Dem Lawmaker Defends Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su: Trump Had 22 ‘Acting’ Cabinet-Level Officials

4 months ago

On Wednesday, Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC) questioned Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su on the DOL FY2025 budget request durign a House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing.

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Transcript

00:00 [Chairman Towns] The gentleman's time has expired.

00:02 Ms. Manning, you are recognized for five minutes.

00:04 [Ms. Manning] Thank you, Madam Chair.

00:05 Acting Secretary Sue, I would like to thank you so much for your many years of extraordinary

00:11 service to our country. In response to remarks made at the top of this hearing, I would like

00:16 to clarify for the record that the prior President used the Cabinet and Cabinet-level jobs as

00:22 a virtual temp agency, with 22 Cabinet and Cabinet-level officials who served in an acting

00:28 capacity for a total of 2,736 days, including Acting Secretary of Defense, Acting Secretary

00:37 of Homeland Security, Acting Secretary of the Interior, Labor, Veterans Affairs, Secretary

00:42 of State, OMB, EPA, and Acting Chief of Staff, to name just a few.

00:48 Our job here today is not to beat up on you for things that are beyond your control, but

00:54 to find out how we can help solve the workforce shortages our employers are facing, how we

01:01 can help protect workers, our constituents, who are taken advantage of by unscrupulous

01:08 employers, and help those businesses that are doing the right things for their workers

01:14 but have trouble competing with employers who cheat or abuse their employees.

01:20 So I'd like to start by talking about wage theft. Wage theft occurs when employers don't

01:27 pay the full wages due to their employees. This includes paying workers less than minimum

01:33 wage, not paying overtime to workers who work more than 40 hours a week, or asking employees

01:40 to work off the clock before or after their shifts. And we know this happens.

01:46 So do you have an estimate of the total amount of U.S. Department of Labor, total amount

01:52 the U.S. Department of Labor has recovered on behalf of workers due to wage theft?

01:59 I do. Thank you so much, Congresswoman, for that. So in FY23, we recovered $156 million

02:08 in wages for working people. And it's worth noting that the overwhelming amount of those

02:15 wages come from unpaid overtime wages.

02:18 So over the last several years, the wage in our division's total enforcement staff has

02:23 declined. This has resulted in fewer on-site investigations, yet my colleagues across the

02:29 aisle are proposing significant cuts to that division. Can you explain why it's important

02:34 to have funding necessary to put boots on the ground to ensure workers are being paid

02:40 what they're owed?

02:42 Yes, Congresswoman. I mean, oftentimes the Department of Labor's enforcement is the first

02:47 and last line of defense, especially for workers who do not have the benefit of a union, who

02:52 do not have other ways of protecting themselves against wage theft. Now, it's worth noting

02:58 that the vast majority of employers are trying to do the right thing. They have a business

03:03 model in which they are supportive of their workers and understand why investing in their

03:08 workers is the best investment that they can make. Those employers also need strong enforcement

03:14 to ensure that there is a level playing field for them to compete on. And so if we do not

03:21 have adequate resources to investigate, and even as it is, we're thoughtful and smart

03:29 and strategic about how we devote our resources. We don't investigate every employer. We don't

03:33 need to. We shouldn't. We shouldn't investigate anybody who's in full compliance with the

03:36 law. But even there, the wage theft that we see, the child labor that has grown, we need

03:46 to have the resources to be able to combat those.

03:48 So let me move to the child labor issues, because we've really seen an explosion in

03:52 child labor abuse cases in the last decade. And again, you're addressing this problem

03:58 with record low numbers of staff in the wage and hour division, and also a resource-starved

04:03 solicitor of labor office. What are the effects of your ability to enforce with less staff,

04:11 and how would proposed cuts harm this mission?

04:13 Right. I mean, it's really horrific, the kinds of child labor cases that we are uncovering.

04:21 We're talking about 13-year-olds working on the kill floor of a meatpacking plant on the

04:27 overnight shift with dangerous chemicals. We're talking about a 16-year-old who recently

04:33 lost his life working as a sawmill operator. I mean, these are jobs that are dangerous

04:41 and illegal for children to be doing. We're not talking about a young person learning

04:46 how to show up on time and do a good job and deal with customers in a job that is appropriate

04:51 for a young person. And so our ability-- children working on roofs, our ability to be clear

04:59 that when employers engage in those practices, that they cannot just consider it, you know,

05:06 the chance of getting caught to be slim, and the consequences if they do get caught to

05:10 be minimal. We have to change that calculus, and having a strong investigative capability

05:17 is really important to that.

05:18 My time is about to-- it's expired, and I yield back.

Dem Lawmaker Defends Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su: Trump Had 22 ‘Acting’ Cabinet-Level Officials

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