Political Quotes

“I have been following this legislation carefully, and I marvel at the hard work of the committee for bringing it forward. In 1994, the Department of Labor did, in fact, adopt a new interpretation of the Federal Child Labor regulations that effectively eliminated occasional and incidental driving by teenage employees of auto dealers. In my community in the Pacific Northwest, this interpretation that was adopted without notice or rulemaking led to the imposition of over $200,000 in fines against more than 60 auto dealers in the Pacific Northwest, people who in my experience are pretty straight-ahead folks, good public citizens and easy to work with. The process by which the new rule was adopted I think was bad; the fines were worse. I am pleased that we are taking steps here to eliminate the most severe consequence, which was the decision on the part of many auto dealers to no longer hire teenagers for after-school and summer service for porters and lot attendants. These were jobs that gave young people the opportunity to earn money and gain career-building experience.”