Providing for Consideration of H.R. 2575, Save American Workers Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, really, today's legislation is simple. It is about protecting American workers from job-destroying regulations contained in the Affordable Care Act. As written, ObamaCare establishes a definition of full-time employees as anyone working 30 hours per week and requires that business provide each of these workers with employer-sponsored health care or to pay a penalty.

Mr. Speaker, what we are here for is not the minimum wage today; that is another time. I am sure that as the other body debates this and as the administration trots around the country opportunities to sell their end of that, the American people will get that message. Today, this is about a group of people who are arbitrarily losing and having diminished from 40 hours down to 30 hours their work, their job, directly as a result of ObamaCare.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, in testimony before the House of Representatives, there was discussion about a Hoover Institution study that was done by Dr. Chen. Dr. Chen specifically went and looked at the impact that the Affordable Care Act was having upon employers and employees. This really was put into context when we realized that this is a net $74 billion change in the law--$74 billion that the administration was counting on American people paying into the Affordable Care Act to support this by diminishing the amount of hours that a person works.

So, what did Dr. Chen say? Dr. Chen took just one part of our marketplace--education. Here is what he said:

The final reason I argue the 30-hour rule must be addressed is because of the negative impact it is having--in this case--on school districts, colleges, and universities. The analysis of vulnerable workers referenced earlier was that we focused on 225,000 workers who have a history of working in the education industry.

And they found out that, because of the 30-hour rule, that over 100 school districts across the country, including dozens in Indiana, which is where the study took place, would have either cut workers' hours or outsourced jobs to avoid the Affordable Care Act's employee mandate.

What we are saying is that the Federal law--which is not a mistake; it is on purpose--was specifically designed to bring $74 billion to the Affordable Care Act by diminishing the hours that the American worker can have. And when we bring this to the floor, they are arguing, oh, my gosh; Republicans, they want to have a $74 billion higher deficit. It could not be further from the truth. This is money that comes from American workers, $74 billion. And this commonsense legislation that we are handling today will say that we are going to turn back the clock to where there will not be a penalty for having a 40-hour workweek in America.

Today, the Democratic Party and President Obama want to reduce the number of hours that an American worker will have and take $74 billion off, diminishing what would be in their pockets, to move it directly to the Federal Government.

No doubt you will see other Democrats come to the floor, just as we saw the gentleman from New York, arguing not about the substance of this bill but talking about why we ought to do a minimum wage bill. Yet their same arguments are, we should have a government that allows people to keep more money in their pockets. Mr. Speaker, that is what we are doing today.

We are with a commonsense bill on the floor of the House of Representatives. The gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Young) carefully, thoughtfully went and sold this bill across this body, a bipartisan bill to say that the $74 billion impact on the middle class of this country--in particular, universities, those in education, those workers who needed jobs--will lose, in essence, one-fourth of the hours that they have worked because of the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid, who jammed this bill down the American people's throats. And now Republicans are taking it on one at a time. This is our 51st slice at explaining to the American people why this is a bad bill.

Mr. Speaker, the $74 billion belongs to the American worker, not to bigger government. The $74 billion is exactly why the Republican Party is here today. And I want to thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess), who has worked not only on the Rules Committee but also in Energy and Commerce, for taking his private sector experience as a doctor to Washington, D.C. Having a doctor in the House, as Dr. Burgess has done, makes a huge difference. That is why the Republican Party is on the floor today saying, let's pass this piece of legislation.

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