Keller. OK. Because I know you discussed guidance
earlier when it came to COVID-19 in healthcare settings versus
other places, so I just want to make sure. Is sub-regulatory
guidance issued by your Department legally enforceable?
Secretary Walsh. It really depends upon what the guidance
is.
Mr. Keller. So in other words what you're saying is it's
going to be even more difficult for businesses to understand
what the guidance is, whether it's legally enforceable and the
difference?
Secretary Walsh. I think we have regulations you know it's
going through a process and becomes a regulation of a business.
And the guidance is in some cases a recommendation. And it's
similar to when I talked about the ETS the regulation that
we're putting forth is for hospital workers, and the guidance
is recommendations for you to suggest use the guidance to keep
your workers safe.
There's a very different enforcement piece there when it
comes to guidance and regulation.
Mr. Keller. Well also but Mr. Secretary during the Obama
administration OSHA was uniquely antagonistic toward you know
job creators, our employers, forcing an over-zealous
enforcement and punishment rather than working with employers
to improve workplace safety outcomes and prevent accidents
before they happen. This included the policy of regulation by
shaming which involved publicizing the results of an OSHA
inspection before a business owner had the opportunity to
contest the citations, many of which were ultimately
overturned.
Unfortunately, we are seeing signs that this practice is
making a comeback at OSHA. Do you support the adversarial
policy of shaming employers? And should business expect this
lack of due process to continue to be common practice under
your watch at the Department?
Secretary Walsh. You know I just want to be as I'm hearing
you, I'd like to followup. I'm going to give you an answer in a
second, but I'd like to followup on this. The folks at OSHA
that work at the Department of Labor workers should be hired
every day and they've been understaffed for the last 4 years.
Mr. Keller. I honestly just want to get to the fact.
Secretary Walsh. I will.
Mr. Keller. Do you think the people that employ Americans
should have due process during your watch at the Department?
Secretary Walsh. I think the people that employ Americans
need to keep workers safe.
Mr. Keller. And do you believe that most people that employ
Americans across our Nation care about their employees and want
them to be safe?
Secretary Walsh. I would hope so.
Mr. Keller. Do you believe that?
Secretary Walsh. I believe it yes; I would hope so.
Mr. Keller. Yes, I believe they do too. As with anything
there's some people that need to be held accountable. We all
want that to happen. But I believe the majority of people I
represent that are job creators are small businesses, and they
want their employees to be safe.
The people that run these businesses are families, our
friends, our neighbors, that's who they are. They're our
neighbors. They contribute to civic organizations. They want
people to be safe, so I'm glad we agree that most people in
American who create jobs are good hard-working people that want
their employees to be safe.
Secretary Walsh. I agree with you on that, and as mayor I
love my small businesses. I mean without small businesses you
add them together there are largest employers, and they create
opportunities and as Secretary as Labor I love small businesses
as well. And this is something I take very seriously.
Mr. Keller. And so do I because often times you know people
say businesses are going to do this, or they're going to pay
corporations or businesses are going to pay these taxes. In
Pennsylvania Governor Wolf in his first budget address back in
2015 said that 70 percent of the companies doing business in
Pennsylvania don't pay corporate income tax. Well the truth of
the matter is that over 70 percent of the businesses in the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania are sub-chapter S, LLC's,
partnerships, sole proprietors OK?
So I think as policymakers and people that want great
outcomes for people to go to work every day need to recognize,
and not have the political theater that somebody else at these
businesses are nebulous entities.
Many times these small businesses as you pointed out, are
the back of our community and we need to recognize that, so
when we talk about taxing businesses or putting regulations on
businesses, let's put a face to those people who the Biden
administration wants to tax and make pay all this money. So
with that I see that I just have another thing that I'd like
to, I guess I over aren't I Mr. Chairman, so I guess I'll yield
back and thank you I appreciate being able to participate.
Chairman Scott. Thank you, the gentleman's time has
expired. The gentleman from California Mr. DeSaulnier.
Mr. DeSaulnier. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Mr. Secretary,
just some comments about your accent. I think it's wicked good,
as a native of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and a former
resident from the West End of the Back Bay area, I think it's
good.
And I won't go into the details of the great education the
Chair got in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, but it is
reflective of his wisdom. Mr. Secretary, I wanted to talk to
you about the transition of our energy workforce. I represent
an area that has five of the 13 refineries left in the State of
California.
They are pretty much.--you cannot argue that they're not
the safest, highest paying, good quality jobs, institutions of
their type in the United States. And I'll take some credit for
this both at the local, State, and Federal level, along with my
colleague, or I should say my predecessor, Congressman Miller,
who Chaired this Committee.
So the good news is these are great paying jobs. They're
required by State statute that I was a coauthor of when I was
in the legislature that requires all the employees to be
graduates in good standing of the State apprenticeship
standards which we are very proud of in California. We have
academies in disadvantaged communities, high schools that young
people can go, get apprenticeship and partnerships with the
building trades and the local labor council.
They can go to school in high school, get apprenticeship,
get out, get a job in these refineries for turn around work or
with the steelworkers, the maintenance workers that are
$125,000.00 a year, and they're world class.
Yesterday I was at my local UA and I'm just so proud of
those folks. Such a real investment in career training. So the
challenge though is we're transitioning like Boston, San
Francisco Bay area, very progressive environmentally. I used to
be on the Air Resources Board. We want to make our carbon
reduction. So I've had this conversation with Gina McCarthy,
who like you has a great accent, with Secretary Granholm, who
has great experience here in the Bay Area with our national
laboratories that are doing great jobs with DOA grants.
So two questions, three questions for you. What are your
thoughts on this transition? I've had meetings, dozens of them,
with my friends in the workforce that have been accelerated
because of COVID, one of our refineries shut down and we lost
600 steelworker jobs. And potentially hundreds of turnaround
work.
Now they're transitioning to biodiesel. So I'd like to have
your thoughts about this. I'd also like to see if you could
help us at the regional level coordinating the assets of the
Department of Energy, Labor and we've had this conversation
with Secretary Buttigieg, and I know it's a priority for the
President, and I know it's a priority for the vice-president.
So your thoughts on this transition. It's complicated, it's
difficult, I know you know to take a boiler maker or a very
highly skilled industrial welder or electrician and try to find
another job for them and do it with respect is a real
challenge, but we need to do it.
So I'd love to have your thoughts and your help in
coordinating the resources both in a national level and at a
regional level as the administration gets ready to appoint
regional administration. Thank you.
Secretary Walsh. Thank you, Congressman, and I want to
thank you for the budget question. This is fiscal 2022 budget
President Biden proposed an establishment of competitive grant
programs, the clean energy training grant program prepared for
eligible veterans, transitioning service Members and their
spouses for good careers in clean energy. That's one area.
And another area is what we would be talking about the job
training and apprenticeship program, the 200 plus billion
dollars that's going to be invest in. We have real
opportunities here. You're absolutely right when you're talk
about the boiler maker, you talk about the UA, those are
plumbers, pipefitters and steam fitters.
Their industry has changed in the last 20, 30, 40, 50
years. There's an opportunity for us to retain workers into
these clean jobs. When the President spoke about the
environments about a month and a half ago, he talked about
jobs, he talked about job training, and he talked about
workforce development.
He talked about apprenticeships. He talked about making
those investments, so there's absolutely no reason why as some
of these industries transition out in areas like your districts
why we can't keep those same jobs there in a different type of
energy use, so No. 1.
And No. 2, the second question is you absolutely have my
commitment. I would love to work with Secretary Granholm and
Gina McCarthy from Jamaica Plain in Massachusetts. And Gina and
I have actually had conversations about this already when we
worked in the past administration, I was the mayor, and she
would come and talk to me about creating opportunities for
jobs.
We talked about retrofitting as mayor of Boston,
retrofitting housing. There's good jobs in retrofitting as
well. There's a lot of opportunity here, so I look forward to
working with you and keeping and building a collaboration of
how we can keep in charge in your district quite honestly.
Mr. DeSaulnier. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. I look forward to
you may be coming and visiting what we're doing here in the Bay
Area. Thank you Mr. Chairman I yield back.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. I understand the Ranking Member
seeks recognition. The distinguished Ranking Member is
recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. Foxx. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Secretary Walsh you made
a comment before about going to a job corps site and it was so
beautiful, but there was nobody there. Our focus on job corps
has been the problems with the job corps program. They predate
your time with the administration by several decades, in fact
the problems been listed among the top management challenges
facing your agency every year dating back to the Bush
administration.
Beyond concern just for taxpayer dollars, this is an issue
of basic safety and security for participants in the program.
These students are among the most vulnerable young people to
our country, and they deserve better than complacency for a
failing program.
What steps do you plan before beautiful facilities to
overhaul this program, so it actually protects students safety
in job corps, both centers that were participating in the
program. Please tell us your plan to improve performance of the
overall program, and will you commit to providing the Committee
with regular updates on job corps program including
notification of any major safety violations and incidents.
Secretary Walsh. Thank you, Ranking Member. I do feel that
beautiful facilities are important. Clean facilities are
important. Safe facilities are important. As mayor of the city
of Boston I made it a priority to make sure that we were able
to reconstruct our center for youth and families in the city of
Boston.
Our kids need to have pride and your people need to have
pride in where they're going. We also need to continue to build
corporate partnerships with businesses in regions and areas so
that the participants of job corps when they get through job
corps they have an opportunity to be able to get a job at the
end of that, and really raise a family and support a family.
Those young people that get married or have kids going into
job corps. We need to make sure that we continue the supports
inside there, that we give them the technical support in the
substance, mental health, and any type of support they might
have. The young people that are participating in job corps.
Often times from what I understand they go into job corps, lots
of challenges, and we need to make sure that as they enter in
with those challenges they leave no challenges left behind so
they can have a good productive, healthy lives and that's what
I would like to see.
I would like to do more job corps as well. I'd like to you
know it's an area that is right in my wheelhouse, whether it's
the mayor of Boston as a coach, or whatever experience I had in
my life. I think job corps, we have such an incredible
opportunity to help young people in this country.
Ms. Foxx. Thank you. Let's talk some more about that. Mr.
Secretary during your time as mayor of Boston the Boston Globe
attempted to attain city records concerning a former police
union president accused of sexually assaulting minors. A public
records request that your administration refused to
accommodate, even after the State supervisor of public records
specifically questioned your decision to keep the records
secret.
Redacted files were finally released by your successor
earlier this year reveal that one of Boston's major police
unions threatened to file a grievance on behalf of the accused
union president in 1997 after he was restricted to
administrative duty.
As a result he was reinstated as a patrol officer and
allowed further contact with children resulting in additional
incidents of alleged abuse. In light of these revelations your
prior background as a union leader and your recent action to
repeal a Federal rule providing for greater union transparency
intended to fight union corruption.
How can you assure Committee Members that you will
faithfully and fairly administer workplace laws in your
department jurisdiction which apply both to employers and labor
unions, and additionally considering these revelations how can
you diligently and effectively manage over 15,000 Dol employees
while holding them accountable for their actions when
necessary.
Secretary Walsh. The way I could do that is I raised my
right hand and I swore on a bible to uphold the Constitution of
the United States of America and I uphold it to carry out the
functions as Secretary of Labor, and I take that very
seriously, and I take that obligation very seriously, and I
take swearing in very seriously as well.
Ms. Foxx. Well we appreciate hearing that. I want to
followup on what Mr. Fulcher asked you about the need for us to
protect religious liberty. And you said you didn't know about
the rules that were being changed from the Trump
administration. But I'll ask you a very simple question. Can
you assure the Committee that DOL policies and practices will
protect religious liberty which is the first liberty listed in
the Constitution?
And will you make sure that there is no discrimination
against religious organizations?
Secretary Walsh. As I said earlier to the Congressman,
excuse me when he asked me the question. The proposed recission
is published for public comment in the Department. I can't
comment on it right now, and the Department will consider all
comments received on the proposal, and this is in the Office of
Management and Budget Office Information and Regulatory
Affairs, so it's in OIRA, I cannot comment on it.
Ms. Foxx. Regardless of the rule will you commit to protect
religious liberty?
Secretary Walsh. Again I'm not going to talk.
Ms. Foxx. That's a simple question.
Secretary Walsh. I'm not going to comment on it until the
regulation comes back.
Ms. Foxx. So you won't commit to protecting religious
liberty of people involved with the Department of Labor?
Secretary Walsh. You know one of the things that we have to
do is I have to balance a lot of interest, and again I will
comment on it when we get the rule back.
Ms. Foxx. I'm talking about this regardless of the rule
itself. Just religious liberty in general. If you swore to
uphold the Constitution, then I assume you know what's in the
First Amendment.
Secretary Walsh. I do.
Ms. Foxx. OK. Then you're sworn to uphold no laws impinging
on people's religion.
Secretary Walsh. No again I appreciate your persistence on
this, and I want to when the rule comes back, when the comment
comes back, when I'm able to comment on it I will talk to you
freely about it, but as of right now it's in the Office of
Management and Oversight.
Ms. Foxx. Thank you Mr. Chairman I yield back, I apologize.
Chairman Scott. OK no problem. The gentlemen from New
Jersey Mr. Norcross.
Mr. Norcross. Thank you, Chairman and Secretary Walsh,
great to have you here and as a guy from Jersey I don't hear
any accent, you sound just like us. But I love to hear the
other side talk about how they want to get through and have
transparency at the same time they're denying January 6. It's
ironic. But I wasn't going to play on that.
I want to talk about the COVID and its impact on Americans,
the mental health and the issues. The addiction rates and death
rates are soaring, and we have something that is called the
mental health and addiction parity which puts so much of an
emphasis on making sure that mental health is treated as many
of your physical issues.
That was put forth by Patrick Kennedy many years ago. But
one of the challenges is I'm sure you know is the enforcement.
There are no teeth. Can you tell us what the Department is
looking at in terms of putting some teeth behind there? We have
a bill that currently would give you that sort of hammer to
make sure employers do the right thing.
Secretary Walsh. Thank you, Congressman, and first and
foremost your bill is an important bill, a piece of
legislation. I had a conversation. I did a webinar with
Congressman Kennedy the other day to talk about this issue, to
talk about NSHA's role in this. The issue of mental health and
substance use treatment is certainly very close to my heart as
somebody in recovery.
I have fought my entire career, whether it's at a
legislative level, or as mayor of the city of Boston to access
treatment for people to have access for treatment for people.
Not just simply access but having long-term access to
treatment. There is not a Member of this Committee that a
family Member is not dealing with the issue of mental health or
substance use disorder.
It's something as a country we need to do more on. NSHA is
working with health plans right now and health insurance to
make sure we achieve the goal. You're absolutely right the
pandemic was a perfect storm for people with mental health and
substance use issues because we were telling people to isolate,
stay in your house and don't talk to other people, and it only
exasperated the issue of mental health.
So I'm going to do everything I can in my time as Secretary
of Labor. I know I probably shouldn't say this, but I think if
it's the only thing I do as Secretary of Labor it's about
saving lives and offering help for people, so I'm going to work
with you, and work with any Member of this Committee and I
think the issue of mental health and addiction equity act is
truly a bipartisan bill that we can all work together because
all our families are dealing with some sort of issues.
Mr. Norcross. Thank you so much. I want to shift to
something you know a little bit about, the construction
industry. The ebbs and flows. There's employment at times and
there's unemployment. And when there's unemployment we go to
where the work is, and that's why one of the basis for
registered apprenticeship programs.
Because the idea having two different systems within a
country when those workers get together chaos certainly is
created. When we look forward to a registered apprenticeship
program which sets standards, and that's incredibly important
because as we all know when you're not all reading from the
same book it becomes very difficult.
There's nothing presently in law that prevents any company
from creating their own apprenticeship program. They're allowed
to go do it at any point. The difference is they want us to pay
for it. And that's where the difference is. Talk to me about
what the registered apprenticeship program looks like when we
tie into it the pre-apprentice. Why is that important
particularly in the urban areas and for those that haven't had
the opportunity?
Secretary Walsh. Thank you. And certainly you know a lot
about this as well as being an IBW man. A registered
apprenticeship program provides an apprentice, an individual,
man or woman, with not only a job, but a pathway to a career.
