Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Chairman, no hardworking American should ever have to worry about whether her employer will refuse to pay her when she works overtime or take money out of her paycheck, especially if she works for a Federal contractor. This practice is known as wage theft.

Right now, Federal contractors who violate the Fair Labor Standards Act are still allowed to apply for Federal contracts. My amendment would deny Federal contracts to those who violate the Fair Labor Standards Act to deny workers the pay they have earned. The amendment ensures that those in violation of the law do not get taxpayer support. We should only reward good actors.

Taxpayer money must be spent wisely, and as the largest purchaser of goods and services, the Federal Government must find a way to make sure that funds are going to companies that treat their workers fairly and according to the law and that give every American family a chance to succeed. More importantly, it signals to working Americans around the country that wage theft will not be tolerated.

Low-wage workers are fighting back. They are demanding that they be treated fairly. And now it is time for Congress to stand with these low-wage workers and say clearly that wage theft is not anything that we are willing to tolerate.

So we may not agree on the minimum wage or we may not agree on a lot of other things, but I believe Americans on both sides of the aisle believe that a penny earned is a penny that must be paid. Any time a Federal contractor is found to have violated a worker's rights and is found to have been guilty of that, according to the law, that Federal contractor should not benefit from the money in this particular bill.

So with the remainder of my time, I would like to just add that this is a very serious problem. A recent report by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in the United States Senate reveals that 32 percent of the largest Department of Labor penalties for wage theft were levied against Federal contractors. There should be a consequence. Similarly, the National Employment Law Project study found that 21 percent of Federal contract workers were not paid overtime, and 11 percent have been forced to work off the clock.

So, Mr. Chairman, I do hope that we can get cooperation from all Members on this.

I yield the remainder of my time to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source