Chuck Fleischmann Questions Labor Sec. Lori Chavez-DeRemer About Reforms For Independent Contractors

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During a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Thursday, Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN) questioned Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer about independent contractors.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:03Good morning, Madam Secretary.

00:05Good morning.

00:06It's a pleasure to see you today and wish you congratulations for stepping up in this role.

00:11And really so appreciate your leadership, your dedication, and I think almost most importantly,

00:17your positive attitude that you bring to this job.

00:20So thank you profusely for that.

00:23We look forward to working with you.

00:26Appreciated the phone call the other day.

00:27Thank you so much.

00:29As you know, it is very important to me to maintain the integrity of the independent contractor relationship.

00:39In my state, the great state of Tennessee, we value this on both sides, and it has worked so well.

00:48And I know earlier this month the Department's Wage and Hour Division issued an announcement

00:54that is currently working to reformulate the test as to how independent contractor status

01:00is determined under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

01:03And I just wanted to ask you how we can be helpful in that process.

01:09And just thank you for your commitment to maintaining that.

01:14Yeah.

01:15So subject to, again, as we do the rulemaking and litigation, I can't comment specifically,

01:20but we did issue through the Wage and Hour Division the field assistance bulletin so that

01:25there is some certainty for the workforce and how to navigate this until the Department of Labor continues

01:29down the road of that.

01:31So what I ask is it is about not only working with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle

01:38to understand what this means in your respective states and you are sharing with me on how important

01:43this is to Tennessee.

01:44But, again, technical assistance back and forth and how we work together is going to really round out

01:49how we're going to move forward in the future on this.

01:52But more flexibility and modernization is what the workforce is asking for.

01:57And we want to grow the workforce at all costs, so we're going to do everything we can to assist you in that.

02:02Thank you so much.

02:04Madam Secretary, a question about Jobs Corp.

02:08These are skilled tradespeople, a lot of young Americans who are waiting to engage in that program.

02:18It's my understanding that currently that may be on hold.

02:22And I would just like to know when we might expect some type of resuming of that enrollment in Jobs Corp.

02:29No, thank you for bringing that up.

02:31Again, there are so many Job Corps centers throughout this country that have dedicated time.

02:37But there has been a report that we have released from the Department of Labor most recently in relation to all of these centers,

02:46the Job Corps transparency report.

02:48And I highly encourage all members of Congress, if you have a Job Corps center, to take a look at this.

02:55And it is publicly available.

02:56The Job Corps program has a price tag of nearly $1.7 billion per year,

03:02and we owe it to the taxpayers to be transparent about what is happening.

03:05So the average cost per student is about $80,000, and the average cost per enrollee, regardless of their length of stay, is about $50,000.

03:13So there have been some concerns with that, and we see the signaling from the President's budget that we want to take a refocus

03:21and a relook on are we really focused on where those dollars are going to have the outcome for the workforce.

03:27This is a population that we all so deeply care about.

03:29As a member of Congress, I was a Job Corps champion.

03:32From what I have discovered through this process, I do want to work with each and every one of you

03:37in understanding how we move forward to train this population, especially the 16- and 17-year-olds that we have.

03:42We need everybody in the workforce.

03:44And so we have no final decision.

03:47We'll keep looking as we do more of this reporting.

03:50But I highly encourage, I would like to work with each and every one of you individually on this.

03:54This is an important issue.

03:54And I thank you for your response.

03:56And I will close by saying this, Madam Secretary.

03:59I so appreciate the fact that you want to visit all the great 50 states.

04:03Including Tennessee.

04:05Including the great volunteer states.

04:07So I welcome you to our state.

04:09Our state is one of those states where we cherish our employers, our employees, our independent contractor relationships.

04:17We are booming the great state of Tennessee.

04:20People are coming all across our great state.

04:23So I do welcome you there and wish you continued success.

04:27And with that, Mr. Chair, I'll yield back.

04:28Thank you, Congressman.

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