Hearing of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee of the House Education and the Workforce Committee - Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act Legislative Hearing

Hearing

I first want to thank the Chairman for pursuing regular order with this legislation. I
am glad we are first having a hearing on this legislation and issue in order to
collect the facts, and get feedback from various perspectives. I am glad for the
opportunity to speak on this important issue. And thank you to our great group of
panelists for taking their time to give us an in-depth perspective.

As all legislative hearings should, I believe this hearing must be about fact finding.

This bill highlights the inherent tension between two important principles of
American law: tribal sovereignty and workers' rights. I fully support the
sovereignty of Native Americans, and I know many of us place a great deal of
importance on self-governance, localized control, and the independence of tribal
nations.

But I also believe deeply in the right to organize, in protecting our workers and
allowing workers, including Native American workers, to fight for a safe and fair
working environment. All legislation and NLRB decisions must balance these
competing principles, not favor one at the expense of the other. So reconciling
these two priorities may be difficult, but we as the committee have a responsibility
to dig into how we effectively and fairly reconcile these issues. We must work to
honor and protect tribal sovereignty while also respecting workers' rights and
discussing the implications of this bill on these two issues is where we begin.

We must analyze this issue in its true context. We should investigate knowing that
this issue is about more than tribal sovereignty; it is about more than gaming
restrictions or the NLRA. It is not only about a respect for tribal sovereignty and
control, it is also -- perhaps primarily -- about the Majority's dislike of the NLRB
and Unions. As we have discussed hundreds of times, unions are the key to
shrinking the wage gap, raising up the middle-class and creating good paying jobs.
Without unions we wouldn't have weekends, we wouldn't be moving towards
equal pay, and there would be many fewer jobs that a family can live comfortably
live on.

Under current law, tribes are subject to many federal employment laws, including
the Fair Labor Standards Act, OSHA, ERISA, and the Family Medical Leave Act.

Which begs the question, if this conversation is not solely about the right to join a
union, then shouldn't we also be having a discussion around due process and
federal exemptions for a variety of American workers -- including those under the
American Disabilities Act, OSHA, ERISA and the Federal Labor Standards Act
which keeps companies from not using slave labor or child labor.

I will also point out that I believe most of the companies operated by Indian
nations would not take advantage of workers. As is always the case, however, there
are bad actors and there are good actors. In circumstances like these, we cannot
and should not overburden good actors. Nor, though, can or should we allow
workers to be taken advantage of by the rare bad actor.

American Tribal sovereignty across this country is vital, but we must also analyze
this issue with the knowledge that these businesses, casinos and more, are part of
interstate commerce, and that there are many people who work at businesses
"owned and operated by Indian nations" who may or may not be of Native
American descent. In fact statistics show that an overwhelming majority of
workers (75% or more) come from outside the reservation and are not members of
an Indian nation. These individuals have no ability to raise the issue of worker's
right within the context of tribal law, so the question becomes what laws protect
them?

I am interested in hearing from our witnesses on both sides of this issue about how
this bill impacts not only sovereignty and local control, but also the health and
economic vitality of all ethnicities and beliefs.

Thank you very much, and I yield back my time.

Closing Statement

Thank you to everyone for your impassioned and honest testimony and answers. I
truly hope that everyone on the committee today will analyze this issue objectively,
and with an understanding of what has been said here. As you consider this issue,
please keep in mind the needed nexus between balancing critical domestic
sovereignties with the protection due to all American workers -- regardless of
whether you are white, black, Hispanic or Native American.

Without the right to self-governance we would not have the strong communities
present across this country today, and without the right to collectively bargain we
would not have the strong and growing economy that all Americans rely on.

I look forward to continuing this discussion with individuals and experts on both
sides of the issue.

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