e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e good morning the committee on education and Workforce will come to order I note
that a quorum is present without objection the chair is authorized to call a recess at any time we're here today to discuss the challenges that American workers and businesses faced over the last four years as well as the opportunity unities
before us as president Trump and a republican Le Congress move forward with solutions to get the nation's Workforce on track from his first day uh the past administration implemented a policy agenda that I believe jeopardized the
American Workforce and economy in the wake of covid-19 pandemic the nation experienced historic levels of job loss I believe the problem was exacerbated by policies of the last
Administration enacting Co mandates that rewarded Americans for staying home and out of the workforce Democrat stimulus spending hampered job creation and made more Americans dependent on the federal
government and as a result of the Biden Harris administration's Reckless spending stre spree American families and businesses were rocked by record high inflation which hit a 40-year high in 2022 workers saw their standard of
living decline as inflation outpaced average wage growth on top of that the Biden Harris Administration pursued a radical regulatory agenda which put up barriers to hiring and harmed American workers and businesses one example of
this regulatory Onslaught included the National Labor Relations Board in its joint employer rule which threatened to upend the franchise business model limit entrepreneurship and literally kill jobs
had it not been halted by a federal court an economic analysis found that a similar joint employer standard which was in effect during the Obama Administration cost the entire franchise sector
33.3 Mill billion dollars annually resulting in as many as 376,000 lost job opportunities another regulation raised the salary threshold for employees to be considered exempt from overtime pay by
more than 60% this rule would have cost job creators an estimated $1.3 billion dollar uh increased compliance burdens on small businesses and limited workers opportunities for advancement had it not
been halted by a federal court yet another regulation made it harder for individuals to choose how they work uh the war on independent contractors stifled Innovation and creativity ultimately harming workers
businesses and the US economy and this list is not exclus exhaustive a recent study from the American action Forum uh found that the Biden Administration issued a staggering $1.8 trillion
in cumulative regulatory costs over four years far exceeding any proceeding Administration on record many of the challenges from the last four years still remain but with President Trump back in office in a
republican Le Congress workers and job creators are increasingly optimistic for the return of progrowth economic policies that unleash the Ingenuity and entrepreneurial Spirit of the American American Workforce following the 2024
elections small business optimism surged reaching the highest points since October 2018 just this week Apple announced plans to invest more than 500 billion dollar in the US and hire 20,000 workers
over the next four years to support American innovation and Manufacturing president Trump is already making good on his promise to root out wasteful spending and to stop the job killing regulatory Blitz upon taking office uh he ordered a
review of all pending regulations and signed an executive order directing federal agencies to eliminate 10 existing regulations for each new regulation issued there's also optimism that Congress and the president will
extend many provisions of the tax cut and jobs Act of 2017 and enact new tax proposals to benefit benefit working families and businesses following enactment of the two 2017 Tax Act working Americans saw real
wages rise nearly 5% in 2018 and 2019 the fastest growth in 20 years and this Congress the committee on education Workforce will consider legislative proposals to improve the lives of American workers reduce burdens on small
businesses address critical work work force shortages and stimulate economic growth before I turn to the ranking member for his opening remarks I want to recognize a committee staffer who has served both the majority and the
minority Sheila Havener uh the committee's information technology specialist or Guru is retiring after more than a decade of Public Service she has been an in valuable
asset supporting the operations of the committee and its staff and uh may I add getting our electronic voting up and running when everybody else was telling me back off
Walberg don't push it so hard we've got to go through the process she got it done as you all know and it worked flawlessly except for my verbiage she'll be missed and I wish her the best in her well-deserved retirement and so I would
ask a suitable show of appreciation thank you sh with that I yield to the ranking member thank you Mr chairman and before I begin my remarks let me associate this side with your remarks
about Sheila havner she is for the past 11 years worked tirelessly for the committee and has worked under Democratic and Republican leadership uh handling a range of information and Technology issues flawlessly and uh so Sheila thank you
for your service and look forward to your next step thank you I'd like to thank our Witnesses for being here today and thank uh today's today's full Committee hearing the first labor related one for the 119 Congress comes
just as president Trump completed his first month in his second term it's important to be clear about the economy and labor market that President Trump and Congressional Republicans inherited as they are now completely in charge of the federal government during the
previous four years uh during the Biden Administration the economy created 16.2 million jobs breaking the record for jobs created for any single presidential term and in fact uh since
uh Ronald Reagan in eight years was the highest job creator for Republicans he created 16.1 million jobs so President Biden created more jobs than any Republican uh president in history
whether they served four or eight years the um we going to have the you have the CHS that's the the other one that's the deficit would yeah okay and this chart shows the
president um job creation average monthly job tra job change by Administration showing Joe Biden leading the pack and Donald Trump with the worst job performance in a about in about a
100 years the unemployment rate fell from 4.6% in January 2021 to 4% in January 2025 the unemployment rate has been at or below 4.2% since November 2021 and as
Dr sheer Holz will note in her excellent testimony the last time the United States saw unemployment this low was about half a century ago now for those who are interested in fiscal responsibility I'll remind people next chart that every Democratic president
since Kennedy has left office with a better deficit situation than they inherited and every Republican president SE since Nixon has left office uh and left for their Democratic
um successes a worse deficit situation than they inherited all without exception uh the further President Biden was the first president on record not to have a single month of seasonally adjusted job loss at the same time
between 2019 and 2023 the low-wage workers experienced historically fast real wage growth the labor force participation for Prime AG workers reached the highest level in more than 20 years and in 2023 roughly 22% of the
people with the disability were employed the highest recorded ratio since comparable data was first collected in 2008 this remarkable pre progress came as our country emerged from the covid-19 pandemic and the progress was not
inevitable it was a result of policy choices made by Congressional Democrats to ensure that workers were prioritized and benefited from public Investments for example with the multi-employer pension fund on the brink of collapse
Democrats saved the pensions of more than 1.3 million retirees protecting nearly 10,000 businesses already to date regrettably not one Republican voted to save the pensions of these 1.3 million
retirees Democrats also kept out- of pocket insulin cost for Medicare at $35 a month again not a single Republican voted for this Landmark reform unfortunately the progress we worked so hard to achieve during the last four years and the economic gains that were
made as a while other countries struggle to overcome Global inflation or at risk and how how we can how can we be confident that the Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans who again are in complete control of the federal
government president House and Senate will be effective stewards the strong economy that they have inherited but there's evidence that they're not going to be good stewards it's been little little over a month and so far the second Trump Administration is has been
filled with the same non-stop chaos confusion and unprecedented and in some cases illegal actions characterized by its first term so far president Trump has descended The Landmark Executive Order
11246 from the 1960s that protects Federal contract workers and job applicants from unlawful discrimination he illegally fired inspector generals inspector's General at the labor department and several other agencies who are charged with
rooting out waste Fraud and Abuse illegally fired gwy Wilcox the first black woman to serve on the National Labor Relations Board leaving the N nlrb without a quorum to function and issue decisions fired two EEOC Commissioners
uh Charlotte baros and Jocelyn Samuels who were in the middle of their terms this has never happened before in the agency's 60-year history leaving the EEOC without a quorum to address claims of illegal workplace discrimination president Trump also
allowed unelected billionaire Elon Musk and his doge team to invade the labor department and apparently access sensitive data while the full extent of do's intrusion into the department systems is unknown the fact is that they
may have access to our constituents personal or private data as well as Case Files on active criminal and civil investigations including ones that may relate to Elon Musk own companies I've asked for this um I've asked if this
access includes access to files or investigations that include the name of confidential Witnesses or whistleblowers whether or not it includes access to sensitive statistical information like job numbers before they become public access to his company's to
his competitors bids so he'll know how to bid and Mr chairman we have not received any answers we're now hearing about abrupt firings of public Ser of civil servants in at least six Labor Department agencies including man and
mind safety and health administration even though St Staffing disruptions at at Mena were among the factors that led to the upper big branch mine disaster that killed 29 miners 15 years ago this April and this is outrageous and my
Democratic colleagues and I have been demanding answers and Mr chairman I asked unanimous consent to enter several oversight letters into the into the record that have been asking these questions without objection they'll be entered and Mr chairman I invite you to join our efforts to ask Elon Musk and
Doge questions about what they are doing and whether or not um so that we can get some sense of what they have access to why they need access to it and what they're doing with the information and so I'd hope you would join us and our
staff will be contacting your staff to see what we can do to get not do anything just ask questions to see what they are doing but finally I noted this hearing is about quote unleashing America's Workforce it comes the same week as the House Republicans passed a
budget resolution that would give trillions of dollars of tax cuts to billionaires and corporations at the expense of American workers and families specifically the budget resolution directs our committee to come up with at least 3 30 billion in savings that means
in the coming weeks the Republicans in this committee are likely to uh massively cut critical student loan programs and other educational programs and School Meal programs for our kids other kinds of programs um in in the health and labor areas all to help
finance a $4.5 trillion tax cut for the wealthy the consequences of these Cuts will hurt our Workforce harm the public and threaten our economy and just as smart sensible pro-worker policies helped establish the strong economy over the past four years Reckless and
fiscally irresponsible policies will do will undo that progress and I say fiscally irresponsible because after all the mean-spirited cuts and tax cuts for the wealthy we end up with a deficit that's worse than the one we have now uh so I would hope that we could uh
do better and thank you Mr chairman and a year back I thank gentlemen and I think uh you all see we'll have a spirited debate that goes on here and that's a good thing but I tell you to my ranking
member if all of that was true I wouldn't vote for myself but I have so so let's get on with it pursuant to committee rule 8 C all members who wish to insert written statements into the record may do so by submitting them to the committee clerk
electronically in Microsoft Word format by 5 5:00 p.m. 14 days after the date of this hearing uh which is March 12th 2025 and without objection the hearing record will remain open for 14 days iserv the right to
object Mr chairman uh on my reservation if you think anything I said was not true I would like U you just to name it and um we'll discuss it I withdraw my reservation I appreciate my ranking member bring that up we'll have those
opportunities but today we have a hearing that I'm looking forward to hearing the witnesses and our our discussion without objection the hearing reckon will remain open for 14 days to allow such statements and other extraneous material referenced during the hearing to be submitted for the
official hearing record I'll now turn to the introduction of witnesses our first witness is Miss Rosanna mayetta who is the president and CEO of the American hotel and Lodging Association which is located in
Washington DC welcome our next witness is Dr William Beach who is a senior fellow in economics at the economic policy Innovation Center located in Washington DC welcome our third witness is Dr Heidi Shear holes who is the
president of the economic policy Institute in Washington DC welcome our Final witness is Miss Elizabeth Milito who is the executive director of the national Federation of Independent Business nfib small business
legal center in Washington DC welcome to the hearing we thank you all for being here today and look forward to your testimony I'd like to remind the witnesses that we have read your witness statements which uh will appear in full in the hearing record I would ask that
you each limit your oral presentation to a three minute summary of your written statement the clock will count down from three minutes uh because committee members have many questions for you and we'd like to spend as much time as possible on questions and answers
pursuing the committee rule 8D and committee practice however we will not cut off your testimon testimony until you reach the five minute Mark I also would like to remind the witnesses to be aware of their responsibility to provide accurate information to the committee
and so I now first recognized Miss mayetta for her testim morning good morning chairman Wahlberg ranking member Scott distinguished members thank you for allowing me to testify today my name is Rosanna maetta and I am proud to
represent the American Hotel and Lodging Association as its president and CEO the 64,000 hotels Across America support more than 9 million jobs these hardworking Americans are in every Community the majority of hotels around
the country are Main Street small businesses we are a vital part of a thriving America a place where the American dream can still be achieved but 5 years on from covid-19 our industry has not recovered at the height of the
crisis America's hotels lost more than 680,000 workers now we are down nearly 200,000 employees we are taking major steps to address Workforce shortages hotels haven't just increased wages
we've raised wages 15% faster than the national average we've provided more flexible hours and expanded benefits we invest in apprenticeships that help workers build new skills and Advance their careers through Partnerships with schools and local organizations we are
creating lasting career Pathways yet persistent Workforce shortages remain inflation has been another headwind costs increases are far outpacing Revenue growth for America's hotels costs have soared from Goods to building materials to property insurance many
small businesses have been forced to raise prices yet still struggle to keep their doors open Congress can help first until it was overturned The nlrb's Joint employer rule would have led to higher costs and fewer opportunities for
workers we urge Congress to pass the save local business Act and codify the traditional standard that serves millions of franchise workers and small businesses second we agree with President Trump that legal guest worker programs are
part of the solution to Workforce challenges and third like all small business owners Hotel owners need Congress to extend the tax cuts and jobs Act without congressional action Hotel years face a massive tax hike that would
devastate our industry these important Provisions include extending the small business deduction renewing bonus depreciation for Capital Investments and preserving the like kind exchange to promote job growth and economic development and we urge Congress to
allow the hardest working Americans to keep more of what they earn through no tax on tips as the Cornerstone of every Community around America hoteliers are eager to work with Congress to drive more job creation around the country we look forward to continuing to work with
this committee and incoming secretary Chavez Dreer to ensure our industry remains an essential contributor to our nation's economy thank you I thank I thank the lady Dr Beach and I recognize you for your testimony
thank you Mr chairman um Mr chairman Wahlberg and ranking member Scott members of the committee uh thank you for inviting me to testify today just as an additional biographical matter and maybe I'm a bipartisan witness this morning I served uh as I ran the Bureau
of Labor Statistics for two years under President Trump and two years under President Biden so there are two ways to view labor force Trends uh first from a policymakers perspective and second from a worker's point of view now policy
makers generally and understandably focus on Broad indicators like unemployment and job growth workers on the other hand hear more about job openings wages and maintaining their standard of living let me start with the policymakers perspective which is a big
picture way of seeing labor markets my submitted testimony underscores two p a big picture Trends some data suggest growth While others point to continued employment slowdown which began in 2022 this slowdown has recently been
accompanied by an uptick in unemployment then there's the workers perspective which includes developments closer to home like job opportunities job turnover and the purchasing power of a worker's income my submitted testimony shows that job openings are sharply down
over a million fewer job openings than a year ago wages have started to flatten and inflation since mid 2021 has eroded workers purchasing power making Essentials like housing food and gas more expensive wages have not kept pace with
inflation leading to a decline in living standards what should Congress do in the face of these Trends I believe that Congress must take action to to support productivity and economic growth primarily on two fronts through regulatory relief and making the tax
cuts and jobs act permanent on the regulation front research that I've just published shows that freezing or reducing regulations can stimulate economic activity as much as tax reform and could lower the inflation rate by 7/10 of a percent
