Eva M. Clayton: “apart from the debate that has occurred on the floor of the House and the committee reports that have been filed, there…”

“apart from the debate that has occurred on the floor of the House and the committee reports that have been filed, there is little or no legislative history on this bill. The reason there is little or no legislative history is because there have been no hearings on H.R. 5. Legislative history begins with hearings. It is through the hearing process that varying views are presented, issues are identified and critical questions are raised and answered. If nothing else, the debate demonstrates that the language of the bill may well raise as many questions as it provides answers. Indeed, the minority views in the committee report states, ``The haste in which this bill was considered left a number of substantive issues unaddressed, which even the authors conceded at markup that they would like to address on the floor.'' One such issue, which my amendments seek to address, is the matter of workplace safety. My amendments would add the broad category of workplace safety to the list of ``Limitations on application'' found at section 4 of the bill. Other amendments address specific workplace safety issues, such as child labor, pregnant women and the Family and Medical Leave Act. My amendments address all workplace safety issues.”