On the recordJanuary 10, 2018
I thank the chairman for yielding. I rise in strong support of this bill which includes a provision identical to the legislation that I have been cosponsoring the last two Congresses, H.R. 986, the Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act. I also want to thank all of the Members who came in support of this legislation here today and last Congress from this side of the aisle who stood up for the rights of sovereign nations, our friends, Native Americans, and who made very clear the issue before us today. It was mentioned by the naysayers on the other side of the aisle that the NLRA, the National Labor Relations Act, started in 1935. If you go back to that legislation--and it still exists today in the same form-- you see that Federal, State, and local governments are exempted from the act for good reason. This was supposed to always be a private sector labor relations act and bill. Now, we can argue the pros and cons of that all day long, but that is not the debate here today. The fact of the matter is that governments were specifically exempted. Mr. Speaker, why does that not include our Native American friends who have sovereign nations? You know, I took my two boys--Kathy and I took my two boys, Ryan and Teddy, to a water park this year and last year--two different cities in my district. Those cities operated the water park. They owned it. We paid the fee. We went in. We used it. The employees who worked there--and they were excellent--were exempt from the NLRA.…