increased productivity is the key since it enhances every aspect of working life additionally addressing the federal budget deficit is absolutely crucial since 2020 deficits have fueled inflation by distorting the price system
and increasing debt by practicing fiscal restraint and signaling lower future deficits Congress can help the Federal Reserve fight inflation and support economic activity combined with higher productivity and economic growth these steps will strengthen wages and improve
the standard of living for American workers and the families they support I'm eager to answer any questions you may have for me thank you thank you Dr shareholds we welcome you to testify
thank you chair Wahlberg ranking member Scott and members of the committee thank you for the opportunity to testify today we are meeting to discuss unleashing America's Workforce and strengthening the economy however this discussion is occurring while this very chamber moves
forward forward with a budget that will make Draconian cuts to health care and food assistance for Children and Families hurting millions of America's workers and weakening our economy these Cuts aren't even being made in the name
of responding to a national emergency or reducing deficits to boost future growth they are being made to create fiscal space for tax cuts that will go overwhelmingly to this country's wealthiest households and those tax cuts
are such massive giveaways to the rich that they will increase the deficit by trillions even with the Draconian cuts for the most vulnerable nothing about this serves America's Workforce or strengthens the economy to be clear
sometimes you do need larger def def deficits to Spur a weak economy but that is not where we are today today's economy is very strong with historically low unemployment rates which means larger deficits will likely put a drag
on economic growth and the spending cuts will cause enormous damage to this country's most vulnerable households with tens of millions losing health coverage through Medicaid tens of millions receiving less help in buying groceries from snap or being cut off completely many others seeing the cost
of their student loans rising and on and on and on when the Trump Administration took office last month the unemployment rate was 4% and it had been at or below 4.2% for 39 months the last time the
unemployment rate was that low for that long was in the 1960s also the Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that the purchasing power of workers wages I.E wages after taking inflation into account that
purchasing power was higher in 2024 than it was at the business cycle peak of 2019 and at any point before that and that was true across the board for low-wage workers middle wage workers and high- wage workers that is what
unleashing America's Workforce and strengthening the economy looks like this administration's actions during its first month in office along with its backing of the extremist house budget plan makes it abundantly clear that their agenda will be profoundly
destructive to incomes and economic security for both the most vulnerable families and for the broad middle class further the chaos and uncertainty the administration is sewing in key Economic Institutions could cause a fullblown
crisis if it is not stopped if you were truly interested in unleashing America's Workforce and strengthening the economy you would enact policies designed to protect and fortify a strong public sector and provide excellent Public Services not gut an already tiny work
Federal Workforce and attack state and local local government workers you would help to ensure that all workers who want a union can get a union and get a collective bargaining agreement not strip the National Labor Relations Board of its independence and make it a tool
for union busting you would Implement tax policy that ensures the health of critical programs like Medicaid Social Security and snap not Advanced measures that give tax cuts to the wealthiest at the literal expense of poor children the
sick and the elderly none of these top Administration priorities have anything to do with unleashing the country's Workforce or strengthening the economy theirs is not an agenda of prosperity it is a reckless cynical dismantling of the
very foundations that make Economic Opportunity and progress possible I look very forward to your questions thank you and I recognize for her witness testimony Miss Milo thank you chairman Walberg ranking
member Scott members of the committee and staff who are here today I very much appreciate your attention nfib the national Federation of Independent Business represents small businesses Nationwide in every industry and in every state nfib members are your local hardware store the restaurant where your
family eats on Friday nights the mechanic who fixes your car the plumber roofer and landscaper who work on your home small businesses employ nearly half the country's private sector Workforce it is estimated that 68 cents of every dollar spent at a small business is reinvested
in the community when small businesses succeed communities flourish unfortunately over the last four years small businesses have weathered storm after storm including covid shutdowns supply chain disruptions historic inflation a burdensome regulatory
environment and systemic Workforce shortages it is no surprise that small businesses weren't particularly optimistic during the last Administration following the November election small business optimism surged reaching the highest point since October
2018 the election results signaled that a major shift to the nation's economic and Regulatory policy was on the horizon although small businesses remain optimistic economic uncertainty lingers the expiration of key Provisions included in the 2017 tax cuts and jobs
act like the 20% small business deduction creates the threat of a massive tax increase for over 30 million small businesses in a little over 10 months in fact the January 2025 small business economic Trend survey showed
that the uncertainty index had increased this reading stresses the urgent need for Congress to provide small businesses with certainty so they can resume planned investments in their business and Workforce without the possibility of a massive tax hike in addition small businesses continue to struggle to fill
positions owner ERS are increasing compensation and benefits but staunchly oppose one-sized fits-all inflexible and costly mandates from Washington DC and state capitals around the country between 2021 and 2024 small businesses
experienced a regulatory cunami that added 1.8 trillion in regulatory costs these costs disproportionately impact small businesses that operate without compliance officers lawyers or human resource departments making it more expensive to hire employees will not
lead to more hiring for this reason small businesses viewed president Trump's commitment to Rolling back unnecessarily burdensome and duplicative regulations as one of his first term's greatest accomplishments small businesses are optimistic that the second Trump term
and the 119th Congress will Implement progrowth tax labor Regulatory and economic policies however threats do loom on the horizon Congress and the administration can work together to create a pro business environment but
you must reject policies that increase uncertainty on behalf of the small business owners of nfib thank you again for your time today thank you and I thank each of the witnesses uh under uh committee rule 9ine um we
will now question the witnesses under the five minute rule I ask members to keep your questions succinct so the witnesses have time to answer I will recognize myself for five minutes of a questioning Miss malito uh you have
pointed out that uh business optimism surged after the November elections uh and yet you also pointed out in your testimony uh that surveys found that the challenges remain which are leading to uncertainty for small businesses can you
elaborate further on how the Biden administration's policies have created uh these challenges for false for small businesses and also what are some of the ways that the Trump Administration and Congress can address these challenges please elaborate
further thank you chairman Wahlberg for that question so small business optimism as I said surged in November and again in December um highest level since 2018 so there is no denying the Trump effect I will call it um October November saw
the largest increase in our optimism index in the 51-year history of the survey so that's pry pretty astounding there and small business owners are impatient they want to get going so they are going to hold president Trump to his um promises for the deregulatory efforts
there they're eager for you know 10 out one in um to get underway there um so they are very very optimistic that things are going to improve the landscape is going to improve um there are a lot of expectations though however that Congress is going to need to come
through and you know extend or make make permanent the tax cuts from 2017 that is just absolutely critical as I mentioned in my opening statement those tax cuts um there are over 30 million small businesses that are depending on this
Congress to pass the Main Street tax certainty act and make sure that small business 20% small business deduction is made permanent so that is just absolutely critical and uncertainty regarding what Congress is going to do with that which impacts I'm certain certain the uh the employees of the
small businesses as well absolutely absolutely and my written testimony talks about ways that my members have used that tax cut to invest directly in the workforce in the business in the employees and in the communities that is how they are using that tax citee thank you uh Miss mayetta um the Biden
National Labor Relations board's final Rule The Joint employer uh rule upended traditional direct and immediate control standard and create an expansive and vague standard for deter determining joint employer the Biden joint employer rule
was rebuked by bipartisan ma majorities in the House and Senate during the 118th Congress and was ultimately vacated by the federal court uh for franchise hotels how important is it to have a clear joint employer standard and would
the save local business act provide that clarity thank you chairman Wahlberg absolutely Clarity and certainty is needed in business that joint employer measure under the the Biden Administration would have devastated our industry um decimating it virtually
overnight by creating an injecting a an incredible degree of uncertainty around who controls the relationship between the employer and the employee eliminating the ability for a small business owner to make decisions about how to run their business
daytoday um and removing some of the protections that are so important around brand standards around health and safety protocols uh that our guests and our employees rely on that save local business act eliminates that and also
what's really important for us is to ensure that as administrations change the legal standard is codified into law so that we don't have to worry from Administration to Administration what's going to happen next okay thank you Dr
Beach um inflation is a attacked uh Americans over the past four years uh even with decreasing inflation rates since 20122 how has inflation in affected
workers the past four years and how has it affected those wanting to start or expand businesses well thank you very much for that question when we look at inflation we take we need to take a longer View and we need to begin with the that that month when inflation
really took off and look at his cumulative effect over time so about 30% of the loss in purchasing power that workers experienced from mid 2021 on has been regained but that means 70% has not
those are my calculations uh that means that it is still difficult to purchase the things that were discretionary before for example if you were doing Afterschool tutoring of your children that might be sacrificed now inorder to
pay your rent um your rent and your food might exclude insurance payments they might exclude the purchase of a new vehicle they might force you into a bus route and that's one of the worst things for low-income people and middle- inome people when they have almost no
discretion on on where where to purchase so it it reverberates on and on and on the point is we've made progress on inflation but we still have a long way to go thank you appreciate your responses now I recognize the gentle lady from Oregon Miss banamichi uh thank
you very much Mr chairman so so this is a hearing about unleashing America's Workforce and strengthening the economy and I'm I'm not going to sit here and pretend that everything is normal and and I'm my my mother was a small business owner I have family members who are small business owners but right now
there's many unprecedented and illegal actions that the Trump Administration and Doge are taking against the federal Workforce Donald Trump and Elon Musk and Doge have fired more than 30,000 thousand federal workers across the country and what with what appears to be little planning and even less
justification uh needless to say this is created an enormous amount of chaos uh which is harmful not just to the federal Workforce but also uh to the economy I just did five town hall meetings in Oregon and not just in urban areas and people are stressed and really anxious
they are concerned that musk and Doge are accessing their sensitive personal uh data and the government's previously securing confidential Data Systems they're worried about social security numbers their home addresses citizenship and disability status work records family income and maybe Bank uh account
information well now I I believe it was yesterday the White House said well Elon Musk isn't in charge of Doge well maybe that's because Elon Musk now appears to have access to his business competitors tax records and financial information and what could be a pretty flagrant and
massive case of corporate Espionage uh so let's just say people are really concerned and that's having implications so despite the title of this hearing the American Workforce has not been Unleashed and our economy has not been strengthened quite the contrary in my home state of Oregon agricultural
researchers in Rural Oregon were purged as a result of cuts at the USDA the Oregon Health and Sciences University Oregon's largest recipient uh of uh funding from the National Institutes of Health could lose tens of millions in federal funding that's going to Halt Medical Research and upend the lives of
patients and with the work of scientific researchers the cuts to the US Forest Service will leave Oregon more vulnerable to wildfires and shockingly uh about 100 staff at the bonaval power Administration their purging could leave
uh Northwest Oregon and the entire region uh facing brown outs and blackouts that would be devastating for the entire economy of of the Pacific Northwest and it's especially outrageous because the Bon power Administration is rayer funded so it doesn't save any money but still those people were purged
so there's a lot of chaos out there and now Bloomberg is reporting that this Mass government employee termination that we've seen at other agencies is happening at the Department of Labor so Dr sheer Holtz I'm going to ask you because I know Miss Malo talked about uh how we have to resist uncertainty
there's a tremendous amount of uncertainty so Dr sheer Hol if Elon Musk and Doge fire large numbers of employees at the Department of Labor safety inspectors people who assist with unemployment or workers compensation or do the work other work of the department what effect does that have on the
working people in Oregon and across the country but also what effect does this kind of chaos have on the economy overall this has a devastating fact effect on the ability of do to do their work the chaos and attacks on federal
workers will deeply harm the labor Department's ability to attract and retain top talent for example when career officials feel undervalued or face instability which is clearly what the Trump Administration is trying to
make them feel it shows it slows policy development it slows policy implementation it weakens enforcement It ultimately just hurts their ability to serve America's workers and I believe that is a core reason behind the actions of the Trump Administration it seems
abundantly clear that the administration views that as a feature not a bug of what they are doing well how does that affect the economy overall it puts the big strain on the economy so one of the things I think that people don't understand that like the the work of
federal workers is so much a part of our daily lives that people don't even understand what is happening like you go into the grocery store you know you can buy food that is safe because of the work of of workers at the federal Food and Drug Administration you drive on roads and you know you can arrive where
you want to go safely because of the standards and the enforcement of the Department of Transportation and on and on and on though the like crucial work of our federal Workforce is what is the underpinning of public services and our
stable economy and you got that Workforce and you see a lot of those things crumble and the other thing that is useful saying our federal Workforce is Tiny it is already very very shoestring it is less than 2% of all
payroll employees the idea that we're going after this Workforce that is protecting the American people is just outrageous and I just want to thank you Dr sherol I just want to emphasize again as I yeld back um that the this these purges of federal employees are going to create long-term harm uh but also we
have thousands of people now additionally unemployed because they lost their job with some promise of payout which apparently has not been authorized so again uncertainty is what's happening not uh not what uh this Administration is uh fighting a y back
gentlemen e time has expired now I recognize the gentleman from Georgia Mr Ellen thank you uh Mr chairman and um I would note I just looked there 7.6 million job openings in this country
right now that need to be filled so uh I think there's plenty of opportunity for those folks who are uh uh looking for a change in career to uh to apply for a private a job in the private sector and it's stunning to me
that uh people do not think that folks who work for the government are capable of working in the private sector I mean for crying out loud you got to be kidding me uh with the Staggering number of issues facing our Workforce I'm honored that chair chair Wahlberg asked
me to serve as chairman of the help subcommittee at this Congress as showcased in this hearing we have no shortage of work to get done with that being said Mrs uh molito uh why do small business businesses choose to offer health benefits to their
employees even if they are not required by law so thank you very much first of all Mr Allen I would like to thank you for your support of the Main Street tax certainty Act and the 20% small business deduction we are very grateful and thankful for your support on that there
so small businesses um when they look to hire and retain um employees and as you mentioned there is a tremendous Workforce shortage there they look first to boost wages um and then the second benefit they'll offer is paid time off and the third benefit they try to offer is Healthcare
so Healthcare is critical and over 30% of small businesses do offer Health Care um it's a costly benefit as you know but it is so important for you know attracting and retaining employees and allowing small businesses to compete with larger employees that sometimes have more what I'll call Cadillac or
robust HealthCare coverage um and it's you know expanding access Tois Arisa plans is very important there for protecting employees and of course a lot of small business owners get their own health care coverage and for their families too through the business as you know well you know Affordable Care Act has made
employe ARA unaffordable yes very true companies and I mean the cost of skyrocketing uh when then President Obama promised that c that the price was coming down they've made it impossible uh and uh there needs to be
