[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 21 (Wednesday, February 8, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H581]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        REGULATIONS PREVENT JOBS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Michigan (Mr. Walberg) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WALBERG. Mr. Speaker, a few weeks ago during a district work 
period, I had the privilege to catch up with many of my constituents 
back in Michigan's Seventh District.
  Business owners graciously invited me into their facilities eager to 
talk about the economic climate as well as what can be done to promote 
growth. These conversations continued in coffeehouses and town halls 
across the district where citizens packed into rooms eager to exchange 
their ideas, triumphs, and concerns with me.
  But whether I was being given a tour by the owner of a manufacturing 
plant or having a cup of coffee with an engineer, a similar theme kept 
cropping up: People are worried about excessive, Big Government 
regulations, in particular how they impose unreasonable costs on 
businesses, create uncertainty and, in turn, affect job growth.
  This time, many of my constituents expressed outrage over a new youth 
agricultural labor rule program. The Department of Labor proposed 
regulations to restrict the types of activities young people can 
participate in. While the rule includes an exemption of children on 
nonincorporated farms owned by their parents, it could prevent kids 
from working on incorporated farms owned by their parents, 
grandparents, aunts, and uncles, and close neighbors.
  Even on such extended family farms, children under the age of 16 may 
be banned from working with animals or in specified farm situations 
while those under the age of 18 would be prohibited from any job 
``involving farm product raw materials.'' That could come to mean any 
job involving grain elevators, grain bins, silos, feed lots, 
stockyards, livestock exchanges, and livestock auctions. If carried any 
further, the rule may end up barring kids from selling animals at their 
local 4-H fairs. This is nanny statism to the absurd.
  My kids were all in 4-H, and some of the best memories we have 
together are these events. It was always a positive experience for my 
sons and daughter as well as every other child I know who got involved. 
Besides the life lessons learned--responsibility, hard work, and self-
sufficiency--children often use the money from the sale of their 
animals for their college funds. This rule would not only hurt their 
ability to find a job now but also hurt their future.
  In addition to participating in 4-H fairs, my kids also worked on 
farms where they were asked to drive tractors and run other farm 
machinery, all under the age of 16. The worst mishaps one of my kids 
ever had was running over a neighbor's mailbox with his duallies. But 
even through that experience, he learned responsibility. He not only 
had to pay for a new one out of his own pocket, but to replace it 
himself.
  Farmers depend upon young people to take on these extra jobs so they 
can focus on the bigger picture. Parents depend upon their children to 
work on the family farm, not only to help out but instill a love of 
farming at a young age to keep their family farm going.
  Lastly, young people, themselves, depend on these jobs as a source of 
income and a way to pay for college. There are often fewer job 
opportunities in rural areas, and if we impose more rules about what 
jobs young people can take, what have we gained?
  I'll always stand behind regulations that genuinely protect the 
workers, especially when those workers are children. But when 
government bureaucrats are regulating in what capacity a young person 
can work on a farm, then it's clear they've overstepped their 
boundaries. It's time to fix the flawed and broken regulatory system 
that allows such rules to slip through the cracks.
  Mr. Speaker, related, it's also the time to push back on Big 
Government's attack on our freedom to choose and our constitutional 
liberties. The recent assault on our religious rights of conscience and 
the separation of powers by this administration must be defeated. Kids 
on the farm and in the city deserve the rich future that our 
Constitution and Americans' exceptionalism can provide. This will then 
be a Nation that God can truly continue to bless.

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