Political Quotes

“I rise in support of the Hostettler amendment, which should be relatively noncontroversial. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in favor of this amendment which would update the jurisdictional threshold of the National Labor Relations Board. While the NLRB has attracted quite a bit of attention during the past 2 years, I believe that the least controversial of the issues surrounding the NLRB is this one. When the NLRB was created in 1959, it had jurisdiction over nonretail businesses whose gross receipts were greater than $50,000 per year, and retail businesses with receipts over $500,000 per year. This level was developed so that the labor disputes involving small businesses would remain under the jurisdiction of State courts. Because these levels have not been increased to keep pace with the rate of inflation, small business has come under the regulatory hand of the NLRB. Congress intended that small business be regulated by the States. I believe that these thresholds should be updated for the same reason that we increase Social Security recipients paychecks with an annual COLA: Because the value of the dollar is not the same in 1997 as it was in 1959. I urge my colleagues to support small businesses and support commonsense Government by voting for the Hostettler amendment.”