U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R.–N.C., the new chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee, said her top priority would be rolling back a series of labor and employment policies.
She said that unions “have lost their reason for being," and expressed pride in the fact that only one state has a lower percentage of union members than North Carolina.
House committee's 2017
agenda affects the following:
1. Overtime pay
2. Union elections
3. Pensions
House Workforce committee to repeal worker protections
Peoples World January 30, 2017 By Mark Gruenberg
WASHINGTON – Last December, U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R.–N.C., the new chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee, told the Reuters news service that her top priority would be rolling back a series of Obama administration labor and employment policies.
She also said that unions “have lost their reason for being” and expressed pride in the fact that only South Carolina has a lower percentage of union members than her state.
Rep. Foxx became committee chair when another Republican, Rep. John Kline of Minnesota, retired.
The committee recently published its calendar of hearings and the list of topics it will consider. It’s clear that Rep. Foxx is putting her priorities into action.
Her committee will target several pro-worker rules for repeal. They include a Labor Department rule expanding the eligibility for overtime pay and a National Labor Relations Board decision that joint employers, such as McDonald’s headquarters and a McDonald’s franchise, are both responsible for obeying labor laws.
The panel’s oversight agenda also includes:
“Particular scrutiny to the Labor Board’s changes to union election rules and unit determinations, decisions affecting joint-employer standards, and questions regarding whether graduate students are employees under the National Labor Relations Act.”
Those rules “empower union leaders at the expense of workers and members,” Foxx said when the panel adopted its calendar. When the top panel Democrat, Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., proposed an alternative with more oversight over the Trump administration’s plans and policies, he lost on a party-line voice vote.
Furthermore, Foxx’s committee will revisit the Labor Department’s rule mandating that investment advisors for individuals and pension funds put their clients’ interests first. The GOP has wanted to repeal this rule ever since it went into effect.
GOP moves to undo one of Obama's final labor rules
Washington Examiner By Sean Higgins (@seanghiggins) • 1/30/17 4:40 PM
House Republicans will move Monday to undo one of President Obama's efforts to change labor regulations to benefit unions.
Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., chairwoman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, plans to introduce resolution to undo an executive order from Obama that effectively created a blacklist of federal contractors who had been charged with labor violations.
The executive order had already been halted by a federal court in November, after a judge ruled that the Labor Department had exceeded its authority. But a committee source who requested anonymity said that was merely a preliminary injunction and Congress still officially needed to act to halt it. The committee will issue the resolution under the Congressional Review Act, which allows a majority in Congress to overturn an executive order.
The contracting rule, announced by the Labor Department in May, was issued in response to a 2014 executive order from President Obama to "promote economy and efficiency in procurement by contracting with responsible sources who comply with labor laws."
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