And that's important to understand that. Apprentices receive a
progressive wage tied to the scale and competency of their
jobs, which means that when they start out in the apprentice
program you start out in a wage and then you work your way up
eventually to a full wage, but you work your way up to a wage.
What that does it allows companies to be able to hire
people that might not be as skilled as somebody that has a full
license. The ability to learn on the job training and as you go
through the apprentice program. It's on the job training. It's
probably one of the most impactful programs that we have.
We actually should probably spread this idea into more
workforce development programs. The completion of the
registered apprenticeship program when somebody goes through it
and they vary, I think your industry is 5 years, some
industries are 3 years, some industries are 4 years, and they
vary as they move forward.
But it conveys the apprentice brings real value and
significance to the labor market by having somebody in that
training skill. It allows people the opportunity. So you know I
believe that that's key. I also believe in the public private
partnership part of it is by bringing employers to the table to
talk about it because employers can help understand, use the
electricity industry.
Employers come to the table, and they might want to go into
you know putting solar panels on roofs or building wind farms
and you're able to adjust the curriculum in the registered
apprenticeship program to adjust to the industry. So that's the
benefit to those programs of that program.
Mr. Norcross. Thank you. Chairman, thank you for yielding
back a little bit of time I yield back.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. I understand some people may
have been coming in and out, so let me go through the list
again. Mr. Thompson, Mr. Grothman, Mr. Comer, Dr. Murphy, the
gentle lady from Iowa Mrs. Miller-Meeks.
Mrs. Miller-Meeks. Thank you so much Mr. Chair and Ranking
Member Foxx and also Secretary Walsh for being here. Secretary
Walsh in 2008 the Department of Labor issued regulations
allowing small employers and self-employee individuals to
access quality and affordable healthcare coverage through an
association health plan.
And let me say since you may be unfamiliar with me, I'm the
Second congressional District in Iowa, represent a rural
district, a physician, a former President of the Iowa Medical
Society, and also a former Director of the Iowa Director of
Public Health who saw these association health plans to be very
helpful.
Allowing small employers and self-employed individuals to
join together for group coverage for health insurance purposes
allows them to purchase health plans the same way large
employers do. Association health plans are subject to all of
the Affordable Care Act's group coverage requirements. Data
shows that AHB's voluntarily cover all 10 of the ACA's
essential health benefits, and these plans typically have
broader provider networks relative to the ACA compliance small
group and individual market plans.
In 2019 the AHB regulations were invalided by the DC
District Court. But a review of that decision is pending at the
DC Circuit Court of Appeals. If the Circuit Court overturns the
District Court ruling and upholds the regulations will the
Department of Labor respect that ruling, and implement the
regulations, or does the Department plan to rescind these
regulations through a new rulemaking process?
Secretary Walsh. I know I'm a little familiar with the case
because I believe my Chamber of Commerce in Boston was looking
at that, so I have a little familiarity with it. I am not
familiar at the moment however if the Department of Labor what
the past practice was in 2008, 2010, 2014, and up to today.
So I'm not aware of any move by this administration to
rescind that. But again, I don't have the full answer on it.
This is the first time that I wasn't aware this issue, I mean I
knew it was pending, but I didn't know where it was in the
court, so let me look into that. But I hear you. You didn't
tell me your concern, but I can hear where you're coming from
in this and let me look into this.
Mrs. Miller-Meeks. Thank you very much. Also you were
quoted in a Reuters article as saying that gig workers should
be classified as employees and deserve work benefits like full
health coverage. This statement had a significant impact on
both the stock market and causes shares of Uber, Lyft, Door
Dash, and Grub Hub to fall significantly. You later said that
you were misquoted. Is this an indication that you would
recognize this policy could destroy the business model of these
companies?
And I can also tell you in my little town of 25,000 people
that having an Uber has developed as a small business and been
extraordinarily helpful, especially to people of low income in
my area where having a taxi service is not beneficial. So I'm
just wondering if your position on the gig economy and gig
workers has changed?
Secretary Walsh. Yes thank you. I don't know if I would say
changed. I would say that that article was at the end of the
article, and I was asked the question about employees and gig
workers. But what we've done since is I've had meetings with
many companies, Uber, Airbnb, I mean sorry, Uber, Lyft, Door
Dash, I've worked with worker advocate groups.
We're working now to talk about this industry, so we've had
very open dialogs. I think if you spoke to them they would be
very pleased with the fact that we've had conversations about
this, so yes I don't want to say I wasn't misquoted, because I
was quoted, but it was kind of like a whole comprehensive
conversation. I probably should have selected my words better.
Mrs. Miller-Meeks. Well I want to thank you for meeting
with these companies and having the open mind to engage and
interact with them. And I firmly believe as a physician and a
former director of an agency much smaller than yours, that
culture starts at the top.
So when you tell me, as I'm a 24 year military veteran who
also swore that oath to the Constitution, when you told me you
swore an oath to the Constitution and that's to whom you have
fealty, but when you're asked about support for religious
liberty and you cannot answer whether you would support
religious liberty, that to me tells me about the culture of
your agency, so I find those two things to be contradictory,
and with that I'm going to yield the rest of my time to
Representative Virginia Foxx. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ms. Foxx. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. Mr.
Secretary on February 25 Congressman Keller and I sent Acting
Secretary of Labor Al Stewart a letter requesting the
Department provide the Committee information regarding the
rationale for issuing an OSHA emergency temporary standard on
COVID-19. We've not received a formal response to our letter
after more than 3 months.
And we think this is unacceptable. Congressional oversight
is a bipartisan priority for this Committee, and a
responsibility I take very seriously. Do you believe it's
appropriate for the Department to ignore legitimate oversight
requests from this Committee? And will you commit today that
the Department will formally respond to future oversight
requests from Committee Members by the requested deadlines?
Secretary Walsh. Yes, the answer is yes to the question of
any type of recommendation or response from you, from the
Congress I should say.
Ms. Foxx. Thank you very much Secretary. I yield back Mr.
Chairman.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. The gentlelady from Washington
Ms. Jayapal.
Ms. Jayapal. Thank you Mr. Chairman I am thrilled to see
that my colleagues are suddenly supporting the idea of
responding to oversight letters. I don't think that we got a
response to a single oversight letter in the last 4 years. So
Secretary Walsh thank you for being with us today and thank you
for all that you have done in your career to protect workers
and ensure opportunity.
And thank you also for your earlier comments regarding the
President's commitment to urgently passing a $15.00 minimum
wage. I represent Seattle, the first major city in the country
to pass $15. I was on that Committee that facilitated that
passage, and I'm also a proud lead sponsor, along with Chairman
Scott, of the Raise the Wage Act, a bill that the House has
passed, but we must find a way to immediately get this passed
in the Senate and signed into law by the President.
So I hope you and the President will use all the powers of
the White House to get this done immediately along with the PRO
Act, another bill that I'm proud to be a lead sponsor of.
Secretary Walsh I also know that we share a commitment to
protect the two and a half million domestic workers who care
for our children, elders, people with disabilities and our
homes.
I'm aware that you endorsed the Massachusetts Domestic
Workers Bill of Rights when it passed in 2014, and now despite
high demand for these workers they have continued to be
excluded from the basic protections of the Fair Labor Standards
Act and are among the lowest paid with nearly 90 percent
getting no benefits and many vulnerable to abuse.
These workers are serving on the front lines of the
pandemic and provided critical care, allowing people with
disabilities and seniors to avoid congregate settings that
frequently saw high rates of COVID-19 infection. But this
critical workforce has shrunk by 280,000 workers at the
beginning of the pandemic despite an increasing need for
homecare services.
I'm very pleased that the Biden administration has proposed
investing $400 billion to expand the home care workforce. Can
you speak from your experience both as mayor and now as
Secretary of Labor to the importance of this investment as
critical infrastructure, and the role of the Department of
Labor in expanding this workforce and improving the
recruitment, retention and advancement of this critical
workforce.
Secretary Walsh. Thank you, Congresswoman. I could speak I
guess at different levels, but I'm just going to talk about
this last year. Around March 2020 in Boston and in
Massachusetts and throughout this country and Seattle as well I
talked to the Mayor Durkan at the time. She told me to be
prepared because what's going to the nursing homes in Seattle
hadn't hit Boston yet, and she told me was coming.
So we had an opportunity to go into those facilities and
provide PPE for healthcare workers and those domestic workers
working in those healthcare facilities taking care of our older
fragile adults. And they had to go to work every day, and often
times when they went to work, they didn't have the equipment
nor the material they needed.
They were underfunded, underpaid. They take care of our
most vulnerable loved ones and our own families, our own
fathers and mothers and grandfathers, and grandparents. So when
you think about it the investment that President Biden wants to
make into that critical industry as you know that 400 billion
dollars is not just in the facility, but it's also in
respecting the worker and raising their wages and give them
opportunities to earn more money.
Many of those folks that work in that industry that's their
second or third job, and we entrust them with taking care of
the most precious people in our lives, so and also in the
community I just want to read a couple stats here if you don't
mind. 87 percent of the home care workers are women. The
majority are women of color.
37.4 percent African-American, 25.4 percent are Latino, and
5 percent are Asian. The median age of the home healthcare
worker is over 46 years of age, 30 percent are 55 and older. If
you look at the pandemic numbers the communities that get hit
the hardest with the highest infection rate, the black
community, the Latino community.
If you look at the people that had the largest loss of
life, people over the age of 55. The same people that we had
working in these industries were taking care of our loved ones.
So there is no question in my own personal experience in the
need for the care economy. I know we want to build new bridges,
sorry I'll stop, go ahead.
Ms. Jayapal. No, no thank you.
Secretary Walsh. I'm on a rampage there.
Ms. Jayapal. No it's so great to hear you completely
support it, but I wanted to say that I'm a lead sponsor of the
domestic workers bill of rights in Congress, and of course my
co-sponsor last Congress, now Vice President Kamala Harris. The
President has said he wants to sign this bill into law. I'd
like to ask for your help and support in continuing to push for
a Federal standard that would reverse domestic workers'
exclusion from the Fair Labor Standards Act and provide workers
with the rights and protections.
Can you assure me that you'll do everything you can to help
me get this signed into law and get those protections for
domestic workers across the country?
Secretary Walsh. I have advocates in Massachusetts that are
pushing your bill. They're pushing me to support your bill. So
I don't have to support your bill, you have my support. I will
do what we can. This is an important piece of legislation.
Ms. Jayapal. Thank you so much Secretary, I yield back Mr.
Chairman.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. I see Mr. Grothman has joined
us. The gentleman from Wisconsin Mr. Grothman recognized for 5
minutes.
Mr. Grothman. Yes thanks. I'm going to lead off by talking
about a little different issue. Are you familiar with the 14 C
certificates and sub-minimum wage?
Secretary Walsh. Yes.
Mr. Grothman. There have been proposals out there including
the general minimum wage bill that I think would be devastating
to work fairs and the people with different abilities. I think
there is some misinformation going on around there. Have you
ever had an opportunity to tour these work centers in
Massachusetts or otherwise?
Secretary Walsh. Sorry yes, I have, I have. I have one in
my district. I actually brought a facility from Quincy,
Massachusetts into called Work Incorporated.
Mr. Grothman. OK. Did you have a positive experience?
Secretary Walsh. Very positive.
Mr. Grothman. You are aware that if they got rid of the 14
C and say everybody has to make $15.00 an hour that you in
essence put these out of business, correct?
Secretary Walsh. Actually the facility I was talking about
in Boston was paying the minimum wage to the people because
they were working basically on contracts, State, city and
Federal contracts. So I think when the bid the work they bid it
at a higher wage rate for the workers. But I know what you're
talking about in the other places.
Mr. Grothman. Do you understand the problem?
Secretary Walsh. I do understand the problem, and I know
that there's lots of different opinions and conversations on
this as far as what should the worker doing the same work as
somebody else in the same field with different skill be paid a
different rate. I get the premise of it yes.
Mr. Grothman. Would you make a commitment to see maybe in
another State of these work centers that does rely on the sub-
minimum wage?
Secretary Walsh. I absolutely want to go to a tour,
absolutely no question about it. I would be willing to go and
tour a place.
Mr. Grothman. OK thank you much. Next point I want to bring
up is I hear from my employers a lot of people sitting on the
sidelines because of the unemployment benefits right now. In
essence, people could make $30,000.00 a year not working. And
examples of people saying I'll take a job, they don't show up,
that sort of thing.
And of course, that's not the only benefits you get. Do you
believe we have people sitting on the sideline not only because
of the additional unemployment, but because of other means-
based benefits out there in our society?
Secretary Walsh. This came up earlier in the conversation.
I don't believe that there are 8 million Americans that are
collecting unemployment that are staying out of work because of
a $300.00 unemployment benefit. I don't believe that the case.
I think that there's a whole bunch of issues around the 8
million people that are out of work today, and some of them why
are they not back at work and some why they are going back to
work.
I think that we've seen over the last 4 months as I
mentioned earlier, I apologize for repeating myself, roughly
540,000 people going back to work over the last 4 months. We've
seen gains in the system as far as going back into the
workforce. I think in the coming months we're going to see more
people going back into the workforce.
We saw the two largest gains in the last 2 months in
hospitality. I don't see, I think if there are reasons people
aren't going back in the workforce it's lack of childcare, it's
school still being hybrid, it's people that haven't been
vaccinated. People are doing, taking care of their loved ones.
They have medical reasons for not going back.
But I don't believe that $300.00 is keeping the entire 8
million people out of the workforce.
Mr. Grothman. Well I'm not saying the entire 8 million. It
might be 4 million, but we would acknowledge that if you're
paying people $30,000.00 to $35,000.00 a year not to work, a
given segment of people will say fine, I'm not going to go to
work.
Secretary Walsh. Yes, I don't believe that we're paying
people not to work. I think we're paying people. We're trying
to support people's livelihood during a pandemic, and I
honestly feel that way. I've seen it. I know I'm in a different
role today as Secretary of Labor, but I saw it on the ground as
mayor of the city of Boston.
I saw the impacts of COVID-19, what they had on the
workforce, what they had in businesses, small business, so you
know I do feel as a country we have to keep front and center.
And I'm not saying this just to you Congressman, but we have to
recognize we're still living in a pandemic, and it didn't just
disappear.
So I think it's important that we continue to support the
American workers. I would love to see everyone get back to
work. I want to see that happen. That's the reason for this
hearing today. The WIOA funding is to get authorization to
invest in workers. That's what I want to do.
Mr. Grothman. OK. I don't want to go too much over in
education here, but I do think we have a problem in which a lot
of people are spending time getting an education, but that
education is not leading to a job, and eventually what I find
in Wisconsin be it the trades, be it what you would call
community colleges, people are getting the 4-year degree and
when they're 28 or 29 years old their reservicing at community
colleges to learn how to get a different skill.
Do you realize this is a problem and your position to weigh
in can make sure that people are not getting an education that
is not a value?
Secretary Walsh. No I think that well I think that I know
my mother and father would always say this. A college degree is
important to get, but I think that the American jobs plan is
going to be focusing on how we retrain workers for the jobs of
today. I have friends of mine; I went to school for political
science. I don't know what that degree got me.
I ended up running for public office and won, so I guess it
worked out for me, but I definitely think that we have to be
thinking about investments in the American Job Plan, how we
retrain and reskill workers to get into industry. And I just
want to thank you too, I was in Wisconsin last week. You have a
beautiful State.
We drove around. I went to some job fairs in Madison and
Milwaukee. You have a beautiful State there.
Mr. Grothman. Thank you much.
Chairman Scott. The gentleman's time has expired. Next is
the gentleman from New York Mr. Morelle.
Mr. Morelle. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for holding
this important hearing, and Mr. Secretary I have not had the
privilege, but I've heard so much great things about you, so
thank you for your service and thank you for being here this
afternoon.
Unfortunately, I'm a little late to this meeting due to a
hearing on the Budget Committee on which I serve on the
President's proposal, so I apologize if some of these questions
have been covered, but if you'll just indulge me. When I meet
with local businesses in my district, I represent Rochester,
New York, I regularly hear that the greatest challenge is
finding skilled labor to fill positions ? sort of along the set
of skills ?
from lower skills to higher skills, but skilled workers,
and I don't think I need to tell you this, are the backbone of
our economy. Apprenticeships provide a good opportunity to grow
and expand access to the workforce. My dad was a Member of
Local 13 Plumbers and Steamfitters. They do pneumatic controls
and went through an apprentice program out of high school.