some um something done that there to uh make it uh more beneficial and more cost efficient for uh both employers and employees uh some flexibility uh what role does the employee retirement income Security Act
play in helping small businesses offer robust and affordable health benefits to employees and what should this committee do to better help small businesses offer high quality coverage thank you for that question so Arisa is really the
foundation for employer sponsor health insurance and you know robust plans um can come with with a strong framework under orisa lowering costs and enabling as I said small business owners to compete um options that small business
owners tell us they are looking for being able to band together to form Association Health Plans pool other pooling Arrangements that some states allow there protecting Self insurance through stop loss insurance and reducing red tape and unnecessary paperwork and
of course increasing price transparency which is a big thing nfib has been pushing for for probably now decades the cost and availability of healthcare insurance is our number one on our problems and priority survey it has been number one now for decades okay M MAA uh
the Biden Administration bar Biden Harris administration's overregulation negative affected American workers and job creators last Congress my bill the employee rights act or ER address various harmful Biden Administration rules including the independent country contractor Rule and Joint employer rule
his first term president Trump's nlrb proposed a common sense joint employer rule that provided Clarity to franchises and franchises alike how important it is for the Trump Administration current nlrb to announce to once again support a Nara joint employer rule it gives
Clarity to small businesses either via regulatory action or through a permanent legislative fix thank you for your question Congressman Allan HLA was proud to support year Bill the employee rights act uh codifying the traditional standard of joint employers fundamental
to our industry franchising is the backbone of the hotel industry half of our hotels are franchised hotels 700,000 people work in franchise properties right now that certainty is critical to
ensuring that a business owner can make decisions about their own uh business and the the franchise model in our industry is unique because our small business owners own the building they own the capital and they directly employ
uh the employees and so it has led to a pathway of Entrepreneurship in yes I'm out of time but let me just add that the only way to get out of this fiscal crisis is to grow private jobs that grows GDP uh grow small businesses I thank the gentlemen now y back time has
expired and I recognize the gentle lady from North Carolina Dr Adams thank you Mr chairman and to uh to our Witnesses thank you for being here uh Dr sheer holes um the wage and hour office in my district in North Carolina provides jobs
and helps protect all of my constituents from harm these are people who are committed to serving the community to uh stop child labor and protecting their fellow workers from abuse as far as I'm concerned firings at wage in our division seems like a ploy uh to roll
back the clock on child labor protections without consulting Congress so what sort of information might be contained uh in the case file systems hand uh handled by uh wage and and our
offices and and how sensitive uh is is it okay many sensitive data sources and processes are housed at the Department of Labor so for example because do administers all worker compensation claims for federal employees it's
responsible for all of those records which includes highly sensitive personal information like medical financial and other personal information that's gathered in connection with all of those claims the Trump Administration is viciously and illegally going after federal workers it is no wonder they
want access to that information do data also includes confidential information about those who have reported OSHA violations by their employers those those workers make those reports under the promise that it will be kept confidential so that they are protected
from retaliation disclosure of those records presents a huge risk to those those workers and it it it it poses a risk to the Department's enforcement efforts particularly going forward as employers will workers will no longer come forward
because they know that they cannot be promised let me let me move on I have a few more questions so in terms of what you're saying the issues that might arise um or problematic if a billionaire industrialist like Elon Musk has access
to this information would you say yes yes absolutely okay so what what kind of impact would layoffs in this office have for workers and children in my district layoffs federal worker layoffs it will reduce the services that those
federal worker workers do the Public Services The crucial Public Services food safety research Health the all of those kinds of services will be hurt by this and then particularly in a district with higher unemployment rates it could you know you fire workers if there's not
other jobs available for them then it could reduce public spending and actually have a drag on the economy okay so OSHA appears to have complied with President Trump's executive orders by going through all of its guidance documents and materials looking for certain bandw like diverse like gender
and Del leading any documents with these words so is this a good use of Staff time in your opinion it is not a good use of staff time what it does it serves to divert the staff from the true mission of their organization so you spend time doing these these other kinds of activities and what you're not doing
is developing and implementing policies that protect the safety and health of workers and enforcing workers uh workers existing workers regulations so so OSHA is as far as I'm concerned is already under the St and so we're wasting oosha
uh already limited capacity on ban were witch hunts putting workers uh people uh at safety and and would it uh put it the people's uh the workers at at at their safety at risk as well as their health that's exactly right okay so let me let
me let me ask uh Miss molito uh I noticed that uh in your testimony that you expressed concern over the proposed oosha heat uh injury standard and I was co-lead on a bill uh calling on Ocean
to make a Heat injury standard last Congress I I noticed in in your testimony that you claimed the the proposed rule is too burdensome I think that those were your words so let me ask you um this is your
position uh that the current situation uh a situation where hundreds of workers die from heat illness is more acceptable um and are you telling the committee that that you think that the deaths of of hundreds of workers are
acceptable um to me that's an erroneous burden of providing workers cool water uh shade air conditioning those things outweighs the lives of hundreds of human beings so is that is that was
that your testimony that was not my testimony no many employers have designed and take very seriously um effective Heat injury and illness prevention programs they have them in safe small business owners let me back up and say small business owners live and die on
the reputation of their business they do not want to get have employees get hurt they certainly don't want to have a fatality at their business that would kill be you would just kill the business so they take very seriously their duty to keep employees
safe and I am out of time thank you Mr chairman thank the general lady and I recognize the uh Vice chairman of this this committee and the gentleman from Utah Mr Owens thank you so much chairman warmart and uh
first of all for organizing this uh very timely hearing uh there's no more important topic for us this is one that's get on my heart by the way if we're to grow our American middle class we need to unleash the unlimited potential of the independent contractor and by the way uh for those who don't
understand this uh middle class is what defines our remarkable American cult culture it's a culture is founded on the freedom of dreaming big and taking risk with the knowledge that in America we can Embrace embrace the concept of Second Chances if we fail I look forward to work with my colleagues on this committee to address never again
allowing the DC bureaucrats to have the power to stand in the way of that promise for the sake of transparency after retirement from NFL I work for over 25 years in the corporate sales every year during that time I worked also for myself part-time as an independent contractor I know understand
firsthand the passion of an entrepreneur to want to craft and control their own future and not leave it up to the whim of someone else uh Miss uh Mar Maya uh in your written statement you stated that franchising has proven to be one of the most successful drivers for
entrepreneurship across the United States throughout our history can you discuss how franchising in the hotel industry has created opportunities for entrepreneurship and how's it allowed Americans to become small business owners to live out the American dream absolutely and thank you for the question
I the franchise model in our industry is the epitome of the American dream it of the 64,000 hotel properties around the country half of those are franchise properties that is the very epitome of Entrepreneurship and allowing people to
own a property and once they own one we've seen many of my Members Own many uh and several or hundreds and it has allowed them to be real job creators in this country small businesses and the franchise model in the hotel industry is
really the economic engine of this country and we want to do everything we can to help preserve that thank you how would uh the opportunities been uh these opportunities be harmed by the Biden National Labor Relations Board joint employ employer rule which is an attack
on these independent contractor status that that's exactly right the the the concern was very high in our industry about the joint employer rule under the Biden Administration adding more uncertainty and burdensome regulations to an already stressed small business
owner exacerbates the challenges that they have daytoday and at the same time if you think about the last year alone operating costs have risen twice as as fast as revenue and so uh more uncertainty creates even greater stress
for uh many owners who at are questioning whether they can stay in business and and that's the last thing we want to see okay thank you U Miss Meo uh as many as onethird of American workers now earn at least part of their living through opportunities as independent contractors such as
freelancing and app based work this is happening despite the B Administration issuing of a 2024 rule that will strip away from entrepreneurs their status as independent contractors now that we are entering the America First Innovative entrepreneur first era how can we assure
that federal government protects and supports independent workers thank you for that question um representative Owens and thank you also for your support of the Main Street tax certainty act um so the department the V administration's rule on the independent contractor was very biased as you
pointed out to finding individuals classified employees it was you know the administration seemed to want everybody to be receiving a W2 but as you've pointed out small businesses often start out business owners start out as an independent contractor they may have just one client and that's how they get going and then they build their
reputation and they take on other clients there under the Biden rule it would have been very difficult for an individual say an IT person who wants to go out and starts off with just one client because they the weight under the Biden rule would have been you are really an employee of that even though the individual may have been marketing
and trying to get other clients there too so it really would have threatened the flexibility of individuals to start out and start their own business there and it also would have of course you know created a lot of liability for businesses that contracted with
independent contractors there too and discourage that so it was bad on both fronts thanks a lot I I think I think one of the responsibility as a education Workforce that we need to teach the power of Entrepreneurship that this capitalism system we have is why we have the greatest country in the history of
mankind and uh and that in every industry there is right sizing we called it riff I've gone through that several times in the private market so I think it's important that federal employees understand when we're too big we need to make adjustments so that we get the best price product possible and there's a
remarkable private sector out there waiting for people to come and work with them big time so thank you so much appreciate what you guys are doing and I I you back I thank the gentleman I recognize the gentleman from California Mr D sonier thank you Mr chairman um Dr
sherol thank you so much for being here I have uh two questions and a followup if we have time uh you already alluded to the um illegal actions by the current Administration in regards to nlrb um so so maybe you could tell us your
perspective of how that undermines workers working people's ability to create a union and be able to fight for their rights by uh illegally terminating board member will Cox yes thank you for that question so workers whose employers are vitol who are violating their rights
to organize will no longer get a fair decision when they bring their case to the Trump nlrb because it is no longer an independent agency president Trump fired member Willcox because she had and I am now quoting from the email she got
announcing her retiring because she had unduly was unduly disfavoring the interests of employers that means that anyone who serves on the Trump nlrb will know that in order to keep their job they have to favor and vote and and rule
on the side of employers member will Cox would actually have to be reappointed in order to restore the independence of the Trump of the Trump and lrb so I want to ask you a question about some of the comments I'm hearing it's sort of hard to imagine about research on trickle down and Reaganomics and Milton
fredman's views um we've had plenty of time to analyze that it doesn't work uh people with a lot of capital investment keep the money you don't all you have to read is pickardy and the inevitability of people fighting back when wages are so disproportionately represented in GDP
versus capital is there any research that shows that this what referred to some of my colleagues is the innovation of completely free market actually works it doesn't work nope it doesn't and it used to be like this sort of neoliberal approach really was what Economist and
I'm an economist by training what economists really thought was how you know like it was a reasonable model for how the economy worked but in the recent period it's become Empirical research has come out showing that is actually not the case trickle down does not work
and there's another there's sort of a counterpart to that the middle out or bottom up approach to the economy where you get money in the hands of people who are the most likely to have no choice but to have to spend it that generates economic activity that generates goods and services that's what's good for the
economy and as somebody who met a payroll for hundreds thousands of them as a small business owner as a restaurant owner I knew that from the California Restaurant Association all the research we did that for whether you're a franchiser or an independent owner of retail um PE middle inome
people spend it and go out to eat and it gets multiplied in the economy I wanted to ask you about another vulnerable population and I uh your background um the administration seems to have attack on both special needs in the disabled community so Gerald Ford signed Ida uh
to make sure that special needs kids which has expanded um would get free public education so that they could go out and be in the workforce uh We've made great strides in this country to get disabled individuals to be able to
work and contribute and they've contributed disproportionately I would say given their amazing ability for empathy you have any any comments about that both on the spe on the education side as a Workforce Development tool for this community but also the actual employment of it and what the
administration is doing to attack disabled people and what might happen if they close down the Department of Education yeah the the oh am I on I am on um the Trump ad Administration has been very clear that they do not care about discrimination against people with
disabilities like Trump openly and publicly mocked a reporter with a disability that's the backdrop against which we they are operating um the Trump ad Administration has made it clear that that not discriminating against workers with disabilities is just not something
that employers need to deal with they just do like it is just not a priority that is something that that employers just will be able ble to take a pass on during the Trump Administration so how will he enforce all these laws that were signed by Republican presidents
frequently no that raises a very very very good question when we have the these laws that are in place and we have an Administration that is been clearly FL flagrant going against them I got 30 seconds you have anything to add on your own on any of the other comments or questions you've heard here oh there's
so many I know you've got 20 seconds I I don't even know so one thing I'll just say one thing so on the depent contractor thing I just want to be clear that the Biden Administration what their independent contractor rule did was codify the independent contractor definition that had been in place for
decades it was the 2021 no it was the I won't even try to get the year right now but it was the Trump rule that went backwards that made it much more difficult for workers to get made much easier for workers to get um classified as independ gentleman's
time is I now recognize the gentleman from Ohio Mr ruy thank you Mr chairman Miss Miata you said in your testimony that nearly 800,000 workers in the hotel industry rely on tips you even
joined president Trump on stage supporting legislation to stop tax on tips so whenever we have a subject I try to think in my mind how I could apply this to normal everyday people and I'm fortunate because I was raised in retail stores that my family re for over 100
years so I was analyzing different customers that come in and how no tax on tips could affect them so what I was thinking was if you have a single mom who's raising several kids on her own and she's a waitress and she's working
hard and or she's working at the casino and we all see the tip drawer you know you so like whether you're actually giving tips to them personally or in a jar however that works out in my math I'm thinking $150 to $200 extra a week
you know that could add up to5 six $700 a month and here are things that a single mom could do with that extra money in her pocket she could actually perhaps maybe upgrade her car that keeps breaking down that she's getting her kids late to school with perhaps she could maybe take a vacation because she hasn't taken her kids to Disney ever
perhaps she can even maybe perhap find a better school uh she could be an urban situation where it could be limiting her kids's possibility for a future there's so many wonderful things that could happen if we get the cash in the hands of someone crucial like that and when
you think about it that's why we're all here to support the blue collar worker you know no one I don't think on probably in this room really cares about the billionaires we care about the average day Joe Bag of Donuts that's working their hard out and barely making ends meet so when you think about
something like tax on tips and we know that President Trump was the first one to come up with this idea um can you perhaps talk a little bit about how this could only not only affect that single mom that's trying to raise her kid but other parts of the industry how deep would this tax on tips break really be
