[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 36 (Wednesday, February 28, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S1274]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                    Department of Labor Tip Proposal

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, earlier today I talked to a server who 
worked in a restaurant in Northeast Ohio, in Trumbull County, north of 
Youngstown, and she is concerned, as I am, about a proposal from the 
U.S. Department of Labor that pretty much legalizes wage theft.
  We know, in this country right now, servers, or tipped workers, can 
be the person who pushes the wheelchair in the airport. I spoke to 
somebody the other day who drove one of those airport carts in the 
Cleveland airport. She makes $5 an hour because she is supposed to rely 
on tips to get up to the minimum wage, but she doesn't always get tips, 
or a server who works in a restaurant, in a diner in Garfield Heights 
or in Chillicothe, OH, and makes sometimes only $2.10 an hour and 
relies on tips. That is enough of a problem--that companies that employ 
tipped workers can pay such low wages--but that is compounded by this 
rule that comes out of the White House and the Department of Labor that 
really is tantamount to wage theft. The rule simply says the tips you 
put on the table at a Denny's or at a Bob Evans, the management--the 
employer--can take those tips and distribute them however he or she 
wants to other workers in the restaurant.
  Now, plenty of waitresses and plenty of waiters and servers give out 
some of their tips, distribute them to the bartender or others, and 
that is their choice, but for the employer to be able to take the tips 
from a worker, from a server, and decide whom to give it to in the back 
office or in the kitchen--someone they are not paying enough to anyway; 
to make up for that--or for the employer to just take the money and put 
it in their pockets, under this rule coming out of the Department of 
Labor--this is the Secretary of Labor and a government that is supposed 
to represent workers, supposed to advocate for labor. This 
administration has turned that upside down, where the Secretary of 
Labor is advocating for employers and basically legalizing wage theft--
taking that money from tipped workers who work so hard.
  We know how hard everybody at a diner works. They are not making a 
lot of money. They rely on those tips. We are going to say--the U.S. 
Government, the Department of Labor, the President of the United 
States--is going to say: Oh, it is all right to take some of these tip 
dollars and put them in my pocket as the employer. Give it to the 
workers in the kitchen whom the company underpays because they are 
going to supplement their underpaid wages with tips. It is mean-
spirited, it is legitimatizing wage theft, and we have no business 
doing it. There are 24 of us who have sent a letter to Secretary of 
Labor Acosta condemning his decision.

  First of all, they did a study and found that this would take 
literally billions of dollars from the pockets of workers. They buried 
that study. We are saying, at least let that study out. Let people 
comment. Almost $6 billion in tips every single year will be lost 
because of this decision. It is a really bad idea. It is mean-spirited, 
and it frankly legalizes wage theft. It should be defeated.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lee). Under the previous order, all 
postcloture time is expired.
  The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the Vought 
nomination?
  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the 
Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain) and the Senator from South Dakota 
(Mr. Rounds).
  The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 49, nays 49, as follows:

                       [Rollcall Vote No. 40 Ex.]

                                YEAS--49

     Alexander
     Barrasso
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Burr
     Capito
     Cassidy
     Cochran
     Collins
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Fischer
     Flake
     Gardner
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hatch
     Heller
     Hoeven
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Lankford
     Lee
     McConnell
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Paul
     Perdue
     Portman
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Scott
     Shelby
     Sullivan
     Thune
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Wicker
     Young

                                NAYS--49

     Baldwin
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Booker
     Brown
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Coons
     Cortez Masto
     Donnelly
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Feinstein
     Gillibrand
     Harris
     Hassan
     Heinrich
     Heitkamp
     Hirono
     Jones
     Kaine
     King
     Klobuchar
     Leahy
     Manchin
     Markey
     McCaskill
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Murphy
     Murray
     Nelson
     Peters
     Reed
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Smith
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Udall
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--2

     McCain
     Rounds

  The VICE PRESIDENT. On this vote, the yeas are 49, the nays are 49. 
The Senate being equally divided, the Vice President votes in the 
affirmative, and the nomination is confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lee). Under the previous order, the motion 
to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table and the 
President will be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

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