And the success of apprentice programs is well established.
I'm sure I don't need to tell you. According to your own
department, 94 percent of apprentices are employed after
completing their apprenticeship programs earning an average
starting salary of $70,000.00.
So apprenticeships clearly set workers on a path to a
rewarding and most importantly, sustainable career. It's
essential that we make the necessary investments to bolster our
Nation's apprentice program. So could you talk a little bit
about what you view, and what your vision is from the
Department of Labor currently working on ways to expand, and
any plans in the future to enhance apprenticeship
opportunities?
Secretary Walsh. Yes thank you. Thank you, Congressman.
First and foremost, I think that you have brought up an
important point here, and almost every Member has brought up
when you talk about job training and jobs not being filled and
skilled workers.
It clearly shows that we have had a lack of investment in
apprenticeship programs, and workforce development programs in
our country for a long time. The American Jobs Plan, President
Biden's plan is to invest 10 billion dollars over the next 10
years into creating two million new jobs in our country.
Those jobs can be retrained workers, the previous
Congressman spoke a moment ago about people going to college,
getting 4-year degree and not being able to work. This is
geared toward them. The Ranking Member spoke mentioned job
corps earlier today. This is geared toward people that go
through job corps.
This is geared toward people in Rochester. This is geared
to people in Wisconsin, people in Seattle, all across the
country. So when we think about these investments, we need to
be really cognizant and intentional about making sure that
these investments hit the street.
I would also say when you asked the question about the
Department of Labor, I would also say that we have an
obligation to work with employers as well. Employers around the
country to find out where these skills, what skills are needed
and how do we pair people up with jobs?
So this isn't just simply a job/training program that we're
throwing money at a situation. This is bringing employer
partners to the table and working with everybody at the table
moving forward.
Mr. Morelle. Well I couldn't agree more with you, and you
make some really important points as it relates to employers. I
know the administration has endorsed the National
Apprenticeship Act which I was proud to lead the rule on the
floor, and which I strongly support. We passed it in the House
earlier this year.
Could you discuss the importance of the legislation and how
the Department will be able to improve the administration of
apprenticeships, both existing ones, pre-apprenticeships, and
those in industries that typically don't have apprenticeship
programs?
Secretary Walsh. Yes you know first of all you know the
President has been clear that he supports a bipartisan approach
to real reform, so I just want to start with talking about
that, which will create and expand a venture to apprenticeships
and youth apprenticeships, and pre-apprenticeships. The
Department of Labor before me, meaning since January and now
with me and supports the goal of modernizing comprehensive
apprenticeship systems outlined in the Bill 447 and the
National Apprenticeship Act of 2021.
I look forward to working with Congress and all of you to
achieve this important reform of registered apprenticeships and
national apprenticeship systems. I think again it's one of the
best things we could do for the future American workforce.
Mr. Morelle. Well very good. I appreciate your leadership
on this. As a die-hard Celtics fan maybe I can invite you to
Rochester and we could talk about their fortunes and also talk
a little bit about apprentice programs and how we can continue
to further the agenda of the Department. With that Mr.
Chairman, I will yield back.
Secretary Walsh. Thank you sir. Our poor Celtics had a
tough ending.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. The Secretary has agreed to be
with us long enough for everyone to have five minutes, but he
needs a break at 2:30. We have time for one more question
before the ten-minute break at 2:30, so we'll recognize now the
gentleman from Utah Mr. Owens.
Mr. Owens. Thank you, Secretary Walsh. Before I segue into
my question about electronic delivery, I'd like to share the
concerns of my State of over 250,000 small business owners here
in the State of Utah. That number of small businesses
represents 97 percent of all Utah businesses. It's also a
number that represents with 50 percent of employees in the
State here in Utah.
The numbers in January 2021 show that Utah is a leader
rebounding from the pandemic, less than 3 percent of
employment. We are a State that takes pride in work. The No. 1
concern in Utah is as reflected in our numbers showing us that
our government using revenue generated from our taxes is now
paying small business employees $17.00 an hour to stay at home
and not work in businesses that can only afford to pay $12.00,
$13.00, $14.00, $15.00 dollars per hour.
There are many in my State who believe that this is a
sideways effort by the Biden administration to force small
businesses to pay what Congress could not force them to pay
through legislation of $15.00 per hour.
I want to echo my colleague's request that it makes sense
that your Department should never ever put in place policies
that purposely hurt and kill businesses of entrepreneurs.
Enhanced unemployment payments should never ever be another
option, yet it shows real time data shows what my State is
feeling.
Earlier you said if you look into, the data results of
states that ended enhanced unemployment and those who didn't.
Does that mean that you not getting the data is an option?
Secretary Walsh. No. Nobody has ended $300.00 yet.
Mr. Owens. Yes that end on the 26th of this month here in
the State of Utah. So we will have time to see the difference
when that ends. And so my question is, is it an option not to
get the data to show the difference in those two choices?
Secretary Walsh. No. I mean I think that if when it ends,
when and if it ends in Utah, if you have data, I would love to
see it.
Mr. Owens. OK good. Well 26 states across the country are
ending it. And again, Utah will be ending June 26, so we should
have that date and if it shows what we're feeling I hope this
will never be another discussion in terms of how we get our
country back.
So I want to turn the page really quick. Last year the
Department of Labor issued a safe harbor rule that allowed for
default electronic delivery of retirement plan documents.
Before using this safe harbor, plan sponsors were required to
send a one-time paper notice to plan participants notifying
them of electronic delivery.
Plans using this safe harbor also allow participants to opt
into paper copies at no cost to them if they prefer paper. This
2020 rule was finalized after it had garnered support from a
broad range of retirement savings to stakeholders, including
several union pension funds. The shift toward e-delivery allows
for cost effective and convenient access to retirement benefits
information.
In fact, plan participants with e-delivery at higher levels
of engagement with their investments and higher contribution
rates, possibly impacting their retirement options. This 2020
e-delivery rule is a balanced approach that contains important
consumer corrections protection and harnesses the ability to
electronic communication, to increase engagement and retirement
averages at a lower cost.
Would you agree that the increase in online engagement by a
plan's participants has a positive impact on retirement
preparedness?
Secretary Walsh. I can't answer that because I'm not sure.
If you would give me some opportunity to look into it and to
see if that's the case, I'll look into that.
Mr. Owens. I would really hope you would do that. And also
let me just ask you this. And you might have to look into this
again, but I understand the Department is also undergoing the
impact of the 2020 rule on seniors and those in the rural areas
as required by the Conciliation Appropriation Act, CAA. This
report is due at the end of the year.
Do you have any idea on this whether you will be able to
meet that statutory deadline at this particular point?
Secretary Walsh. Congressman you clearly did your homework,
and I didn't, so let me get back to you on that one as well.
Mr. Owens. I appreciate that, and I totally understand. So
I want to thank you again. I'd like to yield my remaining time
to Ranking Member Dr. Foxx. Thank you so much.
Ms. Foxx. Thank you, Mr. Owens. Mr. Secretary we have
noticed that you have to get back to us on a lot of issues, and
we'll be looking forward to that. I do have one quick question,
and maybe possibly sort of a guidance. Earlier you made the
comment that some people are on their way to college, and some
people are on their way to a career.
What in the world do you think people going to college are
getting, or are looking forward to? They're looking forward to
a career, or are they looking forward to contemplating their
navels when they graduate?
Secretary Walsh. Well what I was referencing, first of all
this is my 78th day on the job, so I'm still learning as I move
forward, just to put in the record. And what I was talking
about was in high school not every person graduating high
school is on their way to college.
They have obstacles and barriers to get there. They might
have financial obstacles. Some aren't prepared for college. I
went to college for a year and a half, and I dropped out. I
ended up going back to school later in life and got my degree
at Boston College.
So when I was talking about pathways, when a 12th grader
graduate high school if you're a school district you have to
have that 12th grader on a pathway to college, which is meaning
accepted to college or into college, or a pathway to a career.
Is there an opportunity to get that young person to an
apprentice program or into a career, so that that person
doesn't end up in a job corps years later because there's no
options for them? And that's what I meant by that.
Ms. Foxx. OK. We'll talk some more about how we can I think
use better language to encourage people to think positively
about where they're going, thank you Mr. Secretary.
Secretary Walsh. Thank you.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. At this time we'll give the
Secretary a ten-minute break. The next questioner will be the
gentlelady from Pennsylvania Ms. Wild when we reconvene in ten
minutes.
[Break]
Chairman Scott. The gentlelady from Pennsylvania Ms. Wild.
Ms. Wild. Thank you so much Mr. Chairman, and thank you
Secretary Walsh for your time today. It's great to see you
again having just seen you about a week ago when you took time
to visit Pennsylvania's 7th District, my district, and we
really appreciated it.
As you know, our district really highlights the opportunity
envisioned by the American Jobs Plan to rebuild our economy
with a made in America grit, and to create good family
sustaining jobs, and I just think that your presence in our
district as the first cabinet secretary of this administration
to PA-7 was really important.
I just want to start with a quick question and maybe quick.
Can you provide us with a timeline for further action on a
COVID-19 related emergency temporary standard as well as offer
any insight on how your department might incorporate evolving
public health guidance into such a standard?
Secretary Walsh. Thank you Congresswoman and I enjoyed the
trip, I really did. And thank you for that. I had a great time
and I've been talking about it ever since, especially the tour
of the old steel mill. The temporary standard will be posted
tomorrow, the emergency temporary standard will be posted
tomorrow.
It's on hospital healthcare workers and they'll be showing
guidance on other industries, and there will be a briefing I
believe there's going to be a briefing tomorrow for all staff.
Ms. Wild. OK, wonderful.
Secretary Walsh. That was just I was able to announce that
just at the beginning of this hearing, it just passed our wire
and it's public.
Ms. Wild. I must have missed that. I'm so sorry but thank
you so much. Moving on, in my district, we have two community
colleges. Out of the 14 in Pennsylvania, two of them are in my
district, and they are shining stars or jewels of the district
as I call them.
They're great community partners. They support workforce
programs that empower students with the skills that they need
to succeed and contribute to our economy, and I believe that
it's great that the American Jobs Plan outlines investment in a
community college training partnership program, one informed by
previous work on trade adjustment assistance programs, based in
community colleges, as well as outlining a sectoral program,
the sector program that builds on our previous work in the
Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.
What lessons learned from these two prior initiatives, a
sector program and a Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act,.
and what lessons learned from those have informed the
development of the proposals of the administration? And how
could the Federal Department of Labor support the specific
workforce development needs of our local communities and
economies?
Secretary Walsh. Thank you. What informs the suggested
investment is evidence-based practices and talking and seeing
what's working. What supports the apprenticeship investment is
evidence-based practices, but also success and outcomes of
those programs, and I think that that's key.
I think that as we think about making these investments as
you think about making these investments not only will the
individuals that go through these programs be benefited from
them to earn better wages against the middle class, but also
your community colleges benefit by these investments by being
able to administer these programs in a lot of cases.
And I think that we have to look at as a country a stronger
partnership with our community college system. I've met with,
think it's National Association of Community Colleges already.
I have had one meeting. That's a natural area to go when we
think about investments in communities because they're in
communities. Most of them, a majority of them are in
communities that people are underemployed in a lot of cases, or
don't have opportunity.
So I look forward to working with you, but also with your
colleagues and community colleges, no matter Democrats or
Republicans. Let's strengthen the system. Let's make
investments in people, and let's get people opportunities to
get better paying jobs and opportunities for middle class.
Ms. Wild. Well thank you. We are completely on the same
page about this. I believe the community colleges really offer
a wonderful opportunity. So many in my community who are first
generation college students go to the two community colleges,
and the community colleges have shown just a remarkable ability
to adapt to changing needs by employers, in a way that 4 year
colleges I don't think are geared to do.
So we see our community colleges steering new students into
career paths, job paths where they are very much needed and
likely to become quickly employed, so let's keep working on
that. Thank you so much, Mr. Secretary. And with that I yield
back.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. Next is my colleague from
Virginia Mr. Good.
Mr. Good. Thank you, Chairman Scott, and thank you
Secretary Walsh for being with us today. Secretary Walsh in any
vetting process it's important to discuss a person's record and
history of past relevant actions. I understand that Members of
your own party are calling for your resignation, saying that
you covered up allegations of domestic violence against your
nominee for the Boston Police Chief Commissioner position,
Dennis White.
According to reports in 1993 Mr. White allegedly verbally
abused, slapped, punch and threw his niece down a stairway
during a fight. In 1999 Mr. White allegedly threatened to shoot
his daughter if she ever approached him while he was asleep.
Also in 1999 Mr. White's ex-wife got a restraining order
against him, and yet despite this clear history of alleged
misconduct, you still chose to appoint him to lead Boston's
police department.
Two days ago, the new acting mayor of Boston Kim Janey
announced that she had fired Commissioner White due to these
domestic violence allegations. Former Boston Police
Commissioner William Gross sworn an affidavit that you knew
about Mr. White's background when you selected him for the job,
a claim supported by a local district prosecutor.
Last week in a sworn statement Mr. White said that he
informed you that he had been the subject of a restraining
order related to the domestic abuse allegations. Secretary
Walsh, simply a yes or no question please. Do you assert that
Mr. Gross and/or Mr. White lied with these sworn affidavits and
sworn statements?
Secretary Walsh. Well first of all Congressman thank you
for bringing this up. I appreciate it because nobody from my
party the democratic party has asked for my resignation. I was
not aware of these incidents when I appointed Dennis White as
Commissioner of Boston. If I had known that, that would not
have happened, I would not have appointed him.
Mr. Good. So excuse me sir, you're asserting that Mr.
White's sworn statement said that he had informed you that he
had been the subject of a restraining order related to domestic
abuse allegation. You're saying that Commissioner White is
lying with that sworn statement?
Secretary Walsh. Well I'm not sure. I'd have to go back and
look at the sworn statement in the context that it was spoken
and written. It was not that clear.
Mr. Good. OK how about with respect to Commissioner Gross's
sworn affidavit that you knew about Mr. White's background when
you selected him.
Secretary Walsh. From what I understand Mr. Gross's sworn
affidavit said that there was a recommendation, a file
reviewed, and never clearly stated that I got the file, and I
never received the file on Dennis White.
Mr. Good. Given the fact that you seem to ignore the
critical information in appointing a person with a documented
violent history to the highest rank of the police department in
Boston, do you feel like you should resign?
Secretary Walsh. I didn't ignore anything. I wasn't aware
of the situation until after. Until quite honestly, after I
appointed him, and it was pointed out to me in the newspaper.
Mr. Good. Secretary Walsh the American people deserve to
know what's happening in their government, and given your
history as mayor of Boston I think it's appropriate to ask you
if you're aware of any domestic violence perpetrated by your
staff during your time and leadership at the Department of
Labor? And if there were, what actions would you take?
Secretary Walsh. I would take immediate actions if I knew,
if anything came to light that I understood I'd take immediate
action.
Mr. Good. And so if someone on your staff.
Secretary Walsh. Just like I did in the situation of
Commissioner White. As soon as I found out then immediately I
placed him on paid leave and hired an outside investigator to
do an investigation on an internal investigation and an
external investigation that did an investigation that led to
his dismissal by the current acting mayor.
Mr. Good. Thank you, sir. One would hope that a President
would seek transparency and put capable people in leadership
roles in his administration. However, Mr. Biden won't admit to
the corrupt dealings of his own son Hunter, his failure to set
high standards for his cabinet should come as no surprise.
Secretary Walsh why should the American people trust an
administration that has a history of covering up domestic
violence and questionable actions with foreign entities by the
President's own son?
Secretary Walsh. I'm not going to comment on that. It
doesn't justify an answer.
Mr. Good. Commissioner Walsh, or Secretary Walsh, in the
Labor Department your mission should be to put American jobs
first. How do you defend the Biden administration using its
first days in office to fire thousands of Americans by shutting
down the Keystone Pipeline, and simultaneously endorsing
Russia's Nord Stream 2 Pipeline?