for the blue collar worker thank you absolutely and thank you for that question I was proud to represent the hotel industry with President Trump at that event uh no tax on tips would benefit some 800,000 individuals in the hotel industry and so we're um uh proud
to work with Congress to ensure that all the job classifications in our industry that benefit from tips whether it's the valet or the bellhop or the housekeeper or the bartender are part of the the rule that's being um advanced in
Congress right now it's so important for individuals to take home more of what they earn every day and that's why we are supportive of that uh proposal I love that and could you maybe go into a little bit of a deeper dive when you think about the employee and the owner
relationship so like anyone that is a small business owner and I think we know a lot of the hotels in my district in particular particular you have people that actually started in that industry and saved up and perhaps whoever owned the hotel before them decided to retire so I like I know even as a small
business owner a lot of times if there's not uh if there's not a structure within your own personal family you would look to someone that was running the business for you to pass that small Independent Business off to so when you look at that relationship and you look about about probably the number one problem that an
employer has or a hotel owner would have would be employee reten retention and we all know that that is such a crucial part of existing as a small business owner employee retention because just a cost to get a new employee and to train that employee while another employee
that's at Full Throttle has to pull back just to make that happen does this no tax on tips actually help with employee retention if you're a small business owner trying to get ahead we believe it will I mean retention is something that keeps our hotel years up at night
because of course it's such a comp competitive labor market right now um but our industry provides a pathway for opportunity and so in in addition to no tax on tips our hotel years are continuously providing um upskilling in
new trainings and the ability for certification so that they can get ahead 50% of general managers today started out in entry-level positions so the ability to go from an entry-level position um all the way through and rise
up to become a general manager or even own your own hotel um is the very epitome of the American dream real quick can you leave us with the what is the thought within the industry are people excited about this no tax on tips is is it an exciting thought uh I can tell you
that when I was at the rally the hotel uh employees who were there were um incredibly excited that they get to take home more than uh more of what they earn every day we really appreciate your time and with that Cher I yield my time I thank the gentleman I recognize the
gentleman from New Jersey Mr Norcross thank you chairman and thanks for bringing this subject up unleashing America's Workforce I think is a great topic that we're all focused on um and I love the idea of uh no tax on tips I've been working on it for two years and I'm
glad the president's joining me we have to be very careful here that the abuses don't come in with it that all of a sudden you're changing the salary structure and making it oh we'll call it a tip so you can be tax-free the real potential for abuse here is it cash is
it electronic how do you report it but the concept for the working Schmucks of the world give them a break we give enough breaks to the billionaires how about the little guys so we're all in and hopefully he'll do this he also talked about no tax and
overtime and now they want to eliminate over time so I'm trying to figure out what's going here I'm a little uh confused you know a fair days pay for a fair day's work 40 hours has been the backbone if you work more than 40 hours then you're paid overtime I think it
it's a concept that we can all deal with you want to be home but if they need you more they pay you more yeah we're trying to roll that back and this is the stunning part for me and I have great respect for people who serve in this institution they're fighting to pay people less they want to take away over
time it's just stunning that we can't work together on this issue so that everybody makes out because when you don't make it over time the employer's doing better it's not the worker so certainly something that I want to work
with the other side the Aris issue the biggest tax break to have the employer pay for the health insurance is no taxes holy smoke that's the greatest deal we ever get save the
employer because salary comes first time off I'll change that paid time off is what they're looking for and then the third one is Health Care well health care would be even more difficult if we didn't have the orisa and what comes with that so the idea that we give a tax
break for employers and employees under arisk to get health care is an excellent idea I just want to finish up by asking Dr uh a question you there's a bill out there to eliminate OSHA I don't know how many people in
this room have been on a job when somebody's killed but I will tell you you will never forget it unfortunately it happened twice in my career did somebody get killed right in front of you and you know what stops that oan the deaths on the job today
compared to where they were 50 years ago have changed night and day and yes there's a little bit of work involved in it but to save somebody's life to save somebody from being injured OSHA stands
between that and somebody who doesn't have the expertise because they're a onean or Twan shell the idea that OSHA will now put out the heat rule is just common sense
for anybody that's been there it's not to be punitive it's to save lives so doct talk to me about Osan have we saved lives yes OSHA regulations they are what take a look at workplaces and see what
are the broad safety and health concerns that we have that workers have and do smart regulations with net benefits that will protect America's workers it saves it saves workers from getting injured it saves workers from getting sick on the job it saves workers from dying on the
job and then so it's not just the regulations it's also strong enforcement that needs to I mean what we know is that no regulation is a regulation is only as strong as its enforcement so we also need strong enforcement to make sure that it so let's be clear when you start to cut the Department of Labor and
it goes in oosha it's already decades if they average out how often OA gets out to inspect a job they're not there to hurt them they're there to save lives so next time you think about cutting getting rid of it think about somebody not going home to their children because
they were killed on the job and I'll yield back I thank the gentleman I recognize the gentle lady from Illinois Miss Miller first of all Dr sheer holes earlier in this hearing you said quote
the federal Workforce is Tiny I think the American people would disagree with you and find laughable I don't know what you're basing it on the federal Workforce is 2.4 million people and that excludes the military and
postal workers such an outof touch comment and to my uh fellow member on the other side you just said um that we need to give the working Schmucks of the world a break I hope you didn't really mean it but a schmuck is a foolish
stupid dummy sucker loser okay it's time for the government to be transparent and accountable that's what the American people want we want businesses and workers want less regulation and lower taxes so now
executive director Malo is it true that small business optimism has surged since president Trump has El been elected it's very true and the the Trump effect is real I will tell you that it surged you know in 2018 too and as I
said before for I mean you small business owners are anxious for president Trump to get started on this regulatory roll back there um as the chairman said in his opening statement President Biden's policies hamper job creation we've talked about some of those rules here today too so yes my my
members are very happy and are looking forward to you know Blue Skies Ahead that's great and can you be specific on what that why that's the case what how would you define a pro business environment that President Trump is
implementing that's causing the surgeon optimism well first I think business owners are very happy to know that you know they've heard president Trump's talk about the small business tax deduction and representative Miller I want to thank you for your support also on that front too so preservation of
those tax cuts the tax cuts and jobs act and I will will take issue two with Dr sheer holtz's character characterization of the tax cuts as for billionaires and corporations because my members would most definitely disagree with that that 20% small business deduction has been critical for so many small businesses
and they have used that to reinvest not just in the business to buy new equipment but I have stories were you know they've used it to pay for healthcare 100% they've used it to bonuses they've used it to pay for you know Community things sponsor the Little League things things like that again they use that money to reinvest in the
business in employees and in their communities so that they're very excited that's great we join the excitement as we um set the government back uh reducing the government making it more transparent and accountable like
the American people want Miss mayetta in your testimony you state the hotel industry has a proven track record of creating not simply jobs but Pathways for sustained and rewarding careers can you speak more about the potential for Upward Mobility for workers in the hotel
industry absolutely and thank you for the question Miss Congressman Miller there is so much opportunity in the industry 80% of entrylevel employees get promoted within the first year 50% of our general managers started
in entrylevel positions on top of that our ahla foundation has invested some $44 million do back into the industry through retention and recruitment programs allowing us to help our industry identify new uh groups of in of
of young people individuals who are empowering ing youth program that attracts um young people who are out of a job or out of work for uh training to get jobs in the industry when you're in the industry we
have we work with the Department of Labor on an apprenticeship program that has seen a 90% completion over the last five years and finally we also provide uh um for the last several years a million dollars every year in
scholarship funding to Hospitality school students who are aspiring for jobs in the industry and then for professional development scholarships for people who are already in the industry to get ahead and pay for certifications to get to that next level
in their career such great news we're not tired of winning thank you and I yield back I thank the gentle lady and now I recognize the gentle lady from Georgia Miss MC MCM thank you so much chairman wallberg thank you to our witnesses that
are here today I have read your testimonies uh thank you to ranking member Scott and thank you so very very much Dr sheer hols I I'd like to ask you is there anything that you would like to say in response to my colleagues
comments to you across the floor is there anything you want to say yeah I the the federal Workforce is Tiny and I gave the Benchmark for what I mean by tiny and and it is from Bureau of Labor Statistics data including Postal Service
workers the federal Workforce makes up less than 2% of all payroll workers in this country so it is just the the idea that we're attacking attacking this already extremely strapped Workforce it just doesn't make any sense okay thank
you well I would like to say that instead of taking action to address the cost of living crisis in this country Republicans are trying to distract the American people from their plans to put American an out of work increase their
taxes and cut programs like Snap and Medicare and Medicaid since taking office over a little over a month ago president Trump and republicans in Congress have only made life more
chaotic more expensive and more dangerous president Trump's handpicked Postmaster General just announced plans to resign after his proposed changes caused major delays and destroyed the American people's trust and confidence
in the post office they have pardoned and released violent felons and rabid anti-semites back onto our streets criminals that attacked police and were directly involved in the death of an officer who
once protected the building that we sit in today Brian snik they forced the head of the Federal Aviation Administration to design and just 10 days later we had the deadly deadliest air disaster in this country in almost 25
years while this Administration promised to bring down the cost of Eggs prices continue to Skyrocket Waffle House and Denny's have added a new added a new search charge on eggs and instead of doing anything about
it the Trump Administration chose to fire 10% of the the staff at the Centers for Disease Control which is in my home state of Georgia they chose to fire doctors and researchers at the CDC the national in Institutes of Health and the
FDA the very people who are directly involved with responding to outbreaks like bird flu time and time again they say one thing but they do another and it's the American people who are paying the price
paying the price at the grocery store as well as with their lives the American people deserve better they deserve a government that is truly representative of their needs not the wants and the needs of Elon Musk if you really want to
unleash America's Workforce at this hearing that is entitled as it's entitled give workers Paid Family Leave let's make sure that they can take paid time off to have a child or to take care of an aging loved one or parent let's
ensure that every American can have access to the skills that they need to get a good job that they can raise a family on without going into a lifetime of debt we could reauthorize weoa update our federal job training programs and
finish the bipartisan work that former chairwoman Fox ranking member Scott and this committee has been trying to get signed into laws since I came to Congress six years ago great work from members of both parties is being left
unfinished in this committee and all over this hill because of the single tweet from an unelected billionaire that is wrong that is not how our democracy is supposed to
function I look forward to a time when I can work work with my colleagues on the other aisle on the other side of this aisle on issues that will truly make life better for the folks who are relying on us every single day to care for their interests we do a great
disservice to them when we have hold hearings like this that dis disparage their ability to live life freely in this country as they deserve and I yeld back I thank the gentle lady I recognize now the gentleman from Indiana
uh Mr Mesmer thank you chairman Wahlberg um Miss molo in your written testimony you state that the Trump Administration should resend or withdraw many of the burdens and Rule making uh rule making of the Biden Administration does that include the Heat injury and illness
prevention and outdoor and indoor work uh settings rule thank you for that question um representative Mesmer and also thank you for your support of nfib and for the Main Street tax certainty act um yes nfib requested that the department withdraw the proposed Rule and proceed
no further with the ru making um we certainly recognize that excessive heat can adversely affect the health of workers too and I talked when I in response in an earlier question to the length that small business owners go to to ensure that their employees are protected and safe from all hazards
including heat Hazard there um but not every Misfortune in society um necessarily calls for a burdensome Federal Regulation I mean that's the fact of the matter too and OSHA is strained by the statute under which it was created by Congress here this body here a broad public health hazard like
heat is not an occupational hazard unless Congress opts to you know change the statute so there's no authority to regulate thank you thank you uh I plan on introducing legislation that would prevent this rule from ever being implemented since it exceeds OSHA's
Authority does not need meet the needs of small businesses and fails to take into account differences between Regional climates job functions and medical conditions of individuals uh do you consider this legislation the right step forward I absolutely do yes nfib does and thank you for your efforts
on that point than you and uh the 199a small business deduction is probably one of the biggest uh Provisions in the tax 2017 tax tax cut act that we're going to try to extend would you classify your members as billionaires absolutely not
no they would not call themselves billionaires or Rich corporations I would agree with that thank you um Miss Metta the persistent Workforce challenges that businesses face today is finding qualified workers and filling
open positions this challenge is particularly pronounced in the hotel industry where seasonal changes affect demand uh how could apprenticeships help fill the Gap and and create a more resilient Workforce for the hotel industry thank you Congressman for that uh question uh apprenticeships have been
a very important part of what our industry has done in the last five years we've been working uh very successfully with the Department of Labor on that program and have added three different tracks that have seen some 1200 individuals participate and go through
the program and at the end get an increased wage of course we would love to continue to work with Department of Labor on on um helping to eliminate some of the burdens and barriers to entry for some of our members and to ensure that there's ongoing incentive funding that
is a significant um attraction for for the employers um and and and changing some of the the rule requirements and the reporting which which can be burdensome when you're also running a hotel okay thank you uh Dr beach in your
written testimony you knowe that the burden of Regulation has grown significantly since 1980 yes uh has this reduced economic growth it most definitely has um you also stated that freezing new regulations for a decade would increase GDP by 1.8% could you go
into into into some detail how that freeze would yes the the freeze would increase output because it would allow investment to occur at a much greater level in fact the response that we got in our research from the investment uh
variable if you will was much stronger than the output variable uh now why would that be the case well regulations are cost on businesses and they have to allocate money to those employees which they hard to fill out forms and to comply with the business when those
costs come down then they can allocate it those those dollars to more productive purposes so that that happens also the price system is positively affected we see a reduction in the CPI as Goods to households cost less well when Goods to households cost less that
means that households can allocate funds to repairing that that car that doesn't work or to that ordering that after school T tutoring so there are a lot of impacts that come from reducing regulation thank you and I yield back my
time I thank the gentleman I recognize the gentle lady from Connecticut Mrs Hayes thank you and thank you to our Witnesses for being here today I think much of the testimony that we're hearing lacks context the time frames that you're citing occurred during covid when
1.2 million Americans died and our economy was deeply impacted Miss Miata like you how Democrats were incredibly sympathetic to the hotel industry which is why in the first cares act where we expanded SBA Loans hotels took advantage
of about a billion dollars in funding in fact in 2020 the largest recipient of cares act funding was a Dallas based Hotel so we understood the need to stabilize that industry um I'd also like to say when we
