John Spratt: “We bring this motion to instruct conferees because we are in the minority. This is a way we have, one of the few devices…”

“We bring this motion to instruct conferees because we are in the minority. This is a way we have, one of the few devices we have to register our views on things that are important. There is no question about it. Medicare age eligibility is fundamentally important. We want to register the House position on that. Second, it is fundamentally important to us also to say that everybody, every American, because of his status as an American, is entitled to the fundamental protection of the laws of the land, which is what the Federal Labor Standards Act is. The simple way to accomplish that is to say that you are a worker within the definition of the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act, except to the extent that this protection does not apply. That is what we are seeking here, to give them the broad protection of the law that has been the law of the land for more than 50 years.”