Secretary Walsh. What I do support is President Biden's
American Rescue Plan that is getting millions of Americans back
to work. What I do support is President Biden's American Jobs
Plan, American Families Plan.
Mr. Good. Excuse me sir do you support him shutting down
the pipeline and approving the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline?
Secretary Walsh. Again I think that the President made it
very clear when he unveiled his climate goals about creating
opportunities and equity in jobs in those areas to replace a
new industry in our county to create opportunities in that
industry.
Mr. Good. Thank you, sir my time has expired. I yield back
Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. The gentleman's time has
expired. The next is gentlelady from Georgia Mrs. McBath.
Mrs. McBath. Thank you so much Mr. Chairman and Ranking
Member Foxx for convening this hearing today. And thank you
Secretary Walsh for joining us this afternoon and I will
apologize on behalf of my republican colleagues. You were not
brought here today to answer innuendo in this kind of
questioning. You were brought here today to talk about the
budget and agenda for the Department of Labor.
And I will make sure that I'm asking those very kinds of
questions, so I do apologize. It is not meant for you to be
here being questioned and you know, and innuendo, and all these
kinds of accusations being made toward you. But thank you so
much for joining us this afternoon.
I had the benefit of being able to hear from you just
recently as you addressed the Democratic Women's Caucus earlier
this week, and the work at the Department of Labor is vital to
continuing to ensure that all working families in American can
lead more productive and safer lives.
And your record as the mayor of Boston and your work with
the trade unions and the business community and every day
working people leaves you with a unique perspective on the
American workforce. And the work still needed to ensure that
every American has access to middle class, and also you know
middle class values and the American dream.
And our Committee right here has been focused on that very
work that you are ensuring happens, whether it be rebuilding
America's workforce, or ensuring that workers have adequate
safety standards. However, I'd really like to kind of
transition today and talk a little bit more about the need for
comprehensive national paid leave, creating a sustainable
workforce, a framework for paid family leave and medical leave,
but these programs which are essential for building a fair and
equitable society.
And the past year has definitely shown us that no one is
immune to the need for care for their child or their loved one,
and no one should lose their job simply because they needed to
show their loved one that same kind of kindness that you know
we all would want in a similar situation.
And the pandemic, you know COVID-19 definitely did expose
the costs and the consequences of gaps in these very important
protections. Expansions of these benefits is vital to ensuring
a safe productive and healthy workforce. I have just one
question for you sir.
Secretary Walsh, please just expound upon what is the
economic benefit to workers, their families, and the overall
economy of a national comprehensive paid family and medical
leave program. Thank you.
Secretary Walsh. Thank you very much Congresswoman, and I
just want to begin by saying no need to apologize. I appreciate
your words and I thank you for that, but I appreciate that. One
thing to answer your question that studies have showed workers
lose about 22.5 billion dollars in wages annually due to lack
of paid family leave.
And when you think about the impact that that has on our
economy, access to paid leave increases labor force
participation for women, and paid leave reduces racial
disparities and wage loss. So you think about those three
things I just said and what the impact would be for paid family
leave to the American economy would be profound in some ways,
so I don't know if profound is the right word, but I'm using
profound.
It would be a great way of moving forward. When you think
about the impacts of COVID-19 on the economy, the numbers are
high. 4 million women have been pushed out of the workforce.
When you look around the country and you look at cities and
towns across the country often in a lot of cities and towns the
wage earners, the bread winners in families are women.
The head of the household is women. So having a strong
comprehensive paid family program works. When I had a chance to
meet with as I mentioned a little earlier, I met with some
companies. Levi's was one of them. They talked about the
importance of paid family leave in their company and what it
meant for the workers in their company, and it meant for the
productivity in their company.
And all of the signs for paid family leave are positive.
There's no negative signs. So when we say paid family leave or
medical leave, there's no negative signs in this.
Mrs. McBath. Thank you very much and I release the balance
of my time.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. The gentlelady's time has
expired. The next gentlelady from Michigan, Mrs. McClain.
Mrs. McClain. Good afternoon Mr. Secretary. First, I want
to thank you for being here today. I do appreciate it. I have a
limited amount of time, so I want to ask you just three really
very simple questions. Yes and no answers are fine, and
honestly, these are not trick questions.
Would you agree that ensuring our Nation has a strong labor
market is really paramount for our recovery?
Secretary Walsh. I completely agree with you.
Mrs. McClain. Thank you so much. And then historically
economies that have millions of job openings, typically that
would mean low unemployment would follow correct?
Secretary Walsh. You're right correct. In a normal
circumstance when we're not dealing with a pandemic, yes.
Mrs. McClain. Thank you. My third question is would you
agree that it is best to have American citizens working and
making a positive contribution to our economy, rather than
receiving unemployment benefits?
Secretary Walsh. As a former mayor absolutely. I wanted to
get my unemployment rate as low as possible, and I wanted to
create as many good jobs as possible in the city of Boston in
my time there.
Mrs. McClain. Thank you so much. I'm glad you agree with me
on these basics. Now I continue to hear from employers and
businesses in my district that they are unable to find people
who are actually willing to work due to this administration's
enhanced unemployment benefits.
You testified that you agreed with me that it is best to
have Americans working rather than relying on the government.
The facts are clear that the enhanced unemployment benefits are
hindering our recovery, especially here in my district. So I
ask you when, and I am looking for a timeframe, when will it be
necessary to end these benefits if the recent jobs reports
aren't enough of a sign?
Secretary Walsh. Let me thank you, I'm just writing some
notes down. First, thank you for this line of questioning. I
think it's an important conversation to have, and I think we
need to continue to have this conversation.
Mrs. McClain. It just seems like there's a reverse, or
we're missing cause and effect.
Secretary Walsh. Well I think that just you know one thing
I think we have to be again remain cognizant enough we are
still in or coming out of a global pandemic that the likes of
which we haven't seen in the United States of America in 100
years. In saying that the benefit, the unemployment extension
benefit expires in September.
And when you look at President Biden's Recovery Plan, we've
added in the past 4 months over 2.1 million jobs have been
added to our economy. And as we think about, as we see the
connection between the CDC release, or reducing some of the
restrictions on masks, and restrictions, as we see states and
cities around the country reduce and cut back on some of those
restrictions on COVID, we're seeing more and more people enter
into the workforce.
And as we start seeing childcare facilities open, and
schools open, and hopefully summer camp's open, that's going to
be key. We're going to see more and more people go back into
the economy.
Mrs. McClain. And are you optimistic that at the end of the
September these enhanced benefits will be done?
Secretary Walsh. Yes, I mean they expire then. They do
expire then.
Mrs. McClain. OK.
Secretary Walsh. And I'm also hopeful and optimistic that
our economy, and more people will be working by the end of
September.
Mrs. McClain. Yes, I mean that's my, we're on the same
sheet of music. I mean we have 9.3 million jobs, and we don't
have people to fill those jobs. My concern is if we don't keep
the businesses open, by the time the enhanced unemployment
benefits run out and expire in September, they won't have any
businesses to go back to work to, so I think you and I are on
the same sheet of music.
By why do you and President Biden remain so committed to
the unnecessary spending of the taxpayer dollars on these
benefits? Do you really think they're needed?
Secretary Walsh. Yes, I do honestly think they're needed. I
really do.
Mrs. McClain. Even with the numbers and the data we have?
Secretary Walsh. Well the numbers and data is how people
read them quite honestly, and I think that there's still a lot
of pain in this country. People have lost their job. People
have lost the industry they worked in. Many of the restaurants
that are looking for workers now, about 25 percent of our
restaurants roughly, at least I could speak for Boston. I can't
speak for the country, are out of business not because of not
having workers.
Mrs. McClain. Sir I think you and I are close on this. One
last question before I yield my time back. Am I hearing you
correctly that you will commit to this Committee to ending
these unnecessary benefits as soon as possible, hopefully in
September?
Secretary Walsh. No I won't commit to ending them as soon
as possible, but they expire in September. So for all intents
and purposes in September they expire, so I guess you could say
at that point they end.
Mrs. McClain. Thank you for time sir I yield back.
Secretary Walsh. I appreciate it thank you.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. The gentlelady from Connecticut
Ms. Hayes.
Mrs. Hayes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Secretary
Walsh, for being here today and for your testimony. In
Connecticut and across the country, and even in this hearing
today, we've heard a lot about underemployment and jobs that
are unable to be filled. I think where we disagree is on some
of the reasons.
What I'm hearing from my constituents is that it's
everything from childcare to low wages, to you know we keep
hearing just belabored, the unemployment plus up, which is not
the only reason that people are not returning to the workforce.
Yesterday a former Reagan official stated on Fox News, and
I quote, ``The poor, the minorities, the disenfranchised, those
with less education, young people who haven't had the job
experience, those people are not worth $15.00 an hour in most
cases.''
So we are so far apart on where we stand on these issues,
so I'm so happy to hear your support today for the $15.00
minimum wage, and the fact that every person is worthy of a
living wage despite their labor or contributions to the
economy.
I have two questions today and I'm going to ask them both
just so that I can yield the rest of the time to you to answer.
I'm from Connecticut, so you have to know I'm going to ask you
a question about registered apprenticeships. We need long-term
strategies to support the creation of high-paying jobs for all
workers.
Once such opportunity is registered apprenticeships. My
question though is about pre-apprenticeships. I was a high
school teacher and in high schools around the country we
commonly refer to college and career pathways, or college and
career readiness. That's an accepted term that everyone
understands and that we deal with.
My question for you Secretary Walsh is how will the
investments in registered apprenticeships that are called for
in the Biden American Jobs Plan, help individuals afford to
participate in these apprenticeships? We see so many of these
programs that are unpaid apprenticeships, and for many of the
children in my class they wouldn't have been able to access
those opportunities.
And then my second question is there's another segment of
the workforce that we haven't really heard a lot about. The
formerly incarcerated who have long faced barriers to economic
stability. How can Congress support the Department of Labor in
your efforts to expand services for returning citizens to
ensure they are not underemployed, or unemployed, and can
become productive citizens?
Secretary Walsh. Thank you very much. First of all if I run
over my time Mr. Chairman just stop me because this is an area
that I'm pretty passionate about. In my time, in my whole lived
experience whether it was a worker, as the head of the building
trades, as a State representative, or as a mayor of Boston.
First and foremost your first comment you didn't ask me a
question. $15.00 an hour minimum wage is something that we need
to advocate for. Every single American deserves it. Every
single American deserves it regardless of their status, where
they're from what their work history is. We need to make sure
we put people on level playing fields, and that's what the
President's intention is about, that's what my intention is
about, and that's what we need to do moving forward.
And I think if you talk to most employers in America they
would agree as well. As far as registered apprenticeships and
pre-apprenticeships it's incumbent that we make sure that
people that enter into those apprenticeships that they get paid
No. 1, that they have an opportunity. We talked a little about
Congressman Norcross asked me earlier, a little bit earlier,
about the building trades.
Once you're in the apprenticeship program you're getting
paid. We also have to be more cognizant and more intentional
about creating opportunities for people of color and women to
get into those building trades, into those pathway programs. I
didn't see the TV interview by the Reagan official, but I'd be
willing to be that the people that he was talking about never
had an opportunity in their live to get into some type of
apprenticeship program.
The people he labeled as people of color and not working.
So that's what we need to do. We need to be more intentional
about creating pathways. And then when it comes to formerly
incarcerated, I will go one step further. Not just formerly
incarcerated, but I think we have to do a better job in America
of going to urban America, and going to see America where young
people quit school, they're hanging on the corner, they're
involved in activity, and they might be involved in the
criminal justice system.
And how do we create pathways before they get incarcerated
into apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs? Because
what a lot of people just need is an opportunity and a chance,
and I believe in second chances, and I believe in third changes
because I was given second chances in my life.
And I'm sitting in front of you as a person that was given
a second and a third chance many times. So I certainly think we
need to be more intentional about the work we do. The
investments in the WIOA reauthorization, we have investments in
apprenticeships, we have investments in work training, in
workforce development, and we have investments in reentry as
well.
So those dollars are tied into the WIOA reauthorization, so
I hope that we can have the authorization in time quickly, so
we can start to make those investments, including the American
Jobs Plan.
Mrs. Hayes. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. You're a breath of
fresh air. Mr. Chair, I yield back. Thank you.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. Next is Harshbarger, Miller, the
gentlelady from Indiana Mrs. Spartz, the gentleman from
Wisconsin Mr. Fitzgerald?
Mr. Fitzgerald. You're good thank you Mr. Chair. And thank
you Mr. Secretary for hanging in there today. I know it's kind
of a long process here. I wanted to just take maybe a 30,000
foot look at some of the issues that are you know somewhat
similar to what's been discussed, but and I know you just
mentioned again that you were a Member of the assembly, of the
House in Massachusetts.
And I just came out of the Wisconsin legislature after 25
years, so I'm just newly elected in November to Congress. And
in Wisconsin you know just like it is in many other states,
unemployment insurance is sometimes set by kind of a non-
partisan council.
So you've got labor, you've got management, they sit in a
room, they iron things out, set the rate that employers will
pay into the unemployment fund, and like I said I have a long
enough tenure that when I was in Wisconsin in the State Senate,
just like many of the other states when we hit a downturn in
the economy in 08-09, that fund was in trouble because there
were so many individuals that actually were collecting the
unemployment insurance compensation.
We were able to fix that, and like I said in a non-partisan
way, in a uniform way. They were able to fix that by tweaking
some things related to unemployment. And then we were doing
fine. We were doing fine right up until the pandemic. So you
know what I find right now is that this is having a detrimental
effect I think State by State by State.
And as you see these unemployment funds diminish, and I
want to put it on your radar screen because I think we're going
to find ourselves at a point in time, it could be 6 months, it
could be a year from now, it could be longer, where suddenly
it's going to be states saying, OK, you know we still need an
unemployment fund in this State, even though you know the
enhanced benefits are gone and COVID hopefully is being
managed. It's never going away.
It's going to be managed. And you know this is going to
fall I think squarely back on the Federal Government to try and
figure a way out of this because you know the ways things look
right now the economy is strong, but I don't know that you can
go to a small business and say listen, we're going to have to
increase the unemployment insurance compensation rate to fill
the red ink that's probably going to emerge in a lot of these
situations.
Secretary Walsh. Thank you, Congressman. I can't disagree
with anything you just said. I will say this I spent 16 years
in the Massachusetts House, and I was in like you in the
legislature in 2008-09 when we had the recession. I was there
in 2001 and 2002 when we had a dip in the economy as well. And
you're right the rate was set by a bipartisan group of folks.
It was funded by the legislature and by businesses. I think
that what we've experienced, and I don't want to be critical of
any states, but what we're seeing is a consistent underfunding
of the fund in certain states, and also this year the pandemic
obviously came on 30 plus million Americans out of work
literally overnight, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, all over the
country people are applying for unemployment because their job
was gone.
And when President Biden got elected, one of the first
things he did in the American Rescue Plan was put a 2 million
dollar investment there for us her at Department of Labor and
ETA to take a look at the systems across the country and to
make investments.
Now that 2 million dollars is probably not going to fix the
problem that you pointed out that probably is going to happen,
but what we have to do is come up with a reform of the UI
system that works. In some states they have old technology
they're using, in some states it's the benefit levels are all
over the place.
So we really have to have a comprehensive unemployment
insurance reform package here, and then we have to work with
the states and the territories carrying that out. So again,
everything you said, I'm not going to argue with anything you
said. Some states have pointed out to me that their funds,
they're in trouble because they're draining down on it and they
don't have kind of a way to build those funds back up.
We also had the issue of fraud that came up, breaking into
our system, so all of these issues you know if at the end of
the day we a system have that's reformed and that works. A UI
system that works for states, for people, for businesses, for
employers, then we would have done our job. So it's incumbent
upon us here at the Department of Labor to make sure that we
work collectively with other states and territories to get this
right.
Mr. Fitzgerald. OK very good. Mr. Chairman just really
quick I want to put in a good word. I always try to talk about
the tech college system, you know, I know it varies from State
to State, but in a lot of instances it's been the one group of
educators that have been nimble enough to try and respond to
crises like we're having right now.
