Mark Pocan Seeks ‘Reassurances’ From Labor Sec. Lori Chavez-DeRemer On Proposed Labor Department Cuts

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During a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Thursday, Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) questioned Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer about proposed department cuts.

Transcript

00:00Spokane. Great. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Madam Secretary, for being with us. Sorry.

00:04Thank you. I'm almost out of breath a little bit. I was running between. Back and forth.

00:07They're like, glide's halfway through. So I'm trying to get here in time to make sure we kept

00:12it going. Glad to see you in the position because we do appreciate you had many pro-worker votes

00:20when you were in Congress, and that provides me some comfort knowing you're there. However,

00:26the President's budget does provide me some anxiety when I see a billion-dollar cut, and

00:32there's no real details in the skinny budget. Specifically, I guess the two questions I'd

00:36have, I'd love to have some reassurances from you around OSHA and the wage and hour division

00:41on cuts, because I think those are two of the divisions, as you well know, support workers

00:46the most. And I want to make sure that because we don't have the details, that you can maybe

00:51give us a little insight on what you might see happening in those two areas.

00:55Yeah, thank you again for the question. And certainly, one, to fulfill the mission of the

01:00Department of Labor is going to be, it's the first and foremost, that's my job today, different

01:05than as a congressman representing Oregon. But you are correct. The direction of the President

01:09when he nominated me, and now as the Secretary of Labor, is to work with all sides of the aisle

01:15and work with labor and business to come together to how we're going to best protect the American

01:20worker. So that being said, on the OSHA and or MSHA, the safety of the American worker

01:25also is first and foremost, not only under their agencies, but no worker should expect to go to

01:31work and not come home safe and sound. It is going to be my goal under those that no cuts

01:36are going to be directed that have to statutorily, when we're out visiting the sites that we have our

01:43investigators on site, because we want to protect the American worker. So that will be my focus. And I

01:48will continue down that road. As we streamline and modernize, you know, oftentimes, it does get

01:53conflated. And it's hard to understand that you would make a cut, then you can't do the job. I will,

01:59I don't agree with that always. More money doesn't always mean the best outcome. But we are going to

02:03do everything we can to fulfill the mandate of the Department of Labor and not let any American worker

02:08down. And we will keep them safe. And again, I just really want to stress around OSHA, especially

02:12and wage and hour division, those two. And wage and hour again, when you're talking about protecting

02:16minimum, minimum wage, overtime pay that we will get all those things that the American worker

02:23deserves will be first and focus on my department and my agency to focus on. Yeah, I know you as the

02:29member of Congress would be doing that. I hope you as the secretary can still do that and help influence

02:34if there are, you know, in case another billionaire comes into the administration to start playing with

02:40things. You know, your expertise would be much appreciated in that area.

02:44One of the other questions was, you know, because of the cuts, the job court program,

02:49I guess it's come up from a couple folks. I come from the perspective, I think, where maybe

02:53Mr. Fleischman is coming as well, like it's an important program, right? Because it does have that

02:57pipeline. I'm hoping that with the Make America Skilled Again initiative, how will that program

03:05make up for the job training resources that we provide to our youth and seniors

03:08in the soon to be eliminated DOL programs? And what can we expect? Can you assure us that these

03:17organizations will have access to the same skilled candidate pool if Job Corps is dismantled?

03:21Yeah, thank you for bringing that up. I was just visiting with the carpenters and, you know,

03:26there were Job Corps students in their trade skills program, their apprenticeship program. So my goal on

03:31the apprenticeship of the 1 million apprentices, along with the president, is to first and foremost focus

03:36that pipeline, because that's the market driven economy that we've been seeing and asking for.

03:42And if Job Corps is not working, if it's not serving that population that we're promising to serve,

03:47then I want to make sure we serve that population through a different avenue. What that looks like,

03:51I'm not exactly sure at this moment, because there's been no decisions made. But there are

03:57approximately 20,000 students that we're serving, I need to know that they are in a place that they can

04:03have the skills that they need, along with the rest of America. And so making America skilled again,

04:09that block grant, we want to focus on all populations to make sure men and women are being served. And

04:14that is going to include that same population. And hopefully we keep the same focus on registered

04:18apprenticeships, too, as being the, you know, platinum standard sort of out there. I spent 35 years as a

04:24signed contractor with a UPAT union member. I myself was a member as well during all that time period. And,

04:30you know, those programs really are in many ways heads and tails above other type programs out

04:35there. I know you know that from your experience. So just we can keep that focus as well. Last thing,

04:41I think, I only have 22 seconds, I won't ask the question, but I just raised the concern that

04:44when the president signed an executive order taking away bargaining rights from 75% of the federal

04:49workforce, you know, it reminded me of what Scott Walker did in my state in Wisconsin, and that late,

04:54that caused all sorts of problems that we're still dealing with well over a decade later.

04:59I believe those workers have collective bargaining rights. I believe that you believe that. But I

05:03hope that we can do more in this area because I'm concerned that already watching the cuts from

05:11Elon Musk, the Doge Commission, this is this one more attack on workers. And at some point,

05:15we do need people to work for the federal government. So thank you for being here today.

05:19Thank you. Appreciate it. Sure.

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