Jerry Moran: “I am here today to raise once again a topic about how we raise our children in rural America, and I want to talk for a…”

“I am here today to raise once again a topic about how we raise our children in rural America, and I want to talk for a few moments about the proposed Department of Labor child farm labor rules. Last week, we had perhaps what would be considered a piece of good news. The Department of Labor announced it would withdraw and repropose the parental exemption portion of their proposed child labor rules. I am worried, however, despite this good news, there are still a lot of consequences that will occur as a result of the proposed rules that are not being withdrawn, and there is no suggestion they are going to be reproposed. The thing I want to make clear to my colleagues is that while the Department of Labor announced they were going to withdraw a portion of the rules, unfortunately, the majority of what is going to be offensive, difficult, and a challenge for our way of life in rural America remains. Last year, of their own volition--no direction by Congress--the Department of Labor proposed a set of rules to put restrictions in place upon a young person's ability to work on a farm, including their own family farm. What we are talking about here is youth less than 16 years of age. Those rules, as proposed, would actually restrict the ability of a son or daughter to work on their parents' farm. The current rule is that if your parents own a substantial interest of that farming operation, you can work on your family's farm.…”