And so anything we can do for the tech colleges I think
makes sense and is also going to be a great investment for the
Federal Government. Keep your eye on the ball because I think
that's another thing that's going to have to change very
quickly, but thanks for being with us today.
Secretary Walsh. I agree with you there too, thank you.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. The gentleman's time has
expired. Next is the gentleman from Michigan Mr. Levin.
Mr. Levin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thanks for your
persistence, Mr. Secretary, and for fighting for justice for
American workers. It's great to see you. And I certainly want
to followup on the words of my colleague there, your buddy
Secretary Cardona was in my district yesterday at a community
college.
And the President's plan and our bill--The America's
College Promise Act--two years of free community college for
everybody is such a cornerstone of what we've got to do, so I
appreciate your leadership on all of that.
Let me try to ask you a couple things that people haven't
talked much about. You know the Federal Government maintains a
lot of purchasing power right, be it numerous programs
throughout the executive branch. And I strongly believe that
the Federal Government should not provide taxpayer money to
employers who do not respect their workers or shift jobs
around.
How can we ensure that money spent goes only to entities
that implement and abide by strong labor protections? And how
does the Department of Labor coordinate with other Federal
agencies in that regard? And are there ways that we can make
interagency coordination stronger, or labor protections for all
of our workers who are working on these Federal dollars that we
gave them.
Secretary Walsh. Yes thank you Congressman. I mean I think
one of the ways of doing this across cabinet is President
Biden's Buy American Plan. And how do we make sure that we make
those investments not just in the contracts that are given out,
but how do we make sure there's equity in it?
We are working internally here at the Department of Labor
on the equity executive order the President signed. We want to
make sure that not only are workers paid a fair wage, but it's
also that we increase the amount of spending that's in
businesses of color, women, veterans-owned businesses, so we
can actually create more equity there as well.
So I think that this is going to be conversations that will
be ongoing as we continue to move forward here with the
Department of Labor and with the administration.
Mr. Levin. Outstanding. I hope we can you know advance also
the workers on Federal contracts are free to form unions, you
know, without interference and all that. So I really look
forward to supporting your work on that. And let me mention
also the role, the crucial role of ILAB in the USMCA situation.
Allegations of vote tampering came to light during a union
election in General Motor's assembly plan in the Mexican State
of Guanajuato. And subsequently, the Mexican Labor Ministry had
to invalidate that election, and the U.S. filed a complaint
under the U.S. embassy rapid response labor mechanism, which is
a new thing.
This is one of a number of problems with Mexican
implementation of USMCA's labor provisions and the ILAB, the
International Labor Affairs Bureau, in DOL has to take
responsibility for ensuring our trading partners meet their
labor obligations, but especially this new power under USMCA.
So I know you've appointed a person to run that, and I
wonder if you could speak to your efforts with the U.S. trade
representative to ensure that Mexico meets its labor
commitments under USMCA, and whether you've had contacts with
your counterparts in Mexico on this, and just basically
anything we can do to support your work on this because it's
super important that those new labor provisions succeed.
Secretary Walsh. Yes, no thank you for that. The ILAB
regularly engaged with the Mexico's Minister of Labor, and
others in Mexico to support the compliance with the labor
commitments to the USMCA. Mexico's new labor institutions have
started to resolve disputes and register unions, and collective
bargaining agreements.
Obviously, the pandemic has worsened the challenge involved
in Mexico's ambitious labor policy, but we're going to continue
to work. In support of ILAB, the USMCA's mission they're
working to hire new staff from monitoring enforcement including
five labor attaches in Mexico.
So that's one of the first meetings I had after I got sworn
in was with ILAB, and they were talking about the attaches, and
we had two on the ground, and there was three that weren't, and
it makes a big difference, particularly with a pandemic. So
we're in the process right now I think there's a bit of a
process hiring up, but we're in the process of hiring, and I
know it's been posted, and I think we're interviewing in there.
And ILAB was also awarded more than 80 million dollars in
projects funding to support labor reforms in Mexico, so that's
another important step that we take to reduce workplace
discrimination, address child labor, forced labor, human
trafficking and making sure to ensure other successes of
efforts related to implementation of the USMCA.
So we're going to work closely with all of our partners
here so that we can make sure that this is a successful
relationship.
Mr. Levin. Outstanding. I'm glad you're there to drive all
that forward, am looking forward to helping any way we can, and
I think my time has expired Mr. Chairman and I yield back.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. The gentleman from North
Carolina Mr. Cawthorn.
Mr. Cawthorn. Thank you very much Mr. Chairman Scott, and
thank you very much Secretary. You know I believe that these
last 7 months have taught us anything throughout the Biden
administration it's that the Biden agenda, the democrat agenda
puts the interest of union bosses over the interests of union
workers.
The Biden administration pro union boss agenda has been a
death knell for the American worker in my district and across
the country. With the flick of his cufflink bedazzled wrist,
our monarch in chief has demolished 4 years of pro-worker, pro-
business initiatives enacted by the previous administration,
including updated regulations on joint employer status,
independent contractors, industry recognized apprenticeships,
religious liberty and union transparency.
Perhaps most striking is the current administration's
callous disregard for industry recognized apprenticeships,
which create a powerful employment pathway for young American
workers. I believe that on February 19, 2021, President Biden
rescinded the executive worker which created the IRAP program
and asked the DOL to consider new rulemaking to reverse
apprenticeship programs.
The gloves have come off. The blindfold is being ripped
from the eyes of the American people. We are now seeing that
democratic policy where it truly is, a full-scale war on the
blue-collar worker. I will not be silent while thousands of
blue-collar workers in my district are questioned and meet the
boot heal of white-collar liberal lawyers here in Washington.
Secretary Walsh industry recognized apprenticeship programs
combines workforce training with paid work component in an
educational or instructional component, and results in industry
recognized credential. It is the most cost-efficient way to
give participants the chance to learn skills and make a wage in
time.
In an industry where they will get a good paying job as
soon as they finish the program. In 2021, a year from the last
final rule, President Biden rescinded yet another one of
President Trumps initiatives, the IRAP program.
My question for you is why were IRAP's rescinded before
even having the chance to show how valuable they are.
Secretary Walsh. Thank you, Congressman, for your comments
and question. I'm concerned that the IRAP's are a duplicate
system that doesn't require worker protection and quality
standard of registered apprenticeships. And I think that while
our review is currently ongoing, I just want to reiterate my
commitment I made during my confirmation process, that we'll
ensure that voices of all industries are heard, including and
obviously we have a hearing today, I've love to talk to you
more outside of this hearing.
The rulemaking process that we do regarding IRAP's will be
transparent. We're going to go through public notice and
comment period, and there will be an opportunity for people to
explain how successful they are and what the benefits have
been, and the Department intends to issue spring regulatory
agenda shortly.
Mr. Cawthorn. Right, but as I understand with you all
rescinding the final ruling on this, it does keep in place the
ongoing IRAP program to people who are already enrolled in this
program, but how does that help people in my generation, the
new workforce? People returning from the military, people who
are just graduating college, people who are just entering the
workforce from high school, how does that help us in the
future, and why are you halting that?
Secretary Walsh. Because the President in the American
Job's Plan is making a 10 billion dollar investment over 10
years to create 2 million new apprentices, and the folks in
your generation and older generations, younger generations,
will have opportunities in those generations, and those are
long-standing apprenticeship programs that show benefits and
success over the years.
Mr. Cawthorn. Thank you very much Secretary and I yield
back one more time.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. The gentlelady from Minnesota
Ms. Omar, is she on the present? The gentlelady from Michigan
Ms. Stevens. Ms. Stevens we're having trouble hearing you. It
didn't look like you were muted.
Mr. Jones. Hayley, do you have an external microphone
possibly?
Chairman Scott. We're going to ask the staff to get in
touch with Ms. Stevens to get her online, and then meanwhile
we'll go to Ms. Leger Fernandez, the gentlelady from New Mexico
Ms. Leger Fernandez.
Mrs. Leger Fernandez. Thank you very much Chairman Scott,
and thank you Secretary Walsh for addressing you know how the
American Rescue Plan has already created more jobs than during
any other presidency, and how we'll build on that with the
American Jobs Plan.
Loved hearing what we plan to do with the apprenticeships
and the work with community colleges, to just name a few of the
two initiatives you've talked about. Secretary Walsh I want to
focus on how the Department of Labor can help two specific
groups ? our artists harmed by the pandemic, and our fossil
fuel workers as we transition to a cleaner economy.
As we discussed last week at the congressional Hispanic
Caucus meeting the creative economy is essential to the U.S.
economy, and especially in New Mexico, but at the height of the
pandemic 63 percent of those in the creative sector were
unemployed. Do you agree that creative workers as a group have
been severely impacted by the COVID pandemic?
Secretary Walsh. Yes. As I said in the caucus the other day
there's no question about it. And you know I saw in my city,
but all across this country. Other than the extension of
unemployment benefits, many people in the creative economy had
nothing. They lost everything. There was no relief for their
space. There was no relief for studios. If you had a studio,
they had nothing.
So I absolutely agree with that, and when you think about
the creative economy the impacts it has in our economy in a
positive outweighs, I mean is astronomical as well in a
positive way.
Mrs. Leger Fernandez. Thank you and I think you're right
about--I love Amanda Gorman's poem where she calls upon us to
repair our Nation right, that the power of that poem tells us a
lot. So I am working on legislation to help the creative
economy to address those kinds of things that will go under the
Department of Labor where you'll consult with the NEA, and it's
intended to put unemployed artists and creatives to work on
those public art experiences for communities.
You know we recognized that back when we did the WPA coming
out of the depression. We recognized that in New Mexico where
we have a 1 percent of public capital funding for arts
projects. You know, and those WPA arts are still inspiring us
today. I would ask whether you would support a program like
this to help get creative workers back into jobs for operating
arts and programs to our communities.
Secretary Walsh. No absolutely. When you think about
workforce boards across the United States, they're there to
support workers and partners with employers and industries and
jobs and regions, and so we have when you think about it we
have it for our youth partnerships in Boston, and now we should
be thinking about it a little differently when we talk about
you know creative economy artists and independent folks that
are working. I absolutely agree with that.
Mrs. Leger Fernandez. OK great. And now you know I'm going
to turn to our transition. I really appreciate Congressman
DeSaulnier bringing up the need to help workers as we
transition to a clean energy economy. You know we don't have
steel workers and boilermakers in New Mexico, but what we do
have are the fossil fuel workers who helped supply the energy
to our Nation for decades.
These workers are often rural, and in my State they're
Native American and Latino as well. And I invite you to New
Mexico to visit these areas. We go from creatives to our fossil
fuel areas. But I did want to ask you how the Department of
Labor planned to assist fossil fuel workers as we transition to
a clean energy economy to combat climate change, and what we
can do in Congress to help serve this workforce.
Secretary Walsh. Well first of all thank you for the invite
and I look forward to getting to New Mexico. I really am
looking forward to that. A little earlier I was asked a similar
question, and I think there's two things. One is there's a
major reauthorization in WIOA for veterans to be able to get
into the clean economy if you will, and there's also job
training, workforce development, apprenticeship programs as
well for retraining.
I shouldn't say retraining, enhancing their skills of
workers that understand the fossil fuel industry that can work
into the new environmental industry. And I think that you know
you don't have to train them, they already have the skills.
What you have to do is expand their skills, expand their
understanding of this industry.
So I think we have a unique opportunity right now at this
moment in time in this country to really, with a President that
is making major investments and willing to make major
investments in this industry while we're able to do two things.
One is we're able to combat climate change, we're able to
reduce carbon emissions, we're able to make our environment
cleaner and safer and healthier for the next generation of
young people, but we also get a chance to take the workers that
are currently working in the fossil fuel industry, and other
industries, and help them to be able to earn good living, good
wages in the same industry that's converting our environment
into a safe place.
Mrs. Leger Fernandez. Thank you so very much. My time is
expired, and I yield back.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. The gentlelady from California
Mrs. Steel.
Mrs. Steel. Thank you, Chairman Scott, and thank you
Ranking Member Dr. Foxx, and Secretary Walsh thank you for
being with us today, such a long time. I started at 7 here in
California and you know we are still on, so thank you very
much.
Let me get just straight to the question. In California
we've been seeing that ABC has to reclassify independent
contractors as employees has been a failure. It limits, and in
many cases prevents Americans looking for jobs from finding
flexible options for work. It hurts workers. It hurts business,
and it hurts consumers.
The blanket approach in California has proved to a disaster
and is now riddled with exemptions. Following these policies
it's guaranteed to cause more harm to workers at the national
level. We saw a push for the California ABC test in the PRO
Act, the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, and now you are
on the record supporting the reclassification of workers who
choose to be independent contractors.
Why would you continue to push for a failed policy that
limits the flexibility and opportunity offered by independent
contracting?
Secretary Walsh. So thank you Congresswoman for your
concern. I know my home State of Massachusetts the ABC test has
proven to be helpful, but misclassification of workers are
deprived of a long list of legally mandated benefits and
protections such as minimum wage, overtime pay, excuse me,
workplace health and safety protections, unemployment and
worker's compensation insurance, and the right to organize and
collective bargain.
The policy of the Biden administration is to create and
support good quality union jobs in the place with a union and
strengthen workers power. A comprehensive solution to workers
misclassification is a key part of that agenda.
The President strongly supports Protecting the Rights to
Organize Act which would establish the ABC test, and in the
National Labor Act we support a comprehensive approach to
addressing this classification to protect workers, and we look
forward to engaging with congressional leaders and stakeholders
to determine the appropriate path forward, and that includes
I'd love to have a followup conversation with you after the
hearing, not today, after the hearing, but within the next
whenever you want in the next couple of weeks to talk a little
bit about the experience that you've had in your district.
Mrs. Steel. Thank you very much. Since I don't have much
time then I want to move on to the second question that we need
to ensure that there is a transparency in use of union funds.
It's not just union funds, but other areas too. But for the
specifically for the union funds, your agency just announced a
proposed rule to rescind the T-1 form, which requires union
trusts reach our organization such as strike funds, and
apprenticeship programs to file their own separate financial
disclosures.
Congressman Walberg and I introduced a Union
Transparency and Accountability Act to turn these
transparency rules into law. Our bill would require the T1form,
and LM-2 form which requires unions to disclose a name of any
party buying or selling union assets over $5,000.00 and more.
And LM-30 form which requires union officials to declare
whether they receive any income or economic benefits from an
entity that does business with the union and employs union
Members to avoid conflict of interest.
With the recent scandals in the media why would you repeal
additional and needed transparency. What message does that send
to American people that you are rolling back transparency and
union financial integrity? What misdeeds are being hidden from
rank and file union Members and the American people?
Secretary Walsh. Thank you. Actually we're not rolling back
anything that's hiding. The Department of Labor collects that
information, has it. What the T-1 rule does was redundancy, was
a second set of the same type of reporting. So there's nothing
being hidden here, the reports still have to be filed with the
Department of Labor, and we're collecting that information,
that data.
It's a transparent process. The T-1 rule is just a second
redundant employer requirement that really didn't do anything.
Mrs. Steele. Really? You know what, I hope that you're
going to read the rules, the bill that I introduced with
Congressman Walberg and maybe in a while we can have a little
more discussion about that, and thank you for coming out today
and thank you and I yield the balance of my time to Ranking
Member Foxx.
Chairman Scott. I think your time is already over, so
there's no time to yield.
Mrs. Steel. Thank you, Chairman Scott,
Chairman Scott. OK. Thank you. The gentlelady's time has
expired. I understand that the gentlelady from Michigan is back
on, so we'll recognize Ms. Stevens.
Ms. Stevens. OK can you hear me?
Chairman Scott. I can hear you now yep, yep.
Ms. Stevens. OK fabulous. Well thanks to the Secretary for
this very informative hearing, and what an honor to be with you
and just what an honest to God delight it is to have you in the
cabinet role you are in. I'll just say it's early, but the
ratings are out and you're doing an incredible job.