talk about small businesses it is just not true to say that President Biden hampered job creation and you don't have to listen to Democrats listen to the data the data tells the story of what has happened under President Biden the
economy added 16.2 million jobs that's more jobs in four years than any president on record and more jobs than any Republican president whether they served four or eight years that's not Democrats that's data he also made history as the first president of the
United States on record to not have a single month of seasonally adjusted job losses during his entire term federal government has awarded small businesses more than $183 billion do in contracts and 28% of all federal contracts go to
small businesses so we have tried to do our part to invest in this economy and help these industries a lot of what I'm hearing today um we have some choices to make and right now we are being faced with a $4.6 trillion in tax cuts I heard you
say that only about 30% of small businesses provide healthc care benefits I'm sure that many of those employees who have children take advantage of programs like Medicaid which many working people take advantage of so that would be a huge detriment to employees
in small businesses you talk about I've heard you say on three different occasions the after school and tutoring programs at the exact same time that this budget would cut Title One funding that provides for those program to lowincome students Head Start would
definitely be slashing programs like Head Start would definitely hurt employees who are trying to work and have to make sure that their kids have child care and on the topic of putting money back into the pockets of workers we're
dangling no tax on tips um as if this is the answer to it while I support no tax on tips I'll tell you what else I support raising the federal minimum wage which currently stands at $725 an hour that's
$2.90 a week or $115,000 a year for an employee I could tell you they could do a lot more for getting their car repaired or their child uh uniform or after school tutoring Services if they were making $17 an hour or $680 a week
which is still only $35,000 a year so if we really want to have a conversation about engaging the workforce we would be talking about actually helping employees making sure that we are spreading the wealth amongst
everyone the mission of the Department of Labor is actually to protect the employees uh improve the welfare of the American Workforce by promoting job opportunities safe working conditions and benefits so OSHA and the protections
that OSHA provides through the Department of Labor are doing exactly what they're supposed to protecting employees and I would argue that he related um uh job conditions are a health hazard they are a health hazard
I'm not really sure I have a bunch of questions but I don't even think it would um make sense for me to ask these questions because I don't believe the witnesses um are here to provide context or information we've had hearing after
hearing where the same people who appear at this table um are at events at the White House and come here to promote the dangerous agenda of this Administration I am open to working with anybody on this committee to making sure that we are stimulating the economy and
promoting small businesses but also helping employees so if we want to have no tax on tips let's also raise the minimum wage if we want to um provide benefits to people let's make sure that we're not cut we're not cutting Medicaid
and dental services and Community Health Care programs for children for the elderly for many working people who still make below the poverty line and have to depend on these programs I'm here for all of those things I yield back I thank the gentle lady and I
recognize the gentleman from New York Mr Manion thank you Mr chair and thank you to the witnesses for being here today um Dr sheer holes uh a couple questions thank you I'm over here yes uh the um if
a complaint comes before the National Labor Relations Board uh this is one of their functions what what happens at that point yeah this is a really important thing I think it's not really well understood one thing is individual citizens do not have a pride of private
right of action as it relates to the National Labor Relations Act so if their employer is is is getting in the way of them being able to organize breaking the law they can't actually hire a lawyer and go out and Sue that and Sue that employer they cannot do that the nlrb is
the only game in town if they want to get a fear Fair hearing about so that is what the nlrb is for it's there to adjudicate whether uh one of the things it does is to adjudicate when there's issues related
to that like if an like if an employer if an employee feels like they're not being their employer has violated their right to organize that's one of the places that nlrb steps in thank you so much much are there any outstanding uh complaints before the nrlb related to uh
Elon musk's Holdings or any uh companies that he uh runs yes Elon Musk has been under investigation either himself personally or for actions taken by the companies he owns by multiple federal
agencies from OSHA to sec to the nlrb the New York Times found that 11 federal agencies were looking into violations of companies owned by musk and surprise surprise there were also those same agencies are also the ones being faced
with Doge actions and can a president uh remove uh a member of the nlrb without any process no it needs a process what the president did with Gwen Wilcox was IL an illegal firing the and it what it did was take away the independence of
the nlrb by saying that she was unduly favoring um the rights employers it just made it very clear to the rest of the people on the nlrb that if they want to keep their jobs they need to rule on the side of employers it's no longer independent and NL nlrb member serve a
five-year term is is it intentional why that is a five-year term yeah it's supposed to have a be a case where it is an independent agency it is not uh that you know that and and if a Democrat is there it actually can go over into a
republican president's term as an independent agency but president trp Trump has undone that thank you so much Dr Beach you were the um Commissioner of uh the Bureau of Labor Statistics that's correct and I appreciate your service to this country and how long was your term
four four years four years and those terms generally move from one potential Administration to another uh with their timing is that correct yes four years but I served at the pleas pleasure of both prep presidents they could have dismissed me at any time thank you and if they had chosen to dismiss you would
there have been a process that would have had to have been followed or could they have just indiscriminately let you go as far as I know the process would be pecking up some boxes and leaving the office um I believe that the process would require just like your approval uh
in in that position of commissioner approval advice and consent of the Senate it would also require advice and consent of the senate for removal Congressional Authority I yield back Mr chair I thank the gentleman I recognize
uh the gentleman from Missouri Mr under thank you Mr chairman and thanks to all the witnesses who came here today um the um the 2020 cares act with enhanced Unemployment uh
benefits uh cost $900 billion over a year and a half followed by then the 20 21 Appropriations act and then arpa of course has in addition to generating extraordinar extraordinary inflationary
pressures that our American economy businesses and individual Americans uh struggle under today in addition to that it resulted in a decrease in Workforce participation um you the ranking the ranking member uh was bragging about
so-called job creation under the Biden Administration and yet um Workforce participation is at a historic low we have 7.6 million unfilled jobs and I would I would note that 60% of all job creation since
2021 has been recovery of job loss during the pandemic not new job creation I would further note that 22% of all new jobs created in 2024 were due to were were government jobs not jobs in the private sector and
finally that in 2024 the the last year of the Biden Administration the average inflation rate was 4% compared to the pre- Trum Trump preco inflation rate unemployment rate of 3.5% you know a lot of we talk a lot when we're talk in this committee we
talk about a lot about skilled Workforce Workforce training uh Career and Technical education but a lot of this job loss has been at at in entry level jobs the kind of jobs one might um might uh might might take in small business
franchises in the hospitality industry in the hotel industry and um could you could you uh com comment M your um pronounce your name for me I apologize mayetta mayetta mayetta uh could you
comment about the effect of that loss of entry level workers because I think I was once in an interview a hostile interview he said well you Republicans want everyone to be punching a clock and I said well my first three jobs were
punch I punched a clock or you demeaning the value of that and I think this loss of of uh entrylevel workers in our economy has been devastating um would you care to comment on that absolutely thank you Congressman for the question
um you know as I I said earlier in my testimony uh the hotel industry is down some 200,000 jobs since the pandemic it has been increasingly difficult to fill those positions we have tried to be as
competitive as possible um by raising wages 15% faster than the national average expanding our benefits making sure that you know some members have started to um Implement signon bonuses
offering Transportation credits um health care for part-time employees discounts and perks and yet we are still seeing um difficulty in hiring and and competing with you know big box retail that has millions of dollars to
invest in advertising a lot of our small businesses simply can't compete with that um one thing that is uh critically important for our industry is the h2b legal guest worker program so many of my members rely on that to fill especially
Peak and seasonal jobs um some of my members are actually in town today to meet with your colleagues here on the Hill from the the resort and independent community and one member was telling me that he has a resort on a small island
that inhabits 500 people including babies uh and at peak season he employs 5,000 people without the h2b program he would simply not be able to function sure thank you and um yeah Mr Beach you
made a number of um points about macro macroeconomics would you care to comment yes well I I'd like to comment on this last this last this last Point sure one of the one of the casualties of increasing costs on low-income
households is the increasing inability of those households or those individuals to travel to another part of the country to take a take a job yes so by increasing these cost by slowing down job wage wage growth we're actually locking people into places where there
may not be jobs and I think that's one of the things that we need to be increasingly attuned to yeah thank you yeah I would just make the additional point that even though wages and you mentioned 15% higher than the national average in your own industry um these
these these increases in wages have not kept pace even then with inflation which has been devastating which is why it's so critical that we end the inflationary policies of the gentl thank you Mr ch fired I recognize the the gentle lady
from the Keystone State Miss Lee thank you Mr chair um I just think that we're beyond the point of accepting and regurgitating uh any propaganda or acting like we're in normal times my Republican colleagues say they want to unleash America's Workforce but actions
speak louder than words if you are if you really want to know where they stand don't just listen to what they say look at what they're doing as we we sit here in this committee we're witnessing the Republican Administration dismantled the federal Workforce in real time there
have been legally questionable buyout offers funding freezes stop work orders more than 30,000 workers have been laid off indiscriminately the Administration has been demonizing federal employees convincing the public that government workers are somehow the enemy as all part of a major grift The Architects
designing these policies aren't everyday workers and you need to know that they're billionaires and corporate Executives they're members of the ultra Elite who extract wealth resources and labor from working class communities these are the folks who stand to gain from slashing wages gutting public
services and hoarding wealth and that's exactly what they're doing last night House Republicans voted to adopt a budget blueprint that would hand out $4.5 trillion in massive tax cuts for the ultra wealthy paid for by cutting vital programs that keep working
families afloat Medicaid snap Head Start start more than 38 million people across the country including 3 million people in the kyone state rely on Medicaid and chip for their Healthcare Dr Sher Holtz how will America's Workforce be
Unleashed as my colleagues Say by Republicans budget which provides more than $4.5 trillion in tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations oh I am on okay yeah this this this unleashing is not going to happen because of this of this house
budget the draconian to healthare and food assistance for Children and Families will hurt millions of workers that is not an unleashing it will weaken our economy those cuts as you said they're being made to make fiscal space for tax cuts that will go overwhelmingly
to this country's wealthiest households just like the tcja did like uh like just to put some numbers on this the tcja um it it will fa it will give the top 1% in 2025 the top 1% will get $60,000 in tax cut as a result of the
tcja the middle class less than 1,000 the low the the the lower class less than 100 it is just overwhelmingly fing the wealthy thank you do so just just to be clear do you believe that these tax breaks will um decrease the income the
wealth inequality or uh increase it it will unambiguously increase it when you put the tax the tax breaks that overwhelmingly favor the very very wealthy combined with the tax cuts that reduce the incomes of the most vulnerable households it is I mean it is
literally taking food out of the mouths of poor children I mean not literally but to line the pockets of the very wealthiest households in this country thank you the truth is Republicans don't want to unleash the workforce they want to destroy it and replace it with an economy that only works for the wealthy
and that's proven further by the administration's actions to undermine civil rights protections across the workforce over the summer president Trump would viral talking about black jobs but one of the first acts as president was to resend Federal anti-discrimination hiring rules and Elimina and eliminate funding for
workplace diversity programs black Americans make up approximately 20% of the federal Workforce because so many of us grew up uh knowing the value of securing what we called good government jobs these jobs aren't just stable uh and provide Fair pay they've long been a
pathway to overcoming discrimination in the private sector and to be begin building Economic Security by attacking both the federal Workforce and civil rights protections the Trump Administration is actively reversing the progress not just for black workers but
for all workers across the country who have made it a fight for economic equality Dr Sher Holtz is discrimination against workers good for the economy it is okay you're the you know that that is the weather is good for the broader economy is not the key metric that I care about when it comes to
discrimination but no it is not good for the economy one of the ways it holds back in the economy is by not letting people realize their full potential it reduces productivity and is a drag on growth thank you you know what they say a high tide lifts All Ships uh to to be
mindful of time I just want to say one more time actions speak louder than words do not listen to what they're saying see what they're doing so to recap Republicans aren't trying to unleash anything they're dismantling it destabilizing working families and concentrating even more power in the
hands of billionaires and corporations who have a vested interest and undermining worker power cutting critical programs upending vital projects a strong Workforce is the foundation of a strong economy but their policies are making jobs less stable wages lower and opportunities scarcer for all people especially marginalized
people we cannot afford to let it go unchecked thank you I Y back General's time has expired thank you I now recognize the gentleman from Wisconsin Mr grothman thank you we're going to lead off with Miss mayetta uh in your test testimony you discuss the importance to the hotel and lodging
industry the importance of recruiting and retaining a qualified Workforce you also mentioned the importance of congress's work to reform the workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act to better connect employers to the workforce system why is it important that workers have multiple Pathways into the
workforce and multiple avenues for advancement yes thank you Congressman Pathways into our industry are incredibly P important especially at a time when it's such a competitive and tight labor market and we are short staffed uh two-thirds of my members
report um being short staffed particularly an entry-level job so creating those Pathways is continues to be an important part and uh we are uh happy to work with this Congress and this committee on reforms to weoa right good good good good now I have a general
question we just heard a little bit about people not advancing and income and Equity uh and when I talk to my employers as well as knowing some people in uh their personal life we really hate it when people move up the ladder in this country because we have all these
programs lowincome housing Earned Income Tax Credit Medicaid uh uh food share that if you make too much money we take the programs away from you it's like we don't want anybody making more than 16 or 17,000 a
year in this country and uh as the result people I think are kind of stuck because you talk to employers and they say my employees are turning down raises they don't want overtime because they're going to lose their government
benefits uh do you guys find this a problem or they got to look for cash work which is probably not advisable but it's the only way they can make more money because the government whacks them over the head with these government programs we bribe them not to work work too hard is this a problem that you guys
find in your uh in your businesses I I can address this first I mean I'm looking here at nfb's um data from that came in from January too 35% of all owners reported job openings they could not fill in the current period so that well yes but do you get this is
what I'm getting and I get it all over my district you get people working they can't work more than maybe 16 or 17 hours a week they can't accept the raise because all these government programs we
give you like a almost a free apartment a nice free apartment and then if you make more than 16 or 18,000 bucks a year they begin to to force you to pay you know normal rent so in so in essence we are we are contributing to this income
gap by telling so many people in the country don't work harder we're going to take away your government benefits we we we certainly saw that in the 2021 period I was I was working both in the in the Trump Administration and Biden Administration on just what were the
disincentive effects of what we had just passed with good intentions and there's evidence out there that uh well-intended uh programs can discourage work effort I want to tell you this one thing though uh everybody has seen the program of less regulation and less taxes already
and that was the period from 2017 through 2019 19 when households across the income Spectrum saw significant gains and African-American households saw gains they hadn't seen in 50 years so uh we have seen this before and we know what will happen if this program is
