William L. Clay: “I rise to oppose the rule because H.R. 1 is nothing but a Trojan horse designed to fool workers into believing the…”

“I rise to oppose the rule because H.R. 1 is nothing but a Trojan horse designed to fool workers into believing the majority has experienced some kind of pro-worker, gender-friendly epiphany. This bill is not designed to strengthen the flexibility of workers. Instead, it has been crafted to give those employers who abuse their workers the power to exact unsecured loans from those workers in the form of deferred overtime pay. H.R. 1 does not provide an employee any new opportunity to take leave. It affords employers, not employees, the right to determine when employees may use the comp time they have earned. Under H.R. 1, employees can be required to work unreasonable hours for no additional pay as a condition for being granted comp time. Mr. Speaker, rather than considering this flawed bill, this House should be considering legislation to expand the benefits of the Family and Medical Leave Act as proposed by President Clinton. If the Republicans are genuinely interested in flexibility for working families, they would have supported extension of the Family and Medical Leave Act and would not be here today considering this paycheck reduction act. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to defeat this rule.”