Nancy Pelosi: “today, when the leadership brings to the floor the Labor-HHS bill, or maybe it will be tomorrow, it will bring a bill to…”

“today, when the leadership brings to the floor the Labor-HHS bill, or maybe it will be tomorrow, it will bring a bill to the floor which has declared war on the American worker. The cuts contained in the bill add up to nothing more than total disregard for the morale and working conditions of the American worker. Just to review some of the cuts, at a time of globalization, technology causing a reduction in the work force as well as downsizing in corporate America, at a time when the American worker is faced with that uncertainty, this bill cuts $446 million in the program for dislocated worker assistance. At the same time, it cuts $47 million in safety and health enforcement. It cuts employment standards by $25 million, collective bargaining, $58.8 million. It does serious damage to the National Labor Relations Board by cutting it by 30 percent, over $50 million. How can we be doing this to the American worker at a time when we are struggling to be competitive in the world? America works because we have always had a high regard for the backbone of America, the working class people in our country. We have respected their need for a living standard, not a minimum standard of wages but a living wage. We have respected their need for safety in the workplace. We have respected their need to bargain collectively for unfair labor practices up until now. All of our competitors who compete with us in a favorable way for them respect their workers.…”