Political Quotes

“Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chair, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle contend that the 2009 Supreme Court decision in Gross v. FBL Financial Services has weakened age discrimination protections. They also contend the decision had deterred workers from seeking relief from age bias. Let's look at the data. In the 9 years preceding the 2009 Supreme Court decision in Gross, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the EEOC, the primary agency that enforces Federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate, received an average of 19,320 charges of discrimination per year relating to age discrimination--19,320. An EEOC charge is a signed statement asserting employment discrimination. In the 9 years following Gross, the EEOC received an average 20,973 charges per year relating to age discrimination, a slight uptick from the previous 9 years. There is clearly no evidence workers have been discouraged from filing age discrimination charges with the EEOC since the 2009 Supreme Court decision. We also found that age discrimination charges as a percentage of all charges filed with the EEOC are approximately the same for the 9 years before and after the Gross decision, 23.2 percent before and 22.8 percent afterward. Again, this does not indicate workers are discouraged from filing age discrimination charges. Congress should make fact-based decisions. In this case, the facts do not support what H.R. 1230's proponents have asserted. Mr.…”