National Defense Authorization Act For Fiscal Year 2017

Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, the amendment I filed, Blumenthal No. 4255, will not be made pending, but I want to emphasize the importance of the amendment and hope I can work with my colleagues on the substance of it because it is so profoundly important to fairness in the workplace and the protection of American workers.

My friend and colleague, the Senator from Washington, Patty Murray, has spoken on this issue within the last few minutes, and I join her in supporting the critical Executive order issued by the President called the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order.

This effort requires companies doing business by the Federal Government to disclose whether they violated any of the 14 longstanding labor laws protecting American workers included in this Executive order. There is no requirement to disclose a mere allegation or claim of a violation of one of those laws, rather, the Executive order requires, very simply, disclosure of a determination by a court or administrative body of an actual violation. In effect, this Executive order would be gutted by the National Defense Authorization Act now on the floor of this Congress, and the amendment I was intending to offer is the very same amendment that was offered in the NDAA markup and supported by groups like Easter Seals and Paralyzed Veterans of America. They worry that the language in this law that we now have before us will do a damaging injustice to our veterans and constituents with disabilities and thousands of other employees working under Federal contracts.

I am proud to be joined in this effort by not only Senator Murray but also Senators Franken, Gillibrand, Brown, Sanders, Leahy, Baldwin, Merkley, Boxer, Casey, and the ranking member of the committee with jurisdiction over this bill, Senator Jack Reed of the Armed Services Committee, where the Presiding Officer and I sit.

We need to ensure that the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order applies across all Federal agencies and to all workers, or as many as possible at least, strengthening this vital effort to protect workers and taxpayer dollars. It is not only about workers, it is also about taxpayer dollars.

The laws that are covered here are sort of the bread-and-butter protections of all Federal workers and all workers, generally, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and the Civil Rights Act. Other laws that may be more obscure are also covered, but they have been around for decades, and this measure and those laws are designed to protect veterans and women from harmful, debilitating discrimination, among other wrongful practices.

Let's be very clear. Most companies covered by Federal contracts play by the rules and obey the law. All they would need to do is literally check a box confirming that they are in compliance. There are no big administrative expenses or elaborate bureaucratic hurdles to overcome. They just need to check a box to confirm that they are in compliance. For the small subset of companies with compliance issues, the contracting agency would take information about violations into consideration in the procurement process. This is not to bar them. They can still be considered, but they would then try to work with the company to make sure it comes into compliance with the law.

The basic theory of this Executive order is a matter of common sense. It is not about blacklisting companies. It is about ensuring that companies that want to do business with the Federal Government follow the law and provide a safe, equitable, and fair workplace. Those are the companies we can trust in being our partners in carrying out the Federal Government's work, as long as they obey the law and are in compliance with it.

Companies that violate those laws should not receive taxpayer dollars. Companies that violate the law, very bluntly, are creating an unlevel playing field and forcing law-abiding companies into an unfair competition for contracts. They can cut corners, save money by in effect skirting the law, present lowball offers, and when they are hired, provide poor performance--again, wasting Federal funds to the detriment of taxpayers.

Of course, it is not just about dollars--important to the taxpayer-- but about workers. Every year, tens of thousands of American workers are denied overtime wages. Unlawfully discriminated against in hiring and pay, they have their health and safety put at risk by Federal contractors who cut those corners on workers' safety or otherwise deny a basic safe workplace, and that is another reason we need full force and effect to this Executive order, not the gutting of it that is contained now in the NDAA before us.

Some have called the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive order one of the most important advances for workers achieved by this administration, and it is. According to the Department of Labor, one in five Americans are employed by companies that do business with the Federal Government, an enormous source of leverage requiring compliance with Federal protections, not just in letter but in spirit. We must very simply allow for consistent and appropriate application of this Executive order to ensure that workers or contractors under the defense laws have the same protections as other workers.

The NDAA provision that guts this Executive order must be removed at some point. It may not happen in our consideration of this measure now, but my hope is that we can work with colleagues and overcome the potentially harmful effects of this provision.

I look forward, in fact, to a collegial effort to make sure that we provide long-term protections to American workers through this Executive order.

Thank you, Mr. President.

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