[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 83 (Wednesday, June 12, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H3295-H3296]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               CHILDREN'S ACT FOR RESPONSIBLE EMPLOYMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Roybal-Allard) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD. Mr. Speaker, today is International Day Against 
Child Labor, which gives us the opportunity to reflect on the plight of 
hundreds of millions of children throughout the world who perform work 
that endangers their health, deprives them of an adequate education, 
and denies them basic freedoms and protections.
  Unfortunately, the United States is not immune to the scourge of 
child labor. Long hours and dangerous working conditions are, sadly, a 
reality for hundreds of thousands of children working in our country's 
fields and farms.

                              {time}  1040

  Throughout our Nation, there are children like Zulema, who at age 12 
works in the fields picking fruits and vegetables, while her classmates 
spend afternoons doing homework and playing with friends. Despite her 
young age, Zulema frequently, with bare hands, wields adult-sized 
harvesting shears. When crop dusters fly overhead, she is often covered 
in pesticides meant to kill insects in the field. In spite of Zulema's 
exposure to these serious and dangerous conditions, she takes home to 
her struggling family a mere $64 a week.
  Our farming industry is alarmingly plagued by preventable tragedies 
like the one in Mount Carroll, Illinois, where a 14-year-old boy 
cleaning a grain bin suffocated to death when he was sucked into a 
sinkhole of flowing corn. Tragic accidents like this underscore the 
fact that agriculture is one of our Nation's most dangerous industries. 
Yet it is the only industry in which our children are not protected 
equally by our child labor laws.
  While reserved for adults in every other occupation in agriculture, 
children as young as 16 are allowed to perform hazardous work, like 
driving tractors and operating chain saws. It is also the only industry 
in which children as young as 12 are allowed to labor in the fields 
with virtually no restrictions on the number of hours they work outside 
of the school day.
  To address this shameful reality in our country, I am reintroducing 
the Children's Act for Responsible Employment, better known as the CARE 
Act. While retaining current exemptions that protect family farms and 
agricultural education programs like 4-H and Future Farmers of America, 
the CARE Act raises labor standards and protections for farmworker 
children to the same level set for children in all other occupations.
  Specifically, the CARE Act ends our country's double standard that 
allows children employed in agriculture to work at younger ages and for 
longer hours than those working in all other industries. The bill 
raises the minimum age for agricultural work to 14 and restricts 
children under 16 from work that interferes with their education or 
endangers their health and well-being. The CARE Act also prohibits 
children under the age of 18 from working in agricultural jobs which 
the Department of Labor has declared particularly hazardous. This is 
consistent with current law governing every industry outside of 
agriculture.
  Mr. Speaker, no child should be discriminated against based on the 
work they do. All of America's children deserve to be protected equally 
under our laws. It is our moral obligation to do

[[Page H3296]]

all in our power to protect the rights, safety, and educational future 
of our most precious resource--America's children.
  The time has come for the United States of America to bring our child 
labor laws in line with our American values and to give all of our 
children the fundamental protections they rightfully deserve. I urge my 
colleagues to support and to help pass the CARE Act.

                          ____________________