And I particularly coming from southeastern Michigan want
to let you know Mr. Secretary, I love what I've heard today. I
think that articulation of how little we are investing in
workforce training and development in skilled trades is one of
the best articulations I have heard.
I have asked every trade association, training group, you
know, our unions, you know, and you have it distilled down, and
have a direction and a vision aligned with the President, by
the way, who actually wants to address the problems that have
come up today which is a workforce shortage. As someone who has
come out of manufacturing and has dedicated my career to the
profession of getting people into skilled jobs, getting them on
to factory floors connected to innovation channels, career
growth and on.
I believe this plan is going to get us there. And so what I
wanted to do Mr. Secretary while I'm privileged to be with you
over this Zoom hearing today with our Chairman Bobby Scott is
maybe tease out a little bit more of what we could do to get in
front of some of these you know, build out these workforce
development initiatives because I think getting more funding in
there will do us right by addressing our workforce shortages,
our skills gap, you know 2 million jobs projected in
manufacturing, the technology sectors.
We've got this churn and burn going with the supply chain.
We want to get people back to work, get them back to work
safely. But have you thought about Mr. Secretary the creation
of kind of like an Army Corps of Engineers that would be for
our skilled trades workforce, dovetailing off of our
partnership with our great union apprenticeship training
program?
So what I'm getting at is I go every week and visit a
manufacturing company. I have a program called Manufacturing
Monday. I get to geek out, I get to see their cool machines, I
get to meet with a bunch of incredible workers, and plant
operators. And I just heard this my entire career. You know we
have problems getting people in. I've got an aluminum foundry
up in Waterford, you know, the top guy who has been here for 25
years. He'd turn on the furnaces.
He'd get there at five in the morning, he'd turn on the
furnace. An incredible individuals who lost his life to COVID-
19. My owner is now telling me, Chuck Julian, he can't get that
job replaced. So I'm trying to think about more. I don't know
if it's creativity, but just the call to action right, we want
you, we need you, we need truck drivers, we need manufacturers,
we need people working in construction.
And teasing this out right, of what you're cooking out at
DOL, you know, is it tuition assistance? Is it guaranteed
tuition assistance for your offspring? What can we do to
inspire people to move into these careers of the future and
continue to respond to our incredible challenges and
opportunities of advancing Buy American, by making it in
America, and growing these industries to scale in places like
where I call home right here in southeastern Michigan.
Secretary Walsh. Well first of all thank you for your
opening comments. Thank you for your energy and passion that I
can see right now. Thank you for what you do going around to
your manufacturers in your district because you understand
first-hand those manufacturers. Some are representing union
employees, and some are representing non-union employees, and
you understand the needs that they have.
And I think the answer to your question is everything that
you talked about we should try. I think we need to start by
passing the American Jobs Plan because the investment is in
there. We need to make sure we pass the WIOA authorization that
we're talking about today because it's in there.
We need to sit down with our employers. Are employers in
this country are great. We need to sit down with our employers.
We need to sit down with our employees. We need to sit down
with organized labor, and we need to collectively, not at one
table, but we need to have conversations about how we create
pathways for people into these good-paying jobs.
Last week I was in Pennsylvania. I stopped at a
manufacturer that did rebar. They did reinforced rebar that is
the foundation of a building, and they were talking about the
need for skilled workers. Skilled workers meaning they'll train
them on the job, but how do we get the basic skills to those
workers.
So I was thinking as I was out there, and I was out there
with some congressional people and the mayor and things, there
are thousands of companies in America that need this, so all we
need to do is make sure we create a space for them to come to
the table to talk about what it is that they want to see.
And as we make these job training investments the outcome
will be a job. And the outcome, so we can all look back and say
how proud we were of making the investment in 2022 Fiscal Year
budget and this is what it did for the American worker in the
future. So I do think there's lots of opportunity there.
Ms. Stevens. Well thank you Mr. Secretary, and whatever you
need in that charge I am full force behind you and with you in
getting that done, and with that Mr. Chair I yield back.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. The gentlelady from Louisiana,
Mrs. Letlow.
Ms. Letlow. Secretary Walsh thank you for taking the time
to discuss the administration's policies and priorities for the
U.S. Department of Labor. Much of the 5th District of Louisiana
is rural which has its unique set of challenges, as well as
opportunities. It's important that Congress and the
administration continue to invest in rural communities and
create Federal avenues to help these areas flourish and grow.
I was especially pleased to see the Department's Fiscal
Year 2022 request of 50 million for the Workforce Opportunity
for Rural Communities Initiative. This workforce program has
boosted rural community workforce development efforts across
the State of Louisiana, and within the 5th District.
As I've traveled the District I've heard from farmers and
business owners about the importance of the Department's H2A
and H2B programs. Seasonal workers are vital in helping farmers
process their crops and keep businesses running, which in turn
benefits the local economy.
While I've heard of significant delays and inconsistency in
processing these visa requests, I've been informed of a recent
issue that our farmers and seasonal business owners have been
facing. It's my understanding seasonal workers are using
waivers to abuse the system, leaving farmers and producers who
have followed all the rules in a bind.
For example, a farmer may go through the complex approval
process, pay many fees to bring a worker to his or her
business, and then the worker decides to abandon the original
worksite to go to another company. Now the original employer is
out of an employee that they were counting on and left footing
the bill for someone else.
This practice is fundamentally unfair and is significantly
hurting farmers and businesses in my district. One suggestion
to address this issue is to allow employers to report seasonal
employees who do not show up to their original worksites to the
Department of Labor. Then next year as these employees apply
for H2A or H2B Visas they will be flagged as deserting their
worksites and not be granted a visa for the upcoming season.
I believe denying applications of unreliable seasonal
workers will help curb this abuse. Secretary Walsh, what do you
think about his proposal, and what can the Department do to
curb this abuse of the seasonable worker system?
Secretary Walsh. We definitely are going to look into it,
and I'd like to maybe work with you and your office about some
of the concerns that the farmers have in your area and I'm
assuming you're not the only district in the country where this
is an issue, so I'd love to work with you there, and thank you
for supporting the 50-million-dollar investment as well.
I appreciate that, but for me rural American farming
country is new, and I certainly want to do everything I can. My
family is from Ireland and my family were farmers, so I
certainly have a place in my heart for farmers and farming so
thank you.
Ms. Letlow. Thank you, Secretary. As I've spent the past 3
weeks in Louisiana, I've seen numerous hiring signs and have
been hearing from business owners that no matter what they do
they cannot find people to work. In fact one business had a
sign on their door saying they are doing their best to restaff,
but they cannot complete with the Federal Government's expanded
unemployment insurance benefits.
These additional payments now pose a significant roadblock
for the recovery of our small businesses. As our Nation
recovers, we should be doing all we can to encourage Americans
to get back to work. Mr. Secretary what would you say to those
small business owners who point to the expanded Federal
unemployment insurance benefits as a specific reason why they
are struggling to find employees to come to work?
Secretary Walsh. I mean I think one of the things I would
say is that President Biden's economic recovery plan is
working. We're seeing more and more Americans go back to work
every month, an average of about 540,000 last month we saw the
second highest 1-month average increase in the last 4 months.
We're seeing more and more people looking for work every
month, and I think that you know as we get more people
vaccinated, as we get more beyond the pandemic and seeing you
know hopefully our economy return back to the way it was, I
would hope over the course of the next several months were
going to get more and more people back to work and getting more
and more people, get this pandemic behind us.
I mean at the end of the day the employers that are talking
to you probably would also tell you in the beginning of the
pandemic they were concerned about you know paying payroll,
they were concerned about keeping the doors open, the lights
on. This has been a tough time for everyone. It's been a tough
time for our businesses in this country, it's been a tough time
for our workers in this country.
Quite honestly, it's been a tough time for everyone, so
hopefully we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and
we're getting close to the end of that tunnel with regards to
the pandemic.
Ms. Letlow. Thank you, Secretary. I yield back my remaining
time.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Jones is away
from his camera right now, so we'll go to the gentlelady from
North Carolina Ms. Manning.
Ms. Manning: Thank you so much Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr.
Secretary, for your patience and your tenacity and sticking
with us today. I am from the State of North Carolina, and I
want to pick up on what Representative Letlow asked you about
because I was visiting our semi-annual furniture market in
Highpoint just this weekend, and I have to tell you how
thrilled everybody was that we were able to have a furniture
market.
It was canceled last year. It's incredibly important to the
people in my district. Highpoint has one of the largest
furniture markets in the world, and we were thrilled to see so
many people there, not only coming back to do their work, but
also to be there without masks on, and that is really a tribute
to the ability of this administration to get the vaccine out
and get shots into arms, so that people could go back to work.
Now I did have an interesting conversation with the owner
of the largest showroom, the largest furniture company I
understand in the world, and he did talk about how he can't
find people to work in his factories. He is stunned by the
inability to get supplies from the containers that are not
being unloaded at the docks.
What I did ask him about when he first noticed the labor
shortages, he admitted that actually he has having trouble
finding truckers and other people before the pandemic started.
So I'm wondering if you can talk about other issues. Are you
hearing about people unable to come back to work because of
childcare issues, because of kids not being in school? And is
there a component of this problem that the labor shortage that
pre-existed the pandemic, it's just we're seeing in a fuller
light with what's going on today.
Secretary Walsh. Thank you, Congresswoman, good to see you
again. I think the second part of your question I think the
lack of serious investment in workforce development, job
training and apprenticeship programs has definitely put a
strain on the supply of American workers, in the training of
American workers.
And I think that this investment in the reauthorization in
the American Jobs Plan is going to help us. It's an 8-year plan
moving forward, a 10-year plan in some cases. It's going to
help us and help employers in this country get employees that
are better trained and better equipped to work in these
different industries, I think that's the question, yes.
The second piece is you know I think that we can't forget
that we've been living for the last 15 months in a worldwide
pandemic that we haven't seen in this country in 100 years.
That we literally shut down our economy, industry and business
and people working from home, and it's not just a quick turn on
the light and everybody comes back.
I think that when you think about different cities and
towns in America, I mean up until the last month most
restaurants in this country weren't at 100 percent capacity.
They were at 50 percent or outside. When you think about
workers that were working in those industries that didn't have
an ability to get childcare and think about well you know I'm
not getting paid.
I think that there's a lot of factors that's going into
people coming back to work. However in saying that, in the last
4 months we're seeing 2 million people come back to work, over
2 million people. We're seeing that change. We're seeing money
from the American Rescue Plan that's able to get down to
childcare facilities.
Many childcare facilities in this country might have been
supported by states and localities for a couple months, but
they weren't supported after that. These childcare facilities
depend on having people in them, and children in them to stay
open. They lost that ability. So the investment 39 billion
dollars is important.
The restaurant industry 16 billion dollar investment from
the Federal Government in one plan as well as others. So I
think there's lots of reasons, but as we think about moving
forward here, I think we're seeing ourselves climb a steep
hill. We're getting to the top of that hill, we're not quite
there yet, and I would say if we had this hearing 3 months from
now, we're in a very different situation in America with
workers than we are today.
Ms. Manning. Thank you. I want to very quickly ask about
the fee that is used that H-1B workers generate. There are a
lot of registered apprenticeship opportunities, and with it is
a fee to create registered apprenticeship programs. Do you know
how the fees are actually used when people get H-1B visas, are
those fees actually used to create apprenticeship programs?
Secretary Walsh. What they're used for is competitive
grants. We use them as competitive grants. The H-1B grant
enables the Department to respond to the needs of skilled
workers for emerging sectors and help them gain the skills they
need for employment in high growth areas, high growth
industries. That's where the money is going to those grants.
Ms. Manning. Thank you. My time is expired I yield back.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. The gentleman from Indiana Mr.
Mrvan.
Mr. Mrvan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Secretary thank you
for your testimony today. I appreciate your dedication to the
labor movement. Northwest Indiana are extremely proud to see
you lead our Department of Labor and trust that you will stand
up for the American workers. Before I begin, I simply cannot
miss this opportunity to share that my district has the largest
oil refinery and the largest concentration of steel production
in our nation
You know where I'm going, I believe. My district has two
significant labor locals, 41 and 81, President Mike Campbell
and Kevin Roach remind me every time they see me how proud they
are for you to be in this position, and I just wanted to share
that with you, so you understand their pride here locally in
Northwest Indiana.
As you know, there has been a race to the bottom as
industrial jobs have fled the United States. And as employers
have chased low wages, poor working conditions and the
restrictions on workers to exercise basic rights such as
joining a union of their choice. Violence against trade union
leaders also persists in many countries.
Our trade agreements have not leveled the playing field and
when other countries have flouted those arguments, or those
agreements, or trade preference programs, the U.S. Government
has for the most part been slow to enforce the labor standards
to which the parties agree.
The bargain Congress strikes is that in exchange for the
free trade deals, U.S. workers are told that there is trade
adjustment assistance. That is a good program, but it is not
the answer to leveling the playing field. What is the DOL's
agenda to protect good jobs, good paying jobs, and what is the
International Labor Affairs Bureau planning to do to address
the race to the bottom?
Secretary Walsh. Thank you for that Mr. Congressman. Thank
you for your question and your comment and tell my two friends
I said hello when you see them again. First ILAB. ILAB is not
the core function, but one of their functions is to make sure
that they raise standards everywhere in this world. And that's
something that they continue to work on.
And you know I've had several meetings with ILAB here and
really and I've had some international calls as well to make
sure that we're raising the quality of worker's life and
standard of living for workers around the globe, so that's
something that's really important to do.
I think the Department of Labor's mission is also at home
to initially continue to advocate on behalf of the American
worker. I think that there's been in some cases you talked
about people working in industries that are underpaid,
underrepresented, don't have opportunities to get into those
industries.
And I think that you know the conversation we're having
today about the reauthorization of WIOA is important. The
conversation we had, you know, with the American Rescue Plan
was important. To be able to staff back up the Department of
Labor over the last 3 years. In some cases the Department of
Labor has been decimated in wage and hour. In OSHA there's real
worker protection, so and many other areas as well.
So we're working now to staff up so that we can get those
safety precautions and wage and hour in those places up so the
American worker is not taken advantage of. And I look forward
to working with the many pieces of legislation that you and
other people in Congress have filed, and I look forward to
working with you and getting some of that passed.
Worker Rights Bill, and also respecting companies and
corporations in this country. So we have to be collectively
working together in my opinion. And that's why you know
Secretary Armando and I have made a commitment, Secretary of
Commerce and Secretary of Labor, that you are now we went to
watch a boat together in Groton, Connecticut. We went out there
to send a strong message that it's about the American worker.
It's about the American industries, and how do we collectively
work together to move the agenda, so the worker has an
opportunity to get into the middle class.
Mr. Mrvan. Mr. Secretary I thank you very much and I just
want to close by saying I believe strongly, not only in my
district, but in the State of Indiana and in the Nation, that a
great part of our divide in our Nation has to do with workers
feeling left behind and uncertainty.
And as we chip away from that with your leadership and
President Biden's leadership in bringing our Nation together by
focusing on the workers, we'll make a great impact in bringing
us together, so I appreciate your efforts and look forward to
working with you and look forward to a potential visit in the
future to our district. With that, I yield back my time.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. The next person I see on the
screen is the gentleman from New York, Mr. Bowman.
Mr. Bowman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you Mr.
Secretary for your work thus far. I represent New York's 16th
District. I'm going to piggyback a little bit on Congresswoman
Hayes' question about returning citizens.
In my district, I represent the Bronx and Westchester which
includes Yonkers, New York. And I met with constituents
recently at Graystone Bakery. They have successfully
implemented an open hiring model. I don't know if you are
familiar with it which means they don't conduct background
checks. They don't require resumes, none of the conventional
requirements typically involved in seeking employment.
If a person is seeking employment and there's an opening,
then there's a job for that person. This approach has meant
returning citizens can access employment without the usual
barriers that contribute to recidivism.
Given the system challenges faced by returning citizens
seeking stable employment, how will you lead the Department of
Labor in meaningfully improving reentry employment
opportunities, and specifically what can the Federal Government
learn from Graystone and other employers carrying out an open
hiring model?
Secretary Walsh. Thank you. Well first of all this is an
issue that as I said a little earlier today, I'm passionate
about. We have a similar bakery shop, sandwich shop in Boston
called the Haley House in Roxbury that has been operating for I
think over 10 years in the city of Boston that does some
amazing work there as well.
