Joe Cunningham: “as a lead House sponsor of H.R. 4182, I rise in strong support today of this identical Senate counterpart, S. 2323.…”

“as a lead House sponsor of H.R. 4182, I rise in strong support today of this identical Senate counterpart, S. 2323. Originally, we came up with an idea based on the 1938 language, and thanks to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Goodling) and the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Ballenger), the subcommittee chairman, and the ranking minority member, they had hearings with an attempt to match this not only with the Senate, but with the Department of Labor and with the White House in a very bipartisan way. Mr. Speaker, I think the outcome in the Senate of 95 to 0 vote shows the work that went forward on this bill, not only from Republicans but Democrats, the White House and the Labor Department as well. Why would we do this? Well, when the 1938 legislation first came about, they did not know that every day you pick up a newspaper that there is jobs wanted in there that offer stock options; whether it is medical benefits; whether it is stock options or safety programs within the workplace, workers look at these things when they select those jobs to help their families. This bill provides for that. This will affect over 65 million Americans, union, nonunion, private individuals, public individuals. They want a piece of the rock, and I laud those individuals who have helped with this.”