Posts tagged Virginia Foxx
Commentary: ATR Applauds House Education & Workforce Committee for Defending Independent Contractors
March 22, 2024 // “Independent contractors want to be their own boss. But Biden and the Democrats want to force them to HAVE a boss,” said Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform. Americans for Tax Reform applauds the House Education & Workforce Committee majority for passing Congressman Kiley’s resolution to nullify the Biden DOL’s harmful reclassification of independent contractors.
House Seeks Information from Unions on Policies to Prevent Corruption
March 20, 2024 // Each of the letters asks for a comprehensive description of the policies and procedures the union has in place to monitor and deter fraud, corruption, and improper accounting, including any third-party audits, the types of training and education provided to prevent fraud or corruption, internal reporting mechanisms, and disciplinary policies. These questions apply both to each union’s headquarters as well as its locals. U.S. House Subpoenas UAW Local over Controversial Resolution Chairwoman Foxx cites specific examples of corruption for each union. For example, in the Teamsters letter, she cites a state senator from Illinois who was indicted for taking more than $245,000 in fraudulent income and other benefits from Teamsters Joint Council 25 while purporting to be a union organizer.
Chair Foxx Investigates 12 Unions for Recent Fraud, Corruption Seeks answers on protecting workers from further union malfeasance
March 18, 2024 // “The Committee on Education and the Workforce (Committee) is concerned about fraud, embezzlement, and corruption perpetrated by union officials. To ensure workers represented by labor organizations are shielded from malfeasance by union officials, the Committee requests documents and information relating to…efforts to protect employees and deter fraud, corruption, and improper accounting.”
Ranking Member Cassidy, Kiley Introduce CRA to Overturn New Biden Regulation Threatening 27 Million American Independent Contractors
March 6, 2024 // Independent contractors, or freelancers, make their own hours to fit their schedule and decide where and how they want to work. The Biden administration rule attempts to restrict the ability of American workers to be an independent contractor and take advantage of the flexibility it provides. The rule creates a non-exhaustive, six-factor litmus test for unelected bureaucrats to interpret and decide who is and who is not classified as an independent contractor. It also casts as large a net as possible and gives less legal certainty to independent contractors impacted by the regulation. “The Biden administration’s priority should not be to do whatever makes it easier to forcibly and coercively unionize workers. It should be to increase individual freedom and opportunity,” said Dr. Cassidy. “This new Biden rule does the opposite, jeopardizing 27 million workers’ ability to make their own hours and make a living without being pressured into joining a union.”
Kiley, Cassidy Introduce CRA to Overturn New Biden Regulation Threatening 27 Million American Independent Contractors
March 6, 2024 // “Independent contractors, entrepreneurs, and small businesses are fed up with the Department of Labor continually breathing down their necks,” said Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC), chairwoman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee. “The bicameral Congressional Review Act resolution led by Representative Kiley and Senator Cassidy offers Congress the opportunity to take a unified stand against the Department’s thirst for more government control over America’s workforce. Entrepreneurial opportunities and flexibility should be encouraged, not extinguished with heavy-handed mandates from the federal government.” “Gavin Newsom and Julie Su’s AB 5 severely restricted independent contracting in California, destroying thousands of livelihoods and harming California’s economy. As Acting Secretary of Labor, Su and the Biden Administration have announced a new Department of Labor rule, modeled after on the same job-killing AB 5 that will cost millions of independent professionals across the country their livelihoods while restricting the freedom of many millions more to have flexible work arrangements. Our legislation under the Congressional Review Act nullifies this terrible regulation and protects independent contractors,” said Representative Kiley. “Washington should support workers, not regulate them into oblivion.”
Biden Takes a Destructive California Idea National
February 4, 2024 // The Biden administration appears undeterred by the lessons of recent history. The California law unleashed chaos in the state’s politics and courts. Politicians delegated to union leaders the power to hand out exemptions to politically favored groups. Lawyers, doctors, psychologists, dentists, podiatrists — almost anybody with an advanced degree was exempt. When newspapers editorialized against the new law — noting that they rely on freelance photographers, reporters, editors, designers, and delivery people — they, too, were excluded from the new regulations. Suddenly free from the dead hand of state regulators, the newspapers turned as one and editorialized in favor of the new law. A federal judge said the process was shot through with “corruption,” “backroom dealing,” “pure spite,” and “naked favoritism.” But more important, A.B. 5 crushed tens of thousands of California business owners — those who operate as independent contractors as well as those who employ or otherwise rely on them. Now Biden and Su plan to bring the crazy to every American state.
Chairwoman Foxx, Ranking Member Cassidy Introduce Bill Recouping Pension Bailout Sent for Dead People, Increasing Oversight of Pension System
January 31, 2024 // In November, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s (PBGC) Office of Inspector General (OIG) published a report disclosing that the PBGC overpaid the Central States fund by $127 million after the plan included at least 3,479 dead participants in its bailout request. According to the PBGC OIG, the PBGC’s review process did not require cross-checking the plan participant list with the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Full Death Master File (Full DMF), despite this practice being recommended as a standard procedure by the OIG. As far back as 2018, the OIG instructed PBGC that using the Full DMF is not only crucial, but essential, to prevent overpayments of annuities to people who are already dead. Under questioning from Sen. Cassidy, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, who represents nearly 350,000 Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund (Central States Pension Fund) retiree participants, stated that the fund should return $127 million in taxpayer dollars that were wrongfully paid to it. However, the PBGC has indicated it does not intend to recoup this money, even though it has the legal authority to claw back wrongfully obtained funds. Further, the Central States Pension Fund has not returned the overpayment of taxpayer funds and is treating them as a fund asset. We still do not know how much the PBGC has overpaid for ghost annuities in total to all multiemployer pension plans.
US House Votes to Repeal Labor Board Rule on Contract, Franchise Workers
January 16, 2024 // The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives on Friday voted to repeal a federal labor board rule set to take effect in February that would treat companies as the employers of many contract and franchise workers and require them to bargain with those workers’ unions. The House voted 206-177 to nix the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rule, which has been heavily criticized by business groups. The vote sends the proposal to the Senate where Democrats hold a one-seat majority but Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, has said he opposes the rule.
House probe starts after $127M in bailout funds paid to dead Teamsters’ pension plan
January 16, 2024 // Foxx and Good also said the “mismanagement casts doubt on PBGC’s implementation of the larger program, the $91 billion Special Financial Assistance (SFA) program,” saying Central States had sent a follow-up letter to the inspector general’s office that implied it would use the money “as their personal slush fund” to help it “achieve its statutory objective of remaining solvent through 2051.” Inspector General Nicholas Novak previously told The Post that there was no clawback function available to PBGC as part of the American Rescue Plan, through which the Biden administration provided more than $80 billion to other multi-employer pension funds.
Reps. Foxx, Kiley to Su: Withdraw Proposed Overtime Rule
November 8, 2023 // Several other GOP lawmakers also signed onto the letter, including Glenn "GT" Thompson, Pennsylvania; Tim Walberg, Michigan: Elise Stefanik, New York; Rick Allen, Georgia; James Comer, Kentucky; Lloyd Smucker, Pennsylvania; Burgess Owens, Utah; Bob Good, Virginia; Mary Miller, Illinois: Michelle Steel, California; Julia Letlow, Louisiana; Aaron Bean, Florida; Eric Burlison, Missouri, and Erin Houchin, Indiana. "DOL under President Trump published a rule that responsibly updated the salary threshold and considered extensive stakeholder feedback before issuing the final rule," the letter states. "The same cannot be said about the rushed efforts of the current DOL to push through a rule which makes changes as extreme as they are unnecessary."