On the recordFebruary 6, 2020
Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. This amendment changes nothing about the underlying bill and the pain it will inflict on American workers and businesses. It is simply another weak attempt to pay lip service to address one of the many glaring flaws in the PRO Act. The National Labor Relations Act, NLRA, already applies to nearly every business in the country, and the PRO Act's harmful provisions will also. This amendment does nothing to protect small business entrepreneurs and independent contractors. If adopted, small businesses will still be saddled with new costs and mandates. They will still be forced to turn their employees' private information over to union organizers. They will still be subject to completely unrestricted union harassment even if they aren't the subject of a union organizing campaign. They will still have their rights throughout that process completely obliterated. Independent contractors will still be at risk of being classified as employees under the bill's onerous ABC test. The NLRA's existing jurisdictional standards do not change that reality. The ABC test is not about whether independent contractors are businesses covered by the NLRA but, rather, whether they are employees covered by the act. This amendment does nothing to change the fact that millions of independent contractors will be classified as employees against their will and, as a result, will have their livelihoods put at risk by socialist Democrats in Washington.…