properly executed but disincentive effects do do do occur well all you got to do is talk to people I think sometimes the problem with some of these congressmen is they don't talk to anybody but the lobbyists if you get out in the real world you will again and again find stories of employees who have
to turn down EXT hours they have to turn down raises they can't move up the income letter because of the stupid programs are so generous that they they in essence you're stuck in there for life and the other thing is you can't get married that's another matter or
you're going to lose your your bennies so I I think uh we had a big problem starting with Lyndon Johnson where they began to put in huge programs and you lose your bennies if you work too hard and the message we're sending to people
is don't work very very hard and I mean I'm I'm sure in the in the uh hotel and lodging industry that's true it's true anywhere where you have people Mak it in that 15 to $20 range where you can easily push
yourself uh to the point where you lose your low-income housing I I would say that what you're talking about is cliffs in benefit programs where you get one more dollar and then you lose your benefits what the answer to that then is to work with those programs
to make them less Cliffy don't address that there don't try to take away the generosity of the programs because they're they're providing G's time has expired Now we move on to the uh gentleman from Connecticut Mr Courtney thank you uh Mr chairman and uh thank you to the witnesses for being here
today um I have to say I think there's really an amazing disconnect listening to the majorities um sort of narrative today about uh ways to you know strengthen the economy when at the very moment that we're sitting here we're seeing lots of warning flags about the
fact that the economy actually is going in a very negative Direction very quickly this morning's uh Telegraph out of London um has a story economists are starting to worry about a serious Trump recession the um consumer confidence
index which was just released a couple days ago uh again had its biggest monthly decline since August 2021 uh as inflation fears take hold and again if you read these articles and stories it's because of the Trump tariff regime that
um is driving um again this uncertainty and really hesitancy that is going to really I think um haunt uh the economy in very very short period of time again the the layoffs which U Miss Lee talked about um is adding to I think the
negative um downward pressure that's happening to the economy again I represent a district with a large military base we're going to have thousands of DOD layoffs we have a um fire station fire firefighter station on
submarine base uh they have uh six out of 14 employees they are probationary uh which again is the Doge Target uh cohort that's there and again regardless of the fact that uh fires on Navy ships is a really bad thing um you know that does
not come into the equation of of the this Trump policy that again it's just indiscriminately reducing the workforce uh and at the same time uh the Tariff policy is driving up prices and that's not just me saying that reuter had a story again
just a couple days ago about uh us manufacturers see high metal prices as tariffs near steel prices have gone up 20% since the election that's not happening in Europe it's not happening in China it's happening again because the market is reacting to what they hear
from the the White House and and the president said it uh yesterday that the tariffs against Canada and Mexico are back on um the table which again his month delay is now running out the steel
and aluminum uh tariffs which again are all across the globe are again driving up the the one of the basic Commodities in our economy and the uh National Association of homebuilders which is hardly a democratic base organization
has been raised ing the warning flags the American Farm Bureau has been raising the war the the the warning flags about the fact that fertilizer costs are going to go up because of a a tariff on Canada uh again 25% addition to fertilizer costs which most of it is
imported uh from Canada is the reason why the American Farm Bureau is begging the administration and Congress to to not let these tariffs go into effect so Dr Sher Holtz from a you know macroeconomic standpoint when you see Power policies that are driving up costs
very quickly in in real time as we're sitting here today and again layoffs that are happening at the same time I mean that sounds like a formula for stagflation yep it's worrisome so I would not be the an an economist who studies the the the incoming data all
the time without saying I want to give it a little bit more time to make sure that it's not a blip we want to make sure that there is a trend but you're absolutely right that things are start starting to flash concerns and I think it has a ton to do with things like this very chaotic unstable policy that's
coming out of the administration it is like nothing we've ever seen before and and again if we're talking about helping America's Workforce we we need to get this stability and and and get the uncertainty that is again being driven every single morning in the news in terms of what's coming out of the White
House Mr chairman I again would ask that the Daily Telegraph article economists are starting to worry about a serious Trump recession the Reuters article USS uh manufacturers see higher metal prices as tariffs near and uh CNN consumer confidence registers the biggest monthly
decline since August 2021 as inflation fears take hold admitted for the record without objection hearing none I yeld back time I thank the gentleman I recognize the gentleman from North Carolina Mr Harris thank you Mr chairman and uh thank you to all of you on the
panel and I apologize for folks coming in and out but a number of other committee meetings and markups are taking place but uh I did have the pleasure of reading your testimonies and uh looking over them and uh I did um want to ask you something Dr Beach your
written testimony makes it clear that overregulation is is hurting American businesses and workers in fact you made a statement regulations function as a hidden tax siphoning resources away from productive use businesses must redirect
Capital toward compliance instead of expanding current operations and researching new technological breakthroughs um during the first Trump Administration the president's focus on uh deregulation efforts benefited
workers uh why was this effort so beneficial in your opinion I think it stimulated investment and investment caused uh a greater pool investment dollars are out there in the banking system they're out there in private companies to invest in expansion of their companies and also to start new
companies we see know the the real key here is whether or not the free enterprise system is creating new businesses that's the metric you should look at not big businesses but the the small ones the sub the from from the from the sub chapter S corporations to the the proprietor and I think that's
one of the major things that happen and of course what when that happens when workers have new equipment new businesses to work they're more productive and when productivity Rises then their wages rise and we saw almost an immediate effect but you don't have to go back to the Trump Administration to see that you can see that in the
Clinton Administration you can see that in the Carter Administration in fact every time we've had a significant deregulatory wave we have seen a boost in economic output a boost in inflation a decrease in prices and uh there's no reason why we shouldn't see that now of
course you got to make sure the regulations that you reduce are not going to put people in in safety issues right and you have to be smart about it but there are just billions of regulations out there that don't qualify in that category so that's the effect we would we would expect well and and I
think that's a an excellent point and I I guess I would ask as a followup to that when you think about what took place during that first term and then you referenced previous administrations how would you say the president um how can he improve the economic conditions
and support workers and businesses during the second term now that he's underway well I think he has a more aggressive program that's that's the first thing so so you have to combine not raising taxes that's the first thing you can't do that you have to regardless
of what you think about this act to that that has to be made permanent the and the 199a is a big provision for small businesses do that and then uh he has a 10:1 uh reduction plan that would be way more than what he had done in the in the
first Administration and we're we're expecting some big big effects my research shows that we get a big out put and big gains in investment and big gains in hours worked um there'll be plenty of overtime let me tell you we was we talked about overtime before plenty of overtime once once this
program's in full swing gotcha and if I could just say one more thing about the federal Workforce uh we don't really have to speculate a lot about what will happen to the federal Workforce you know this isn't the first time this has happened um I'm old enough to remember and perhaps you are as well uh the
Reinventing government program of the Clinton Gore Administration that was the first time that that people got letters and some emails saying would you like to resign that was the first time and there was massive decreases in the federal work Workforce and what happened after
that was a period of I think every Democrat would would would would say of unprecedented growth and we even balanced the budget by the end of that term so um I don't know whether that's going to happen this time no one no one knows but there is a record out there that we can look at well in the final
minute we have left I I believe rather than OTE The Proven policies that you've talked about that unleash the economy like lower taxes and deregulation things that help businesses and increase wages for workers my colleagues often times on the other side would rather increase individual's dependence on the state
through ever expanding welfare I will ask you just in the closing few moments we have outside of the massive Federal expansion of unemployment insurance for over a year and a half during covid could you just quickly discuss what federal programs or policies in
incentivize unemployment incentivize unemployment that's a great concept well I think if you if you have extended unemployment benefits the evidence shows that people do stay out of work until like the last week uh so that that that extends it we've talked here about
putting in place uh excessive benefits that particularly in the housing area that might cause people to think do I work that extra hour and lose my means tested housing benefit that so we we those are well-intentioned programs we just have to be really
careful that we don't get unintended consequences got you well thank you so much Mr chairman I yield back thank the gentleman I recognize uh my friend from the Great Lake State of great Michigan thank you Mr chair and Mr
Stevens thank you thank you so much and I am sitting next to a another Lakes member of the Congress from Minnesota here know one so uh but we we pride ourselves on our fresh water look it it's it's wonderful to have um your
expertise here and there's some phds and economics and we had a vote last night kind of in the dark of the night first we were voting then they said no vote on this budget resolution everyone left the capital then out of nowhere they said actually just kidding we're going to
vote I mean it was wild some of these reporter saying covering the Congress for decades they' never seen anything like it now the 800 80 billion cut to Medicaid is is is compelling me here regarding this topic of an exercised
Workforce because as an evangelizer of special education programs you know fully funding the realized promise of idea and special education in the United States of America I also think about my the families in Oakland County Michigan
who have children with medically complex um conditions and scenarios and I I've heard this all over they would be bankrupt they'd be sold out the river without Medicaid and so Dr sheer Hol
maybe you could start here because I'm just trying to think when we have the lowest levels of unemployment otherwise known as the highest levels of jobs in Detroit Michigan manufacturing town in over 50 years that happened two years
ago I told the president about it I thought this is exciting this is a moment for us but what does this mean if we're going to really make all these cuts to Medicaid and what does that do to our Workforce it's really really bad for our
Workforce and for our most V vulnerable families and the other thing about Medicaid in addition to the things that you were mentioning is it will have cutting Medicaid will have negative impacts not just now but literally for Generations there is very solid research that shows kids getting Medicaid as a
kid they have better outcomes better income Better Health better educational attainment as grown-ups you take so when you think about the idea that that that policy that is so unbelievably effecting effective in helping our most vulnerable
houses the idea that households the idea that that is on the CH chopping block is just and these are working professionals and we want these people I mean sometimes they get home health for that dependent and I'm just thinking to the hotel and lodging you know you're in this big race for you know workers but
I'm just thinking wouldn't that help you get more workers if people were you know had their Medicaid thank you congresswoman for that question look I can tell you that we offer competitive wages and expanded benefits and and at the same time we are
still 200,000 people down um so there are certainly a lot more pressures that exist in terms of rting people into our industry yeah it's a shortage and I just think about I mean I look I'm in my communities and I think about these people they want to go to work and they
got dependence and they need the schools with the programs and they need the access to health and you know doc you're you're also an economist I mean haven't you read about this that we need health care for the most vulnerable so that they can get to work I mean we got
200,000 open jobs what's the impediment is it a Workforce protect ction or is it actually basic services that enable people to go and work oops sorry uh Healthcare is absolutely essential for for for workers that's just true and we're talking about
Medicaid right now and cuts to Medicaid I would encourage uh everyone on this committee to think about the uh billions of dollars in Medicaid Mis Mis payments that have been doc documented U the misallocation of funds to people who are not executing the program and uh there's
a lot we can do before we go into the Medicaid Program where where it affects individuals and their recipients of it maybe I'll have a round table with some of these people who've been abusing Medicaid I just have never met them you know I the only people I meet are the
people who are working their tails off trying to make ends meet you know I don't know if you've ever walked into a union household because I have and this is not a shout back at you I'm just saying I meet these families and they're incredible and they want their kids to exercise their potential and you're
right I'll be honest we got to we do have to have a cleanup of waste Fraud and Abuse but not at the expense of punishing a Workforce when we got job openings and needs these are our taxpayer dollars and we're paying into a government As Americans that is owed to
us not gaj billionaires who in the dark of the night are proposing things and not responsible conversation and so I thank my chair for enabling me to use my 5 minutes as a long maker to start this conversation I look forward to continuing to have it and I yield back I
thank the gentle lady and I recognize the gentleman from Guam Mr moand thank you chairman wyberg and ranking members Scott thank you for hosting this important hearing on the American Workforce and I'm also glad to have Miss maetta here today representing
ah the hospitality and tour industry supports thousands of gu in my district and it's vital to Guam's economy I'm also glad to hear support for the h2b Visa program now h2b workers fill gaps in Guam's Workforce participated in the
growing our economy tremendously and work to strengthen our national security at this critical time inside and outside the military bases so we must work to expand and extend the h2b program and give businesses the tools they need to
succeed and likewise the tax cut jobs act provides important tax tax relief for our local businesses we must reauthorize the tax cut job act and give our businesses and our workers the relief they need to thrive strong
economics support American prosperity and the American dream and simply put the economic security is a national security and that's important in the Endo paycom specifically against our aggressors and over the past last four
years policies like the Biden Administration show why doctors operate with scapel and not hammers now the one size fits all Ru making is not an option I encourage the Trump Administration and Congress to appreciate the unique circumstances in
the territories in policymaking please and regulations like the over overtime rule it's just unjustly affects my community and districts like mine the Trump administration's commitment to working individual with States and
territories is a meaningful Improvement I'm thankful for that so my first question is for Miss Elizabeth uh Miss malletto and you testify between 2021 and 2024 small businesses pH 1.8 trillion in cost of complying with
regulations how might small businesses have otherwise use that money to invest in their Workforce if they had not faced those burdens thank you representative for that question so the hidden tax as Dr Beach mentioned comes out to about
$50,100 per employee the hidden regulatory tax there that's a lot of money and a lot of money that small business owners could use on other things investing in their business and investing in employees so I'll give you an example money that could be used for bonuses at the end of the year money that could be used to either purchase
health insurance for the employees or as I hear from many members they're using for instance you mentioned the small business tax deduction using that and from regulatory savings too using that to pay up to 100% of the employees premiums for health care so those are ways in which small business owners can
take money either through regulatory savings or through the small business tax deduction and reinvest it back directly into their Workforce and thank you and it's much needed especially my community in Guam where our Workforce is so small as we do this military build up
that we really need these additional workers to stay and be happy and and not pay this get overburdened with this it's critical for us that we have that thank you very much uh my next question for uh Dr beach in your testimony you discussed the need for Congress to reduce regulatory burdens on American
businesses please elaborate give me more and the need for Congress to avoid this one-size fits all approaches to business regulations well I I think periodically Congress needs to go through all the regulatory matter and begin to think well are these needed now
there's there's outmoded regulations regulations nobody which support get those off the books we found it when we worked at the state level there's a lot of those out there uh and then look at the regulations which are in place which are uh designed to just to be cautious
about certain certain aspects where we don't need to be that that cautious any anymore we're in an information technology age now and so recordkeeping and other uh elements need need to be changed uh always think about regulations that inhibit investment
inhibit the buying of new machines and and and putting off the old machines so that workers have the best things they can work with and be the most productive so I you know that that's not specific but those are categories where I think Congress could could really uh Focus their attention on the regulatory matter
