Xavier Becerra: “According to, as I was saying, the Children's Defense Fund, young people who work for more than 20 hours a week have…”

“According to, as I was saying, the Children's Defense Fund, young people who work for more than 20 hours a week have diminished investment in school. They are more likely to be delinquent in school and are more likely to use drugs. Over one-third of working adolescents in a study said they took easier classes in order to manage their school work while they were employed. In a hearing before the Committee on Government Relations or Government Operations last session, real life horror stories were relayed by the victims or survivors of accidents which occurred as a result of child labor violations, whether it was a pizza delivery young man who ends up dying because he is trying to drive around and he is lucky enough to have a license or unlucky enough to his life or whether we are talking about the boy who lost his leg because it was torn off by a dryer which did not have a safety lid, in which case the company paid a $400 fine, we find that there are violations that are occurring. We must change this. The States have asked us to do this, and what we should do today is understand that in unfunded mandate legislation, we should not abandon our children.”