[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 125 (Thursday, July 20, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H3876-H3877]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     WATER BREAKS ARE A BASIC RIGHT

  (Mr. CASAR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CASAR. Madam Speaker, I am  Greg Casar, and I represent the heart 
of Texas.
  Thirteen years ago, I stood alongside construction workers as we 
sounded the alarm at Austin City Hall that workers were dying after 
being forced to work for hours on end in the sun without rest and 
without a water break. Our community came together and passed a local 
protection to guarantee everyone this basic right.

[[Page H3877]]

  Five years later, families in Dallas were mourning the losses of 
fathers and sons and brothers and tios who died on the job because 
they, too, were forced to work without a water break. That community 
came together to pass protections that guarantee this basic right.
  Now, as San Antonio bears the hottest 10-day streak in recorded 
history and as our globe bears the hottest days in recorded history, 
this month, people in San Antonio want to pass those same sort of 
protections, but Governor Greg Abbott signed a priority bill 
eliminating the right to water breaks for Texas workers beginning 
September 1.
  People are dying, like Eugene Gates and Justin Cory Foster and Felipe 
Pascual, dying while working in the Texas heat this year. We don't need 
more Texans dying in the sun. Instead, we need OSHA and the Biden 
administration to take immediate action in passing a Federal heat 
protection rule, because bearing the Texas heat is brutal but forcing 
workers to work in that heat is cruel.

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