by the way since the OB lobber bright decision that whole regul regulatory matter is coming back into your hands and so this is going to be not a subject of academic interest but a real practical interest for the members of this committee and others thank you very much thank you to
the panel Mr chairman are you back I thank the gentleman I represent recognize my friend from California Mr Nano thank you Mr chair Dr sheer Holtz um whenever I encounter doctors they're always telling me and complaining about
U how low the Medicaid reimbursements are and just how many how few Medicaid how how few doctors actually even will take Medicaid patients um and my susp my suspicions is that Medicaid is one of our leanest programs in health
um this idea that was uh banded about that there's billions of dollars to be saved uh what do you have to say about that so it is a large program I'm not saying that there's zero waste but you're absolutely right it an incredibly lean program and what we know is there
are there is certainly not $880 billion do worth of waste which is what the the house budget is trying to cut from Medicaid what that means is that there is no way that this will be cut without absolutely gutting benefits
that go to households who really really need it thank you for that so I I too agree that in a program this big there's there's there's some uh there's some waste uh that we need to and inefficiencies but on the whole uh
doctors are not getting rich off of this program um and uh it's not it's not a not not a Cadillac plan right uh and it helps children uh a huge amount of children get helped and children actually don't cost that much money but it makes a huge difference to be able to
serve those children and to serve the mothers of those children um I want to follow something follow up on something that my colleague Dr Allen suggested that over 30,000 federal employees who were terminated uh quote unquote looking for a change in career as he called it simply apply for a new job in the
private sector can you be more explicit about the dangers of gutting the professionals responsible for safety quality control enforcement standards and much more across every sector y yeah go ahead yeah definitely I keep returning to this but it's really important to say the federal Workforce
is already very very small it already has been shrunk it is less than 2% of payroll employees so the but they do so much to protect the safety of our food to like it is because of the National Weather Service that we know when we need to evacuate when there's a when there's a weather emergency and on and
on and on and on and just think the the services of the federal go that federal government employees um provide are just a backdrop to our lives and to the economy of this country the idea that we can gut that without doing enormous harm
to those services and to the stability of our economy it's just a farce well look you know supposedly the VA has created exemptions for certain essential folks who know and for the probationary employees that weren't fired who are essential but you know I'm I'm getting
back as the ranking member of the committee stories about two individuals at the Cleveland uh uh uh Medical Center who did intake I mean not highly technical people but they did intake for mental health care patients and the fact that they were uh fired meant that uh it
means right now it's wreaking havoc on Mental Health Services for that VA um and this is being derided as well they can just go get a job in uh the private sector but what people fail to recognize is that as you said federal government is already lean the federal Workforce
has already been shrunk uh over time um and um in fact the VA and and the and the and the uh Health Administration area the VHA uh is is 40,000 underst staffed uh and that's why there are
access issues at the VA um can you also talk about the economic implications of this of layoffs of this magnitude you know mentioning the VA it also makes me it's it's it's useful to point out that the federal government is disproportionately employed EMP veterans
and what we know right now is that veterans are facing incredible stress returning from returning from service and then facing layoffs right now it's just an unbelievable slap in the face to people who have served our country and so it's estimated that 6,000 veterans have been terminated from their jobs
that's the estimated amount um not counted that not counted on that are the military spouses yeah who are who by their nature uh travel according to their spouses Duty station uh and so they're perpetually a probationary
employee and we're caught up in this algorithm of everybody who's on a probation that we we it's harded to fire people who are more senior uh and who uh have tenure but uh let's let's make a political show of Just firing as many people as we can to show that we're
cutting waste Fraud and Abuse that whole premise is belii by the fact that they fired the inspector generals whose job it is to find the waste fr Fraud and Abuse I don't think they actually had any kind of a plan or any kind of an
analysis to show where this waste Fraud and Abuse was it looks like it the the evidence shows it's willy-nilly indiscriminate firing of probationary employees I yield back I thank the gentlemen I recognize the gentle lady
from North Carolina whose portrait hangs behind us oh I forgot about that well well we didn't and we're glad it hangs there and uh I recognize her for her testimony Miss Fox oh thank you Mr chairman I appreciate that very much and
I want to thank the witnesses for being here today Dr beach in your testimony you explained that cutting Federal Regulations could be as good or better than making tax cuts permanent and we've actually heard this from business and industry yeah cutting taxes is is
extremely important for unleashing the American worker but why do federal regul ations have such an outsize impact on economic growth and what sort of benefit would workers experience if both tax cuts and Regulatory reform are made well
well the answer to that is that in the last 15 years regulations has just have just grown tremendously uh all the data shows a massive increase uh these regulations are primarily in the financial sector uh they're in areas
affecting investment in manufacturing and in transportation they're not necessarily in the safety and health areas they're in the compliance of this and that and so forth and so on U these all need to be reev reviewed so when you reduce the regulatory burden when it's
that high the effect is very large now why is it larger than making the tax cuts and jobs act permanent well you're just avoiding a tax increase here so you're telling businesses well your your taxes are not going to go up individuals your taxes are not going to go up and
you may want to a few things overtime and you know tax for tips and that that sort of thing that may be possible but right now the opportunity is on the regulatory side in terms of growth thank you very much in your capacity at the Bureau of Labor
Statistics were you able to determine why the growth of public service sector jobs accounts for such a large portion of the current job growth we saw a lot of increase in uh state and local Ed education in State Higher Education During the period 2021
2022 um there there was there was growth in the federal Workforce there's no question about that uh even though it was as my colleague says a a 2% of of the of all uh payroll employment that's still pretty it's a pretty good percentage so a lot of the growth is
happening at the state and local level in in in the Ed education area that's what that's what apparently was going on at that time and and it's tied of course to Federal programs which had the intended effect of of increasing employment in those sectors thank you
very much Miss molo what Workforce issues did small businesses face during the previous administration that Congress has not addressed but should thank you for that question representative Fox so we are very
hopeful that Congress will take action on something with a heat standard and this was discussed earlier legislation that would prohibit OSHA from ever touching a heat standard again again that I I want to correct something I did not say that it was not a health heat
Hazard is a you know a health hazard but it's not an occupational hazard it's not an issue for OSHA to address there so legislation that would prevent OSHA from passing a standard on that would be very important um and certainty too with withdrawing the Biden Administration
rules on overtime The Joint employer standard which a court stopped there but the independent contractor rule is still out there hanging in the courts around there and we would like to see those wiped out too so those are some areas where our members are looking for Relief and we have sent a letter as of just yesterday actually over to the White
House um asking for relief in these areas well I'm going to ask you a second question but you may have answered some of this before I got here but I'll ask you to follow up with in writing as the Trump Administration takes aim at Federal Regulations what concrete steps
can Congress take to join with the administ ation and help ensure small businesses succeed but I'm not going to ask you to answer that now we'll uh we'll submit that to you formally and and ask for a response uh Miss maetta
how would worker upskilling and education improve in your industry with a lighter Federal regulatory burden you know congresswoman thank you for that question it is so hard today to own and operate and run a small business
business in this country we in the hotel industry are regulated at the local state and federal level increased uh regulatory burdens just add to increasing costs and implementation new processes or systems that can then um
limit the ability to hire quickly or staff up or train um and help your employees get ahead in the industry so issues like measures like the nlrb joint employer rule or overtime rule would have severely impacted the industry and
made it even harder to continue to operate in in today's in environment thank you Mr chairman I yield back I thank the gentle lady and now I get to another member of the Great Lakes caucus who knows the beauty of fresh water
without sharks and salt the representative from Minnesota Miss Omar thank you Mr chairman um I find it truly astonishing that House Republicans have brought us here today to discuss
ways to unleash America's Workforce while they are actively abandoning workers how exactly are we supposed to unleash anything when federal workers are being threatened by an unelected billionaire when critical government services and authorized funds are being
disturbed at a whim when worker protection basic safeguards against unsafe work conditions and employment discrimination are being undermined we are already hearing reports that the Trump Administration has begun firing many workers at the
Department of Labor and the National Institute for occupational safety and health ranking members Scott and I recently sent a letter to HHS demanding more information about these Staffing cuts and Grant uh distributions we have
not heard anything back yet Dr um Sher holes I want you to help us understand how these attacks on critical agencies will impact work safe worker safety what does it mean for workers if these agencies lose
significant numbers of federal employees what the what OSHA does is protect workers health and safety by passing laws by enfor by passing regulations enfor publishing regulations enforcing those regulations when they have less Personnel they will be able to
do that less effectively America's workers will be less safe on the job full stop the wage and hour division for example they enforce wage protections they make sure like they their Workforce has already been shrunk dramatically so
their low wage workers today lose tens of billions of dollars a year in the form of wage theft by their employers wage employers not paying minimum wages that they are owed not paying overtime that they are owed we cut wage and hour Division and that skyrockets even
further workers will be hurt by actually being hurt on the job and by losing wages that they were legally owed yeah and um who really benefits uh when agencies lose this capacity okay the people who benefit are bad apple
employers they benefit because they are able to cut corners on worker safety protections they're able to cut corners on actually paying their workers they just don't have as much oversight over what they do so bad apple employers gain over workers Bad Apple employers gain
over lawful employers because then they can they can they are in a competitive advantage over lawful employers and then the other group that benefits from this are the wealthy who are going to be the disproportionate beneficiaries of the
tax cuts that these kinds of agency cuts are going to help pay for appreciate uh that thank you so much um and and I I have to say you know these these attacks will have uh as you just said real and devastating consequences for working
people in in this country um it is it's about thinking about economic Mobility it's about thinking about job job security it's at minimum thinking about institutional
stability and what we are witnessing um that that is taking place uh in in this country really is something that I find very outrageous and shameful uh and I am glad that we are having um this this
conversation I I hope that we get to have many of of these conversations and lastly before I yield back my time um Mr Molin why do you uh Miss Molino why do you believe um workers suffering heat
exhaustion uh is not a work hazard excuse me it is a public health hazard and OSHA is limited by what the what the authority that Congress has delegated it OSHA has authority to
regulate and oversee occupational hazards yeah standards right occupational hazards yes and why would you not why would you not think it is not an occupational hazard if someone is being forced to work 8 hours under 120 degrees without getting regular breaks
and employers are already taking action to Pro you believe employers should have the responsibility to decide who dies and who survives in the heat resp they have a responsibility to keep their workers safe most definitely but that is separate and apart from those those employees employers who
who have not done that who have seen people die at their workplaces in places like Texas it's just because they're bad people and we shouldn't have the responsibility of protecting the workers is what I hear that's not what I'm
saying but thank you I thank the gentle lady I recognize now the gentleman from California Mr Kylie thank you Mr chair uh in the last Congress this committee held the Biden Administration accountable for its anti-
worker agenda and now that we've turned the page we have an incredible opportunity uh to enable and facilitate the pro worker Pro small business progrowth policies uh that that are coming from the new Administration uh but this committee's oversight proved
particularly critical when President Biden made the baffling decision uh to elevate the state labor secretary with the very worst record in the country uh to be his Secretary of Labor uh and uh our committee actually brought in uh M
Julie sue for a hearing at that time uh where we were able to show how she was the Secretary of Labor uh for the state California that had the single highest rate of unemployment in the entire country in her tenure first out of 50 uh
had the lowest rate of wage growth in the entire country 50 out of 50 and had the highest rate of real poverty in the country uh first out of 50 and then that she also LED uh was the architect of the most uh disgraceful notorious labor law
in modern US History uh that being ab5 now after she came in for a hearing here the US Senate refused to confirm her uh her nomination was stopped uh with bipartisan uh opposition uh but of course the Biden Administration chose to
lawlessly uh keep her at the Helm of the labor department uh for the entire tenure uh of the administration and in that position uh she did indeed attempt to federalize uh the failed policies of California uh by implementing a new rule
uh that was designed to mimic the effects of ab5 in California as far as limiting the freedom uh of independent contractors now the good news is that that regulation has not yet wrecked the sort of damage that we had anticipated
perhaps because of the illegitimacy of uh of Ms Sue's tenure at the Helm of the labor dep Department which shattered all records by the way uh for an acting unconfirmed uh secretary but never nevertheless we still find ourselves in the situation uh where that regulation
is on the books where there continues to be uncertainty uh as far as the livelihoods of independent contractors the ability of small businesses to work for them so with them so in order to resolve this issue to provide certainty to protect the rights of workers and uh
the uh and countless Enterprises across the country I've introduced the modern worker empowerment act which would uh specify that the classification standard for an independent contractor comes down to two intuitive uh factors number one being uh the degree of control of the
hiring entity over the work performed and the second being the the opportunity for profit or loss or the opportunities and risks inherent to entrepreneurship uh this is a pretty Common Sense standard designed to say that if you truly are uh running your own Enterprise uh then you don't need to be forced into
a W2 classification in addition to that I've introduced the modern worker Security Act so we have the modern worker empowerment Act and the modern worker Security Act this legislation is designed to uh encourage the use of portable benefits which will provide a
level of a social safety net uh for independent workers that they can take with them from job to job uh things like Health Care uh and retirement savings the problem in existing law is that if uh associations or companies or other groups choose to provide those benefits
then it's kind of like no good deed goes unpunished you've had that then used by regul ERS uh to say oh look at that you're providing benefits you must be an employer we're going to force uh this uh to be considered a a W2 uh Arrangement which is not what either party to the
transaction wants so it's had this chilling effect on the ability to offer portable benefits and for uh workers to have that measure of security uh so I'm hoping that we'll be able to move both of those measures through this committee and provide more certainty uh to Millions uh of folks across the country
I think this will have a tremendous impact on our Workforce and with the remaining time is molo since you mentioned this uh the the labor regulation the independent contractor regulation in your testimony could you just give us a sense of how damaging this uncertainty has been for for small
businesses yeah it's created a lot of yeah headaches for business owners who cannot determine whether or not somebody they've hired once a week to come in and do their website Improvement needs to be as you put it a W2 person or because they also do website work for other businesses can I pay them you know as an
independent contractor because they have their own business they have their own business card there the empowerment act that you have introduced would be very helpful on that front in codifying that simple very simple two-factor test the Trump rule had so thank you for that thank you I Y back I thank the gentleman
I I now Rec rep recognize uh Mr casar from Texas thank you we're one month into the Trump presidency and American workers already have many fewer rights than they
did just about a month ago these attacks have been numerous but I want to talk about what has been one of the biggest threats to workers so far and that is Elon Musk and Donald Trump's effort to eliminate the National Labor Relations Board the nlrb is an independent
government organization that protects workers from being fired or discriminated against for collective bargaining the nlrb was started in 1935 when members of Congress and the president came together and said that workers need more rights and that there
