Eleanor Holmes Norton

The failure today of Uber and Lyft to appear is a telling sign that they don't want to answer questions on the record about their operations.

Congress cannot avoid its responsibility to engage, to investigate its role in overseeing this industry.

The presence of two Members of Congress to begin this hearing only strengthens the committee's notion that something must be done.

The tenuous existence of Uber and Lyft is literally fueled by millions of independent contractors who see their take home pay reduced drastically--below minimum wage in some States.

Yes, they are terrified at organization, more terrified at organization than they are, I think, of the Congress itself.

That is why I led three hearings on Protecting the Right to Organize Act, known as the PRO Act, which would prevent misclassification by clarifying the tests for determining whether a worker, including a rideshare driver, is an employee.

almost everybody else who drives the public has to have fingerprints and a background check except these people. We got to do something about that.

This has got to end.

Well, it is the obligation of this committee to see that it doesn't happen to Government employees, and that it doesn't happen to the public any longer.

We will hear about the effects on hundreds of thousands of workers who are left with little choice in today's market but to drive for Uber and Lyft.

I am grateful to Representatives Smith and Suozzi for starting off this hearing with statements on their ideas to improve the safety of ride hailing services.

In June 2015, I wrote to then-Uber CEO Travis Kalanick urging the company to conduct fingerprint-based background checks.

We will hear about important public safety concerns that arise when companies develop an app that connects passengers and drivers through technology.

They are also, as we have seen, making a lot of their employees yet another victim of the gig economy.

Well, you see the handle that gives the Federal Government right there to begin with. And, this committee will be very interested.

I mean you report as little as $3.75 an hour.

I think that the House of Representatives which has an obligation to proceed with an impeachment inquiry cannot let the party on the other side of the impeachment inquiry keep it from moving forward.

As expeditious as courts can be, they could not get through all the subpoenas that the White House is using as a delay tactic.

When the White House stonewalls, they commit a grievous error.

A Republican cosponsor and I, Rick Crawford, have sponsored a bill. We call it the AWARE Act...

But what these incidents reported, or what the press reported, was that, as people were trying to get out of the airline, they were grabbing their carry-on baggages and, obviously, thereby slowing up evacuation.

Of course, this mandated a rule.

I would be very interested, given recent events, to know the status of that mandate you apparently are working on now.

This would seem to be much more urgent, given what we now know about sexual assaults on airlines...

Well, Mr. Goldenkoff, let me--let me followup on that. We do have a lot of contractors and those contractors are on their own. They don't have any benefits. They don't have any sick leave.