As mayor of the city of Boston I helped create a pre-
apprentice program called Operation Exit through the city
partnering with the building trades a couple years ago. We have
been able to get I think about 100 and I think four people that
have been previously incarcerated, or court involved, or
whatever the situation is into the trades, working in the
trades.
It's incumbent upon us that we make sure that we create
opportunities for people returning from incarceration. It's
good for the individual, it's good for their family, it's good
for a city, it's good for a region because many of these folks
that come back from prison, whether short-term or long-term
prison, they need an opportunity.
And if they don't have an opportunity, they go right back
to the corner. I use the word corner, maybe the Bronx and
Boston it's the corner they came from, and nothing good is
going to come of that. So in this reauthorization we do have
money for returning citizens, and also when I talk about job
training, I don't separate who should be eligible for these
training programs.
We need to be more comprehensive when we think about these
retraining programs as we move forward. So you have certainly
my commitment and I'd love to go visit the bakery and I know
I'm not the mayor of Boston, but I'll take you to Boston and
let you see some of the programs that we created there and make
a model of it, and make a model in the country.
Mr. Bowman. Appreciate that. Second question. The hardships
brought on by COVID-19 have made the obvious painfully clear.
Caregiving is essential at every stage of life. We know
caregivers are predominant black and brown women, and immigrant
women, and that, on the whole, their work conditions and
compensation are in great need of improvement. That's why I
introduced the Care for All agenda earlier this spring to call
for raising pay, benefits, protections and standards for all
care workers and to ensure pathways for unionization by
creating millions of new care jobs over the next decade.
Secretary Walsh, the President's American Jobs Plan
proposes an expansion of home and community-based care under
Medicaid to support caregivers with the ability to collectively
bargain. That's a good start, but we need to ensure this is
implemented well.
Recognizing that it's under the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services, how would you understand the Department's
role in supporting the successful implementation of their
proposal for a workforce that has historically been un-or
under-represented by unions?
Secretary Walsh. Well the first step is we need to pass it,
and the 400 billion dollar investment is key. And then we're
going to work. I mean the President has been very clear across
the cabinet talking to people's interest in their areas of
interest here, so Department of Labor will be very involved in
that making sure it's carried out.
As you mentioned we've seen it during the pandemic. I saw
it at, and I mentioned earlier in the hearing about workers
that these are essential workers that went to work every day.
In the beginning of the pandemic they didn't have gowns, they
didn't have N-95s. They had high rates of infection. Many of
them got sick. The rate of, or the age of the average person is
55 years old working in these facilities.
Many of them it's their second or third job. So this only
makes sense in the care's economy. And then on top of it all if
you're not interested in the worker's side of it, think about
the care side of it. They're taking care of our loved ones
inside of there. And you want to make sure our loved ones that
are in there are getting the best care they possibly can get,
so I think that's important.
Mr. Bowman. Thank you so much Mr. Secretary. I yield back
Mr. Chair.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. Mr. Jones is back. Mr. Jones of
New York, Mr. Jones.
Mr. Jones. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And Secretary Walsh it
is a pleasure to speak with you today and hear about the
important work that you're doing at the Department of Justice.
I'm pleased that the priority set forth in the President's
budget.
Chairman Scott. Department of Labor.
Mr. Jones. Department of Labor, I'm sorry what did I say?
Chairman Scott. Justice.
Secretary Walsh. You had me in a whole different category.
Mr. Jones. I've got a hearing tomorrow with the FBI
Director, so I apologize. As you know today's workers face many
steep challenges that have never been more apparent than during
the COVID-19 pandemic. A Federal minimum wage that in no part
of the country is a living wage.
A lack of paid family and medical leave that makes workers
choose between their pay and their well-being. A lack of
affordable childcare that has decreased labor force
participation, these challenges can be met with both solutions
that meet the needs of American workers and families.
And with the American Jobs Plan and the American Families
Plan I'm optimistic that together Congress and the Biden
administration can pass the transformative change that our
country needs. I also want to take a moment to make note of
your efforts to address issues impacting communities of color.
As you mentioned in your testimony, many communities continue
to be marginalized as a result of systemic racism and economic
inequities.
I appreciate your commitment to ensuring vulnerable
disadvantaged and underrepresented communities are a priority
for the Department of Labor and the Biden administration as we
work to build back better. My colleague from North Carolina Ms.
Manning brought up childcare which is an issue for which I had
introduced legislation with Senator Warren, the Universal
Childcare and Early Learning Act.
The American Rescue Plan provided 39 billion dollars to
stabilize the childcare sector, effectively saving the
childcare system from the brink of collapse. This critical
funding also makes childcare more affordable for families.
However, for too many families the high cost of childcare
prevents parents, especially women from participating in the
workforce.
Can you describe why bold investments in childcare are good
for the labor force?
Secretary Walsh. Absolutely. I mean I think first of all
everything you talked about I agree with, and bold investments
in childcare; well there's two things I think they benefit. No.
1, a benefit for family. It benefits to get more women into our
workforce, the women that have been pushed out of our
workforce, creates opportunity.
But also investment in childcare helps the child. If you
look at the studies of young people that are in high-quality,
high-quality childcare or universal pre-kindergarten, their
pathways to success to high school and college are well
documented in the benefit of having high-quality pre-
kindergarten, high-quality childcare.
So I think when you think about the investment, I think
today we're thinking about the benefit of getting women back
into the workforce, but the benefit goes so much beyond that.
Because if you get young people into those programs and you
have better outcomes, not only does it strengthen their
outcome, it also strengthens school district's outcomes, it
strengthens community outcomes.
It allows us the opportunity to not have as many
conversations about re-entry and preventative measures. There's
a whole bunch of benefits from making that investment today.
And I think that right now is the time to do that. Right now
coming out of a pandemic we see how the system works. In some
parts of the country it's working, in some parts of the country
it's not.
What this is the investments in the America's Job Plan, the
investments in the America's Family Plan, it is a universal
United States investment for all people, so I think it's
incumbent upon all of us to make sure that we do everything we
can to pass these investments, but also then it's going to be
our job, incumbent upon us and governments and states and
cities to carry those plans out to make real investments in
their communities, so they have real good outcomes.
Mr. Jones. Thank you so much for that. I noticed today
nearly 2 months after the March 15 deadline we will have
finally an emergency temporary standard for COVID-19 covering
healthcare facilities. But you are now I have to ask why wasn't
the March 15 deadline met, and why doesn't the emergency
temporary standard cover other high-risk workplaces such as
meat packing plants and correctional facilities?
Secretary Walsh. Yes you know one of the things it's the
nature of the Coronavirus. It's working with the different
departments we had here, you know. We've gone through this
virus, obviously as we all know, I'm not saying anything that
no one understands, it's not predictable. And you know when I
got sworn in, I think I got sworn in March 23, they were
working on a standard. I wanted to get the most up to date
information.
I was working with the CDC and working across departments,
and when we finally got the information as we sent it over for
a review, then the CDC actually made some changes as far as the
workplace in mass and things like that. So what we did was we
made sure some of the most vulnerable workers we have in our
country are the healthcare industry where people are still
going in with COVID, getting COVID, being treated by COVID.
We put down some other regulations around, or some
recommendations around other industries, and if we need it God
forbid, we see other spikes, we'll be able to go back and take
a look at these other industries if we need these standards
enhanced in other areas.
Mr. Jones. I yield back.
Secretary Walsh. Thank you, Congressman.
Chairman Scott. The gentleman's time has expired. Mr.
Pocan, Mr. Castro, Ms. Sherrill. The gentleman from Kentucky
who is fresh off of his own hearing at the Budget Committee Mr.
Yarmuth.
Mr. Yarmuth. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We missed
you, but I understand it's been a long day. Mr. Secretary,
welcome and thank you very much for the work you do. I have to
make a comment before I ask my question, and that is that
listening to some of my republican colleagues it seems to me
they think the mission of the Department of Labor is to defend
our workers from the unions, and not from the employers.
And I understand why they get that impression because of
the last 4 years of the Trump Labor Department that seems like
what they were focused on. But clearly, if you read the mission
statement of the Department of Labor as I have, it's to protect
the rights of workers and the interests of workers and thank
you for your dedication to that.
About 50 years ago I grew up in my district in Louisville,
Kentucky and 50 years ago there was a series of articles in the
Louisville paper that won a Pulitzer Prize talking about black
lung disease. And I don't think anybody in our country, and
certainly in my community which is a couple hundred miles from
coal country, had ever thought about black lung disease or knew
what it was.
And so there was a lot of attention focused on it then. I
think the Mine Safety and Health Administration was created
largely to deal with that issue and others similar to it. And
we thought we had black lung disease under control, but
apparently not. And over the last few years we've seen a
resurgence and the hearing we had for the Committee at the last
Congress, and the research that was done by National Institute
of Occupational Safety and Health had decided that this is
really miners? exposure to crystal and silica.
So my question is after 50 years we need to finally put the
end to black lung disease, and I wonder if the Department has a
strategy for doing that.
Secretary Walsh. You know we're certainly committed to
finding ways to make sure that workplace is safer, and that
black lung doesn't impact and affect people. My father was a
construction worker. He didn't work in a mine, but he came out
to this country in 1956. He worked on projects. Toward the end
of his life 25 percent of his lung capacity was working.
He had emphysema. He was on an oxygen machine for the last
10 years. That was a direct result of working with asbestos and
other types of dangerous materials at constructionsites. At
this point in 2021 there's no reason why we don't have better
technology to be able to make sure that workers are safe when
they go mining, and that their family Members have them around
for a long time.
So we are definitely committed here at the Department of
Labor to work with you and other Members of Congress, but also
coming up with better measures to keep workers safe.
Mr. Yarmuth. A followup question. The black lung trust fund
is now about 6 billion dollars in debt, and the tax rate on
coal that finances the trust fund is set to drop by 55 percent
the end of this year. I think about two-thirds of black lung
claimants receive their benefits from that trust fund. Do you
support extending the black lung excise tax rate? And if so, or
if not, what is DOL's plan to bolster the solvency of that
fund?
Secretary Walsh. No thank you. This is an area that one of
the first briefings I had as the Secretary of Labor was talking
about black lung, talking about the first part of your question
about safety measures, and the second part of your question a
trust fund that is running out of money and that continues to
operate with a deficit.
And in most recent years as you know you just said that the
tax revenue has been insufficient to cover the current benefit
payments. The fund must continue to borrow to pay its financial
debt from the inception, looking at this the tax revenue has
been insufficient to meet the fund's expenses.
So I'm committed in any way possible finding ways to
protect miners in the cause of black lung. The Department of
Labor also recognizes that coal operators should contribute
additional funds to ensure that miners and coal community
impacted by black lung disease should be protected without
shifting responsibility to taxpayers.
However, no determination yet has been made as to the best
mechanism for ensuring the trust's insolvency, and protecting
the miners and their families, so I would love to I guess as
Secretary of Labor, but I think about some other ways of
creating opportunities to make some investments in this trust
fund.
Mr. Yarmuth. Appreciate that and look forward to working
with you on that. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. I yield back.
Secretary Walsh. Thank you, Congressman.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. Next, we have the gentlemen from
New York Mr. Espaillat.
Mr. Espaillat. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Secretary,
for this long day. And I want to thank you for taking all the
questions from our Members. My first question is I know that we
can all agree that we need to do transportation infrastructure.
Transportation infrastructure will be great to give a facelift
to the country, to the roads, bridges, and tunnels, broadband,
and public housing and the rest.
But it's also a great job producer. However, transportation
infrastructure agenda is different than it was decades ago. And
that requires building green enough, requires building smart,
it really requires a different workforce, a differently trained
workforce.
My first question is do you think we have that workforce
ready if and when we pass a transportation infrastructure bill?
The second question is for many years communities of color feel
that when we have these mega projects, they're totally left
out. They see the projects going on beautifully around their
neighborhoods, but they don't get the jobs.
And so I want to know what's going to be different now from
OFCCP that will guarantee that these transportation
infrastructure mega projects are successful not just in
rebuilding America, but in creating jobs for the community that
we need them the most.
Now I'm working with City College, and we have the Charles
Lee Wrangle Transportation Infrastructure program there going,
and I'm hopeful that there could be partnerships between an
entity like that, academic institutions and labor to make sure
they come down to the communities that are really hurting.
So those are my two questions for now.
Secretary Walsh. OK, no, thank you. Both questions are very
related OK. On your first question I do feel that we have the
skilled workforce available to do the work of infrastructure
work, whether it's roads and bridges, whether it's the clean
drinking water, whether it's the broadband, whether it's
electric grids.
But the second part of my answer is we have to be real
intentional about making sure that equity and inclusion is part
of that, so everyone has an opportunity to get on those jobs.
And President Biden and Vice President Harris from the very
beginning of their administration they say what they mean.
The center point the President has done executive orders to
make sure that equity inclusion if part of each cabinet and
department and the President also in my conversation with him
and with all of us about the American Jobs Plan, this has
created opportunities for everybody.
And we need to make sure that the communities of color, the
black community, the Latino community, the Asian community,
women have access to these jobs. So yes, which we have the
workers ready for it. B, we don't have in my opinion, enough
diversity today, but we have an opportunity with the
investments that we're making that we're talking about today in
WIOA in the investments in the American Jobs Plan to get people
opportunities for pre-apprenticeships and apprenticeship
programs to get them into the trades, to get them into
industry, so we have to be really focused on that, and we
can't.
Mr. Espaillat. I hear you but there is a long-standing
distrust right that they will be included in these projects.
And although there may be a good part of the workforce ready,
the fact of the matter is that in communities of color we need
the training, but we also need labor and the unions to be able
to open up to these new memberships, and new communities.
What's the model? What are you proposing to do that will
dramatically change that?
Secretary Walsh. When I say training, I meant opportunities
for jobs. But I'll tell you what the model is. The model is a
program called Building Pathways in the city of Boston. In 2011
the American recovery plan that Congress voted on you allocated
money, they allocated to retrofit housing authorities across
the country.
That housing development in the city of Boston was a
project labor agreement on that project. We created a program
called Building Pathways, that program was for housing, it
started out as housing tenants that were living in housing
developments that would have an opportunity to get into the
building trades. It was 100 percent guaranteed placement into
the building trades.
87 I think percent of the people, roughly the number that
are in that program are people of color. The program is still
going. It started under a project labor agreement. Fast forward
a bunch of years later suddenly, over 500 plus people have
gotten into, people of color, have gotten into the building
trades through that program.
So again when I talk about, we have to be intentional about
the program. We have to make sure that it's not just written.
It can't just be a pre-apprentice program. There needs to be an
outcome. It needs to be connected to a job. So if there's a
road job there needs to be a connected that you're doing a pre-
apprentice program, but that job, that person that's doing the
pre-apprentice program needs to get access to that job.
We have to be thinking about mandating a certain amount of
percentage of people to make sure they're working on that
project. We have to create pathways for people of color to get
into those jobs, into the trades, into our workforce for good
paying jobs.
Mr. Espaillat. Thank you. I look forward to working with
you. Mr. Chairman just a shoutout for the $963 million
appropriation appropriations for youth activity programs. It's
very important for East Harlem my district. Thank you, Mr.
Chair.
Secretary Walsh. Thank you, Congressman.
Chairman Scott. Thank you.
Mr. Pocan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You froze up a little
bit, but I believe you've already had the republican gentleman
from Wisconsin up, so a couple of them so I'm going to assume
this is me. First of all Mr. Secretary, thank you very much for
your recent visit to Wisconsin. I hope it was helpful as you're
looking at the programs you're doing.
I know to the person that I talked to people were extremely
appreciative and really got a lot out of your visit, so I just
want to say thank you for doing that and getting to so many
parts of our State.
You know specifically I guess I wanted to talk to you about
the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. You know you've
been such an outstanding advocate for working men and women
around this country. As we're considering making changes to the
existing law, what are some of those proven programs and
strategies in your view that could be replicated nationwide to
better support workers through that program?