needs to be a check on the power of the ultra Rich that caused the Great Depression so if you try to organize a union at your workplace and your employer fires you it is the nlrb that makes sure that you are protected if you form a union and your employer refuses
to bargain with you it is the nlrb that holds those big corporations accountable without a strong nlrb workers ERS will face more challenges in fighting for higher pay better benefits and workplace safety musk and Trump know this because
they know that if you can't bargain then all you've got left is begging that is why they are coming after unions that is why they're coming after workers ability to bargain together because they want to be able to force workers at their companies to work
for more hours for Less pay with less safety less rights while keeping more money for their big billionaire donors and Friends Dr sheer holes is it correct that overall workers that form a union and bargain receive higher pay and
better benefits than those workers who do not unionize and bargain in the same industry yes it absolutely is careful raw comparisons careful regression adjusted comparisons it all shows that workers who are in unions make more than
similar workers who are doing the same work same demographic characteris who are not in unions can I take one minute that I'm dying to correct the record on about the independent contract can you correct there's just been sort of outrageous things said about the independent contractor rule the
independent contractor rule that the Biden Administration did did not mimic ab5 it merely restored the method for for determining classification that had been in place at wage an hour for decades but Trump was the one that put
in a rule that very much weakened it Biden just restored back to the to the method that had been used for decades sorry to and so it no but it should be no surprise to us yeah that Trump and musk who have private companies that generate them billions of dollars want
to have workers have fewer rights have workers have to pay their own taxes rather than employers having to contribute want workers to not be able to get overtime pay they want those workers to not be able to form a union and bargain that way they can just get
more and more money from workers and taxpayers and keep it for themselves last year the nlrb cited musk's company SpaceX for forcing workers to sign illegal Severance agreements and for firing workers in retaliation for
speaking critically of musk there's story after Story instance after instance of musk trying to bust unions and not respect workers basic rights that we won back in the 1930s instead of escap instead of accepting those nlrb
rulings Elon tried to sue the nlrb out of existence arguing in court that the organization created by Congress is unconstitutional and now after spending $277 million to get Trump into office he's using his power in the White House
to try to tear down the nlrb one of the first things that Trump did was fire Gwen Wilcox and nlrb board member who is independent Trump is not allowed to have fired her but without her the board doesn't have enough members to function making it so the nlrb cannot hand down
rulings to protect workers in summary Mr chairman Elon Musk and Donald Trump's agenda is not to make the government more efficient for workers it's to make the government more efficient for themselves and getting rid of the nlrb attacking workers rights that we've won
in the 1930s is the perfect example of how Trump and musk are talking about how they're forw working people but what they're actually doing is screw Brewing you over and taking your money for themselves with that I yeld back I thank the gentleman now I recognize uh
representative from Pennsylvania Mr McKenzie well thank you Mr chairman I appreciate the opportunity to speak today at this wonderful hearing that we are hosting on unleashing America's Workforce and strengthening our economy I I really can't think of a better topic
for this committee to be discussing after a great hearing that we had on the American educational system because one of the key things that I want to focus on as a member of Congress is what we can do to strengthen our Workforce proot promote economic growth and support
Working Families because all across this country for the past number of years families have been suffering with high prices from massive inflation and we have a Workforce challenge that so many people can't even
get into the workforce because there are barriers for them Child Care is too expensive many businesses aren't offering paid maternity leave and so for a lot of workers they are making a rational decision about whether they should be in the workforce or not and it
is purely economic but they say why would I go work 40 hours a week when the costs of having a child and raising a child make it unsustainable to be in that Workforce or have any take-home pay left at the end of the day and so those are the issues we need to focus on and
we need to focus on our Workforce because far too often people when they want to talk about economic growth they only talk about taxes regulation and trade those things are all hugely important not dismissing those at all but the fourth thing that we need to focus on is Workforce and that needs to
be a part of every economic discussion is Workforce if businesses don't have the proper and skilled Workforce there is no business operation that will can be carried out so I want talk just very briefly about my opinions that I think
we need to actually continue this trajectory that we have been on in this country about promoting Career and Technical education promoting community colleges two-year degrees all of these things that for far too long we disparaged and everybody said you only
should go to a four-year College if you want to be successful we know that is not true and so I think we need to speak that truth here in Congress and continue our mission to make sure that every student every adult gets into a meaningful and rewarding career where
they can make a family sustaining wage and that they can do that through a lot of different educational opportunities and Pathways so I think we need to talk about that now when it comes to Workforce protections I'm grateful that the chairman has promoted me to be the
chairman of the subcommittee on Workforce protections again I want to talk this set Congress about what we can do through things like the tax code about expanding paid maternity leave expanding tax credits for child care expanding child tax credits so people
have more money back in their pockets when they're raising children and also expanding things like adoption and IVF tax credits uh for those that are looking to grow their families in those way we want to make sure that they can do that I've presented those opportunities to the Ways and Means Committee and hopefully some of those
things will be taken up I also want to talk about the fact that we need to crack down on unscrupulous employes ERS who are utilizing illegal immigrant labor in this country we need to expand the use of eify to actually punish those
businesses because they are doing the wrong thing they're exploiting those individuals they're taking advantage of their competition in the marketplace who are trying to do the right thing and they're also taking advantage of social safety nets that everybody pays into when you pay legal wages through our
Workforce systems so those are just some of the things I want to talk talk about and with the last minute of my time I'm actually going to bring up a a bit of a niche subject but it's on my uh top of mine for me because I just came from a Homeland Security committee on Workforce
so our house Republican caucus is talking about Workforce all across the halls of Congress today which is a great thing and over in homeland security we were talking about the need for a cyber security Workforce there are 500,000 positions that are unfilled in
the cyber security space and so there is a piece of legislation the Cyber pivot act which fits neatly into what I'm talking about here it would be full scholarships through two-year programs at Career and Technical Schools to get people into those entry-level cyber
positions it passed unanimously last session uh unfortunately it didn't get across the goal line but hopefully we can do that this time anybody on the panel do you have an opinion on the need to expand our cyber Workforce and what we can do about that so I I was on a uh
I guess You' call it the work force uh in the Biden Administration to look at that very subject and we concluded there was there was acute need in the Cyber side there's also acute need in firefighters and other kinds of of of Frontline people so it is a it's a broad
base that research has been done you should do oversight hearing on that or some kind of informational hearing to bring those plans to Bear there's quite a bit of uh data out there and and I think it's it's absolutely essential that we engage in that on that topic and
thank you for doing that thank you the gentleman time has expired I recognize my friend and the ranking member of this committee the gentleman from Virginia Mr Scott thank you um M mayetta uh you mentioned um the apprenticeships and working with the Department of Labor
those that are registered apprenticeships and can you um assume based on your comments you'd like to see more of them the apprenticeship program has been really essential to our industry and allowing that trajectory to move up and
once graduated from the program uh employees see a wage increase as well um we would love so they were a good thing they have been really beneficial we would love to talk about expanding that good good M molo you mentioned the tax
cuts for small businesses of the 4.5 trillion dollar how much of the of that tax cut are you talking about sorry of the $4.5 trillion do the dollar number you're talking about for the small business deduction I don't know that I have that figure here with me
right now but I'm happy to provide that too but it is you know in the scheme of things again remember this is a small business tax deduction this is not going to millionaires or so so I mean I think you we could take care the small businesses for about 15% of the 4.5 trillion you don't have to bust the
whole budget to help small businesses um M Sher Holtz um you mentioned the size of the federal Workforce was part of your comment to the fact that um of the federal budget only 5% of the less than
5% of the federal budget goes to the federal Workforce and that if you I mean if you cut it 20% you wouldn't have gotten 1% of the budget you said it that's ex yeah that's the right way the math just isn't there you can't cut the federal you
can't cut your way to to anything by cutting the federal budget Federal Workforce and uh wages versus inflation I thought the uh wage inflation had caught up with the inflation it started off pretty bad in the first year but in early in the when inflation got really
bad the American Rescue plan act provided for the median family of four over $5,000 in stimulus checks $6,000 in child tax credits and ant benefits reduced health care costs if you add all
that up and put that in there um can you say something about wages and inflation I thank you for thank you for bringing that up the the idea that inflation is outpacing nominal wages is absolutely wrong unless you cherry-pick the numbers
if you do what economists typically do which is look compare where we are now to the last business cycle Peak that's the the sort of straightforward way to do it it is unambiguous that working people low-wage workers middle wage workers High wage workers all have
higher inflation adjusted wages now than they did at that last business cycle peak in 2019 now um president Trump um is crediting his miserable job performance to um covid-19 pandemic
isn't it true that the pandemic started in March of 2020 and ended in January 2023 so he had about 11 months of the pandemic Biden had about two years and was able to create jobs is that right that's exact yep that's right okay and
can you say a word about the stimulative effect on the economy of tax cuts to the rich and um the American Rescue plan act Investments yeah the the the okay so the American Rescue plan act that was a
thing it was passed in early 20121 after the job gains due to reopening the economy had run their course and we were still down millions of jobs it was the thing that set us up for the incredibly strong jobs recovery that we had the tax
cuts that are in the house budget plan the totally extremist house budget plan will go entirely almost entirely overwhelmingly to very rich households and that could actually put a drag on the economy we are in a period of a very
strong economy and at a time like this increasing the deficit by as much as that as the house plan is going to do actually may translate into a drag on the economy tax cuts to the rich have not traditionally done much for the economy at all is right yes yes and
Investments with that effect people who actually spend the money do a lot better and can you say a word we've had uh comments about the enhanced unemployment compensation I thought there were studies about that that showed that it didn't make any difference yeah the and
and what what the General like sort of weight of the literature shows that unemployment insurance does keep keep people unemployed for a little bit longer than it would if than they would if they didn't have it but you know why because they are staying in the labor
force looking for work because they are required to look for be actively looking for work to get the unemployment insurance benefits it's not that they get unemployment insurance benefit and as soon as it runs out they get a job that is not what that sort of Spike at benefit
but the states that ended the enhanced unemployment compensation compared to those that did not in the enhanced unemployment compensation they continued it people going back to work was the same yes that's y that's exactly right
yes the gentleman's time has expired but I also recognize him for his closing comments um thank you um Mr chairman the gentleman from California uh suggested that the acting Secretary of Labor Miss Sue was serving illegally I'd ask him to
produce some documentation of that allegation because I think that was tried in court and found that she was serving perfectly legally may not have liked it but um she was serving legally so I'd like to him to produce some
evidence to support um uh that allegation and again I would again Mr chairman I'd ask you to join us in getting answers to what Doge and president Trump are doing at the Department of Labor and other agencies for example what is happening at the
nlrb and EOC and what information does Doge have access to like files of Investigations into his own businesses bids can he get bids of his competitors does he have access to job numbers and
things like that before they're public and um um do any conflict of interest rules apply to anything is done would we don't have to do anything but we would like to just ask questions and get answers and so Mr chairman we've heard
about the job creation during the Biden Administration and while we saw um while at the same time we saw him reducing the deficit uh he created more jobs in four years than any president in the history of the United States and
more jobs in four years than any Republican was able to do whether they served four or eight years president Clinton did more in 8 years but we know that uh so we know how to do this we just have to pass a fiscally responsible budget that effectively invest in the
economy and we'll get good results the last thing we need is a budget that we pass like the one we passed last night showing massive tax cuts on the wealthy the top 1% in corporations and we just heard that that doesn't do anything for the economy because they don't spend the
money um we need um uh we don't need that kind of um showering of tax cuts and then don't need to make people pay for it with cuts in Medicaid education and other essential services and add insult to injury the
budget after all the speeches incredibly ends up with a deficit worse than if we had done nothing I don't know how people I don't know how well I didn't vote for it so I hope we can I hope we can do better uh
Mr chairman and that a you back I thank the gentleman and uh I think I think we agree on a number of things it's just how we get to that um we've
heard um amazing statements today during this this hearing which I think has been a great hearing and I appreciate the witnesses who were at the table all four it shows it shows the opportunity of ideas and which ideas
work and work best um we've heard about the framework resolution the budget resolution that indeed was a framework uh and I appreciate my colleagues on the other side of the aisle
hanging pieces of that framework on the framework and conjecture that's been given I don't appreciate and I would hope that it wouldn't continue uh fear-mongering that intensifies without I would
suggest fact and reality at this point in time we would all agree that we have a challenging situation economically in this country right now we would all agree that we'd want to get to the reason the rationale behind that but I would hope we would have more
concern about our taxpayers and our businesses that Supply the economy for our taxpayers themselves personally and within our country than we would have for big government
or as it's been called today tiny government and that tiny government if that's the quote we want to use still produces nothing as far as the economy they don't generate one
dime that's where it comes from the businesses and the individuals the blue collar and white collar and whatever collar workers that are out there doing the work that has made America what it
is the Envy of the world we're not perfect we have patterns and systems that have worked um there's a reason that the Biden Administration didn't do way with
the tax cut and jobs act thank God that it stayed in place and continues to this day and we know the impact we can put out statistics for almost
anything but the fact of the matter that 77 million people decided they wanted something different in the last four years and 75 million people voted for a congressional body to take us in a different direction
than what was going on the last year I think is significant that we ought to ought to we ought to recognize I think there are things that we agree with that are in a Workforce space we owe a
reauthorization Workforce pel and other things in the CTE space that we can agree on and work together and have minor differences but the general issues are there um but from my perspective Ive I'm not giving away the fact that we
represent the blue collar worker we're not going to relinquish that because of what they add to this great country they're a vital American group and U in the tax cut and jobs act they receive
the biggest benefit that's a fact and of course we'll debate that uh but that's what what is there we've heard a lot about how the Biden administration's radical regulatory agenda has harmed American workers in the
economy however with President Trump back in the White House and a republican-led congress job creators are optimistic for the return and polling is showing that the surveys are showing that optimism for progrowth policies to support and strengthen our Workforce and
businesses the committee is committed to considering legislative solutions to improve the standard of living of American workers reduce the burdens on business and strengthen economy and that includes things like we ow reauthorization and Workforce pal and
the rest so thank you again for giving us giving us a lot of ideas that we can knock around and we can ruminate on that's an agricultural term you know uh but I think we can in working together
we can get it right and the American people and the American industry indry and the small businesses and the entrepreneurs the blue collar and the white collar and striped collar workers will benefit from it with no other business uh to come
before the committee the committee stands adjourned