[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 144 (Wednesday, September 26, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12134-S12135]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          FOREWARN ACT OF 2007

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, in July, I introduced S. 1792, the FOREWARN 
Act of 2007, a direct outgrowth of legislation that one of my 
predecessors, two predecessors ago, Senator Metzenbaum from Ohio, 
introduced called the WARN Act, legislation he got through the Congress 
in the 1980s, but legislation that now needs an update. It is about 
plant closings and job loss.
  Job loss, whether it is in Ohio or whether it is in Seattle, does not 
just affect a worker or a worker's family. Job loss devastates entire 
communities and local economies.
  While notice of a layoff is no substitute for a job, the WARN Act of 
20 years ago was supposed to give employees time to find a new job and 
for help to be provided. Under current law, however, fair notice has 
proven to be the exception, not the rule, because too many have gamed 
the old WARN Act.
  Employers have laid off workers in phases to avoid the threshold 
level of the WARN Act, used subsidiaries to evade liability, and 
pressured workers in too many cases, in too many places around Ohio to 
waive their rights.
  Whether one lives in Toledo, Columbus, Cleveland, Akron, Cincinnati, 
or Lebanon, it is absolutely critical that in these situations, workers 
and groups have sufficient notice to begin working to attempt to limit 
the damage this causes a community.

[[Page S12135]]

  The new legislation which I introduced in July, with Senator Clinton, 
Senator Obama, and Senator Stabenow, S. 1792, will close these 
loopholes and provide the tools necessary for the enforcement of the 
rules.
  The legislation gives the Labor Department the authority to take 
civil action for violations, as well as giving authority to State 
attorneys general if the Labor Secretary fails to act within 6 months. 
So if the Labor Secretary today refuses to act, if this happens in 
Zanesville or Lima, Attorney General Marc Dann of Ohio may take action.
  The legislation reduces the closing plant threshold from the current 
number 50, which is gamed all too often, to 25 employees. It 
recalculates the mass layoff figure. The current mass layoff figure is 
calculated from at least one-third of the employees, or 50. FOREWARN 
sets the number at 100 in all events, or one-third of employees if 
there are between 50 and 100 employees.
  Our legislation, S. 1792, reduces the employer size to 50 employees 
and lengthens the notification period from 60 calendar days to 90 
calendar days. It requires employers to provide written notification to 
the Labor Secretary, as well as local stakeholders, including early 
warning networks and mayors. It increases penalties for violations of 
the WARN Act from back pay to double back pay.
  Mr. President, I know you have had this problem in the State of 
Pennsylvania, the problem of lost manufacturing, and you know that the 
worst thing a community can face is a major plant closing or major 
reduction of workforce in a plant. And you know that as bad as that is, 
there are some things employers can do to make it better, and many do. 
But you also know that the law passed 20 years ago has not always made 
sure that the transition from losing their job to going back into the 
community and getting work, getting their family through the hardest 
times, getting the community through the hardest times--the law has not 
always addressed the best way to do that, and I think this legislation, 
S. 1792, does that very well.

  I ask my colleagues to consider this legislation. It is time to 
update the 20-year law, the WARN Act, which passed and was approved by 
President Reagan. I think this legislation will help ease the lost-job 
problems. We need to do much more. We need to train differently, we 
need new trade law, different tax laws, and all the different kinds of 
things the Presiding Officer and I have worked on already in our time 
in the Senate, but the FOREWARN Act will matter for communities such as 
Steubenville, Portsmouth, and Chillicothe, and it will matter for 
families who have suffered the indignities and the tragedies and the 
hardship of lost jobs and plant closings.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Brown). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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