Secretary Walsh. I think there are lots of programs. I've
spent a lot of time talking to congressional Members, your
colleagues in the house and senate. I've had the chance to
serve on the U.S. Conference of Mayors Executive Committee and
talking to mayors. I think there's best practices all over the
country that you know I don't want to start naming programs,
but I think that we have to start thinking about how do we do
the alignments of this proposal so we can create real
opportunity and make investments.
So let me just give you a couple that I think might be
helpful. One is sector-based training and partnerships. I think
that's key. I think it's come up several times on the call on
the meeting today, community college training partnerships, re-
entry training opportunities, expanding quality training and
access aligned to quality jobs.
And I think we have to look at all of this to an ends of
equity. I really do. I think we have to continue to be
equitable in this. If you know the President's intention behind
the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan, this
slogan is Build Back Better.
But it's creating pathways into the middle class, and those
pathways in the middle class need to be for all Americans, not
just a subset of certain Americans.
Mr. Pocan. And one of the things I guess some unions do,
and particularly my union of painters and allied trades that I
belong to, is some of our apprenticeship programs around the
country actually also are doing some of the community college
work, and they're allowing you know people to be able to take
advantage of that while they're getting their apprenticeships.
So it's not just our earn and learn, it's actually even an
earn and learn plus. Is that something that you think we can
further enhance and see those programs expanded?
Secretary Walsh. Absolutely Congressman. And thank you. I
mean when we were in Wisconsin we went to the training
facility, and we saw the instructors that were training
apprentices and other people from outside in the area of
glazing in carpentry, and when I say carpentry, it was a
painter's union, but they were showing people how to use the
tools.
I mean those programs work. I mean there's no question
about it. And to be honest with you I've seen in Boston when
these training instructors get an opportunity to kind of
interact with folks from the community that might not be
apprentices, they get excited about it because they're showing
off their skill, they're showing off their profession, and
they're showing off an opportunity of what's possible for
people.
So I think that we should be taking some of the ideas
behind the different training centers that we have around the
country and use them as the models. I agree with that, as
models of success because they are successful. You get to an
apprentice program. You get a Members, you're on the jobsite,
you get laid off you go back to the union hall, they send you
back out to work, they work with employers all day. There's
relationships.
You know it's not a battle between labor and management.
They work collectively together. That's a model we should be
looking more and more in this country.
Mr. Pocan. Just one thing I will add, and I will yield back
Mr. Chairman, is that here in Wisconsin right before former
Governor Scott Walker kind of forced our State to become a
right to work State, there was a coalition of over 400 private
contractors who opposed it because of the great relationship
through these registered apprenticeship programs there are
labor and management, they help train workers. That helps
companies who are trying to hire people right now.
It helps the workers because they're getting those skills
while they're able to work and earn money, and I'm just a huge,
a huge proponent of registered apprenticeships, and you know
however we can try to continue that work. I know you've been a
huge proponent yourself.
I really love this incorporation with community college
model, and if there's some way we can continue to work on that,
count me as someone who would like to work with you on that Mr.
Secretary. And with that I'll yield back Mr. Chair thank you so
much.
Secretary Walsh. Thank you, my friend.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. Is there anyone on the platform
that has not been recognized? If not, I'll recognize myself for
5 minutes. Mr. Secretary, you've heard a lot about the impact
of the $300 and the hardship that that's inflicted on employers
trying to hire people. You haven't heard a word about the PPP
assistance we've given employers, hundreds of billions of
dollars to help them with their payroll.
I thought we ought to just say a word about that. And also,
the extra $300you've been coerced into committing to making
sure that you don't let it extend past September. Is it my
understanding that you don't even have the authority to let it
go past September is that right?
Secretary Walsh. No I don't. Actually you do.
Chairman Scott. OK. So you would need legislation, so you
can't. It's gone in September unless the Congress passes a
bill, and the President signs it. Second on the
apprenticeships, the registered apprenticeships, I think we
need to emphasize one major advantage in that is that you get a
nationally recognized credential.
That if you go and do a registered apprenticeship in
Boston, you can come to my district in Norfolk, and they know
exactly what you can do, and what qualifications you have. You
don't get that with the IRAP is that right?
Secretary Walsh. That's true.
Chairman Scott. On the faith-based programs you said you
couldn't comment, so you don't have to comment, but the
question on the participation of faith-based organizations
participating in major labor programs is not whether they can
participate, but how they participate.
And what they want to do is discriminate in hiring and
discriminate in giving benefits so they can say on a job
training program we're not going to train Jews, or we're not
going to hire Catholics. I thought we had gotten past that in
the 1960's, but apparently, they still want to do it. That is
the issue. If you can get passed that, there's no controversy.
So I would hope that you would be strong on that and not
allow people to run State and federally funded programs and
discriminate against people based on religion. On the emergency
temporary standard, I appreciate your telling us that it's been
finalized as of last night, but we know that it was due March
15, and also note that Virginia issued an ETS nearly a year
ago, so there's no reason why it couldn't have been done first
in the previous administration, or why it's lasted so long.
Even with that announcement, we still have questions about
the scope and the decisionmaking process. As you know, I sent a
letter to you on June 2, 2021, asking for specific information
and documents relating to the implementation of the executive
order which required the ETS to be done by March 15. I ask
unanimous consent to introduce that letter into the record at
this time.
Without objection so ordered.
Chairman Scott. Can we get a commitment that you will
respond to the letters by producing the requested documents and
provide the answers that are asked for in that letter?
Secretary Walsh. Tomorrow we're going to have a briefing,
so if we could have a conversation after that and let me know
what you think about the standard after we do the briefing
tomorrow before we get into a conversation on the documents and
how it came to.
Chairman Scott. There are problems with the standard.
Apparently, it doesn't include employees at correctional
facilities, homeless shelters, meat packing plants or nursing
homes, just healthcare. So we'd like to know specifically how
we got to where we are, and those documents and questions are
proposed in the letter. So whatever you say we still want
responses to the letter.
Secretary Walsh. What I'd like to do Mr. Chairman if it's
appropriate is to set a meeting up with myself, the team from
OSHA and talk about how we got to where we got to in the
process. And then if that's not sufficient then we'll take the
next step.
Chairman Scott. Well we have a letter pending, and we
expect answers to letters that we send.
Secretary Walsh. We'll respond to that.
Chairman Scott. OK. Well I'm running out of time, so let me
just ask you to submit for the record what the plan is to
implement the administration's $15 an hour minimum wage, how
that's to work out, and also the youth employment. We know that
youth that they get summer jobs, it's a lifetime benefit.
Furthermore, the summer jobs program has been shown to reduce
crime so much that the reduction in criminal justice expenses,
that reduction exceeds the cost of the programs in some cities,
so we want to know what you're doing for summer jobs and other
youth opportunities in terms of employment.
Also we know that due to lack of funding, 30 percent and
another question for the record, 30 percent of the individuals
who interacted with the workforce system last year couldn't be
served. Only 30 percent could be served, and we're wondering
whether or not there ought to be some fund that could be
triggered when regions, or maybe even the entire country suffer
large scale unemployment with the idea that the counter
cyclical spending.
These things would automatically be available for those
areas with the very high unemployment, or even on a national
scale without having to wait for Congress to respond. If you
could comment on that. And finally if you could provide a plan
that you have. I know you have significant increased funding,
what your plans are for the Office of Federal Contract
Compliance Programs, that is a program which can be very
important for equal employment opportunities, even in my
judgment, stronger than the EEOC because you don't have to wait
for claims to be made to make sure that equal opportunities
will be available.
If you can provide what, you'll be doing with the increased
funding so that we could see how the equal opportunity mandate
of the OFCCP will be provided. My time is expired, so at this
point I'll remind my colleagues that pursuant to Committee
practices for materials for submission for the hearing record
must be submitted to the Committee Clerk within 14 days
following the last day of the hearing, so that's by close of
business June 23, 2021 preferably in Microsoft Word format.
The materials submitted must address the subject matter of
the hearing, and only a Member of the Committee, or an invited
witness may submit materials for inclusion in the hearing
record. Documents are limited to 50 pages each. Documents
longer than 50 pages can be incorporated into the record by way
of an internet link which you must provide to the Committee
Clerk within the required time but recognize that in the future
that link may not work.
Pursuant to House rules and regulations items for the
record should be submitted to the Clerk electronically by
emailing submissions to edandlabor.hearings@mail.house.gov.
Again Mr. Secretary, I want to thank you for your participation
today. Members of the Committee may have additional questions
for you, and I ask that you respond to them in writing.
The hearing record will remain open for 14 days in order to
receive those responses. I remind my colleagues that pursuant
to the Committee practice, witness questions for the hearing
must be submitted to the Majority Committee Staff or Committee
Clerk within 7 days. Questions submitted must address the
subject matter of the hearing.
At this point I will recognize the distinguished Ranking
Member for any closing statement that she has.
Ms. Foxx. Thank you Mr. Chairman I appreciate that. And
once again Secretary Walsh I want to thank you for coming to
the Committee today and responding to our questions. I believe
you have some sincerity in what you want to do. We disagree on
the way to approach some of these issues, and probably the way
to approach most of them, but I don't think that you have
nefarious motives.
I think you do want to help the situation in the country,
and I think you want to help others. But we do have some
differences of opinions about how we might go about the solving
of some of these problems. I listened closely to the things you
said today. I'm pleased to hear your positive comments about
the potential of community colleges.
Having been a community college president, I left the
university to go to a community college because I believed so
strongly in the potential of the community colleges, and I
still do. And I'm sure the community colleges are very happy
for the attention they're getting from you, and from other
people in this administration.
Since President George W. Bush's administration community
colleges have been getting a lot of positive attention. In my
experience it's a good one, to have met the needs of their
community over the years and will continue to do so without a
whole lot of help from the Federal Government because they know
what they need to do, and they'll do it if they're pushed at
the local level to do it.
I'm also happy, very happy, to hear your interest in
bipartisan WIOA. When WIOA was first passed I had the
opportunity to work on it a lot, and it was bipartisan. And I
very much want it to be that way again. Chairman Scott has
expressed the same opinion, and thus far, he and our democrat
colleagues and we have been working together in a bipartisan
manner, and we certainly hope that's going to continue.
To have effective programs, to pass good legislation it
must be bipartisan. And all that we regret is that we're so
often pushed aside when the ideas that we have are not
considered because we think we can do a lot when we work
together. I also heard you say Mr. Secretary that you want OSHA
to be helpful to employers, and not come in only at emergency
time.
I think that's going to be big news to most employers in
this country that you want OSHA to be helpful because that's
not the reputation of OSHA unfortunately. Go back to the issue
of bipartisanship. The American people were sold a bill of
goods by the Biden campaign. They expected bipartisanship. They
did not expect hard line partisanship from the Biden
administration, and that's what they've been getting.
I also appreciated by the way you're saying that you think
most employers want a safe working environment and want their
employees to be safe. We've talked about that a lot. Our
colleagues on the other side of the aisle I think, think that
employers are all evil people, but having that attitude is a
very different attitude from previous democrat administrations
so I'm so, so, happy to hear you say that.
Again, what we hope is that this bipartisanship attitude
will extend to other areas where we like to work together with
Democrats. We believe that we have good ideas to reduce
healthcare costs, unleash the resourcefulness of job creators,
and prepare individuals for in demand good paying careers.
And by the way Mr. Secretary, I didn't mean to give you a
hard time about what you said about college versus going
straight into work, we think everybody wants a good career, no
matter what way they decide to go. But where we differ
primarily, we believe with the democrat party is that we
believe the democrat party wants to exert maximum power over
people's lives.
We believe the pandemic is in the rear-view mirror, but by
putting out these emergency temporary standards I think you are
holding on to the fact that you said in one of your comments
that we're still in the middle of a pandemic. We don't believe
that we are.
People want to get their lives back, and a healthy economy
is a pre-requisite to a return to our normal lives, but I think
economic recovery we believe is at a crossroads. We don't think
we need trillions of borrowed money for the recovery. We
basically need the Federal Government to get out of the way.
Our country has responded to economic catastrophes before.
We've always found a way to bounce back stronger. This pandemic
is not innate, and in the past, we haven't relied on the
Federal Government to bring us back.
The languishing recovery we believe is uniquely listless
and it's contrary to the Secretary's view that the Biden
administration's policies are working. What makes the economic
response different we believe now is President Biden's
administration's job killing agenda, and the democrat enablers
in Congress.
The Democrat's agenda puts special interest ahead of the
interest of the ordinary Americans. This agenda rewards the
political supporters over American workers. The agenda pays
people to reject job offers and stay at home. The agenda works
against small businesses. The agenda takes wages from American
workers and distributes the money to union bosses.
The agenda discourages entrepreneurs and drowns American
businesses with onerous regulations and superfluous guidance
letters. We're very pleased to hear you say you're going to go
through the rulemaking process and that guidance letters are
only suggestions.
Mr. Secretary we're going to hold you to that. The agenda
undermines worker's privacy rights. The agenda eliminates
individual's ability to find flexible work in the gig economy.
And the agenda discourages employers from offering innovative
earn and learn models such as IRAP.
But you want to put people into a program that has only a
43 percent graduation rate, but that the Chairman calls a gold
standard. I've never heard anybody say 43 percent passing rate
is a gold standard. The agenda bankrupts not just us but our
grandchildren.
The agenda does not promise to protect religious freedom,
our first freedom in the Constitution. I'm happy to hear the
Secretary say over and over that he'll get back to us with
answers. I'd like to contrast your response Mr. Secretary, and
the response of republicans to your saying that with the way
our colleagues treated Secretaries in the Trump administration.
They were hounding when they made comments like that, and
not given a chance to act like human beings as you have done,
and we respect. They were treated very, very rudely. We believe
that it's important that we respect all people, even if we
disagree with you on political terms.
So we're just going to politely remind you Mr. Secretary of
your commitments and look forward to hearing back from you on
those. We the American people are waiting to see how the Biden
administration is going to allow our freedoms to remain, allow
this economy to come back to life as it was in 2019, and to
show us that the policies that you have will work for us. And
again Mr. Secretary thank you for coming today. And we look
forward to working with you. God bless you.
Secretary Walsh. Thank you very much. I look forward to
working with you as well.
Ms. Foxx. I yield back.
Chairman Scott. Thank you. Secretary Walsh thank you again
for being with us. Let me first say that in terms of a college
education I believe there's a value to a college education,
independent of future employment. I think there's inherent
value in a 4-year on-campus liberal arts degree, and maybe we
just have to disagree on that.
But I want to thank you for joining us and sharing your
vision on how the Department can support our Nation's workers,
job seekers, retirees, and families. Today's hearing made clear
how critical your leadership and the leadership of this
administration have been for workers in the economy. As we have
discussed, the American Rescue Plan was a monumental step in
our recovery effort, resulting in record number of jobs
created.
I can understand why the republicans want to criticize that
policy because none of them voted for it, but the jobs were
created and it's continuing to show benefits. But we need to
continue. With this enactment we promised the country that help
was finally on the way, and with this historic investment the
package is paying off and helping communities get back on their
feet, businesses are reopening, students are returning to
classrooms, workers affected by the pandemic are gradually
rejoining the workforce.
The policy is working. Yet today's hearing also highlighted
that we still have a lot of work to do, even as our recovery
continues far too many workers, including those who have fought
on the front lines of the pandemic were still having trouble
providing for themselves and their families.
The Department's budget request as well as the American
Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan represent the next
steps we have to take to address these challenges, and making
smart and targeted investments, these proposals will help
ensure that all workers in the country can benefit from the
strong and shared recovery.
Secretary Walsh we look forward to continuing our efforts
to keep workers safe and build back an economy better than what
we had and one where everyone can succeed. I think we're well
on their way, and I want to thank you for being with us today.
It's been a long day, and I thank you for your patience and
tolerance. You've faced some tough questions, but I think you
have presented an agenda that we can be optimistic about the
future.
So thank you very much and if there's no further business
to come before the Committee without object the Committee
stands adjourned.
[Additional submissions by Chairman Scott follow:]
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[Additional submission by Mr. Fitzgerald follow:]
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[Questions submitted for the record follow:]
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[Responses by Secretary Walsh follow:]
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[Whereupon, at 4:44 p.m., the Committee adjourned]