Budget Hearing - U.S. Department of Labor
2025-05-15
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Source: Congress.gov
Participants
Transcript
Just a moment. Well, good morning. The subcommittee will come to order and I want to welcome the Secretary of Labor, Chavez de Riemer, and we welcome you to the subcommittee today and particularly the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education for this hearing on the Department of Labor's fiscal year 2026. budget request. I want to congratulate you on your bipartisan confirmation as Secretary and look forward to working with you, especially in this new role that you have started just a few months ago. Of course, the role of the Department of Labor is to foster, is to promote, and develop the welfare of wage earners in the United States to improve their working conditions. and to advance their opportunities for proper employment. Unfortunately, under the previous administration, the agency was too often exceeded, it exceeded its statutory authority and attempted to implement a regulatory agenda that had it not been rejected by the American public in the last year's elections, would have crippled American job creators and undermined the ability of the American workers to secure economic opportunities they need to support their families. Moreover, the department was more interested in catering to Beltway-based liberal social policy concerns rather than responding to the real needs of American workers, job seekers, and employers. These misguided harmful regulatory proposals included An OSHA requirement that, if not found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, would have required Americans to receive the COVID-19 vaccinations as a prerequisite for employment.
Also, it would have included a wage and hour regulation that would have ended freelance and independent work opportunities, particularly important to workers with caregiving responsibilities who value flexibility, and also a change to overtime regulations that would have reduced worker opportunity for career advancement. More than 417,000 businesses in Alabama employ over 47% of private sector workers in the state. Many of the small businesses in the district that I represent are family farms. No industry suffered more under the harmful regulation regime of the previous administration than the American farmer, because of an increase in the H-2A adverse effect wage rates. And so, Madam Secretary, I look forward to working with you and your agency, as well as USDA, to address this adverse effect wage rate issue and supporting this vital industry going forward. President Trump's election and your subsequent confirmation is a breath of fresh air, not only for the American worker, but also for the job creators. No longer will American businesses have to fear regulatory overreach or enforcement actions designed to punish employers and limit their success. Madam Secretary, while the Department's regulatory matters are frequently contentious, we have often been able to find bipartisan common ground on skills training. Apprenticeships produce positive outcomes for workers and job seekers, putting a priority on what should be the end goal of all workforce development programs, which is a job. These programs only exist where businesses choose to adapt this intensive approach to human capital management. We have seen support for these programs flourish under multiple administrations, and I hope that we will continue to build out these opportunities.
The Alabama Office of Apprenticeship was in part created to respond to employer frustration with the Department of Labor's management of the registered apprenticeship program. These frustrations included a bureaucratic and outdated, one-size-fits-all approach to skills training with overly prescriptive requirements. Too often, under the previous administration, the Department of Labor showed favoritism in reviewing apprenticeship program applications and in the name of equity and inclusion, would have turned a two-page law into a 776-page rule that would have reduced opportunities for American workers of all race and both sexes. We should be ensuring that American workers and job seekers have direct access to career pathways that work for them and not adding 776 layers of Byzantine mazes to navigate. Apprenticeships represent an opportunity and a pathway to high-paying jobs. Unfortunately, the barriers to growth of this career training model will not be solved through funding alone. Improved program administration and more effective leadership at and by the department can better support the adoption of registered apprenticeships for workers for our nation's workforce. I'm hopeful that as we work through this shortened budget year, that we're able to once again find some common ground as we move forward. And I'm not only hopeful, but I feel like we will be able to do that. And I know that this subcommittee looks forward to hearing from your testimony today and asking questions about the budget and the policies that you are over at your department. But at this time, before you begin your opening remarks, I would like to yield to the ranking member, Rosa DeLauro, for her opening statement.
Ms. DeLauro, you're recognized. Thank you very much, Chairman Adler-Holt, for holding this important hearing. What I regard as, and I know this is, I want to start out with what I believe is President Trump's anti-worker budget request for the Department of Labor. Secretary Chavez-Durimer. Thank you. Welcome. And I've said to you on the phone, it's great to see a House colleague here. And congratulations to you. Big job. And I would just say personally that I've always spent a lot of time. I've been on this committee, I think, full committee for 32 years and the same amount of time on the subcommittee.
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