Henry Cuellar: “I thank the chairwoman for her condolences and her prayers for Sutherland Springs. Mr. Speaker, I also thank Mr. Byrne…”

“I thank the chairwoman for her condolences and her prayers for Sutherland Springs. Mr. Speaker, I also thank Mr. Byrne and, of course, Chairman Foxx, for their work on this particular bill. I thank Mr. Correa, Mr. Peterson, and the other supporters of this legislation. Prior to August 2015, the joint employer standard used by the NLRB made it easy to understand who is and who is not a joint employer. For decades, a joint employer relationship existed when one company exercised ``direct and immediate'' control over another company's workforce. However, as you know, under the case Browning-Ferris Industries, the NLRB departed from many years of legal precedent in August of 2015 by establishing a new, expanded joint employer standard. This standard could trigger employer liability by a company exercising vaguely defined indirect control over an employee. We have heard from local businesses from my district and across the State of Texas, and it is clear that this decision is causing them significant confusion. In my district--let's say in Laredo, Texas, there is a local restaurant owner who says that his restaurant currently employs close to 1,000 local employees. {time} 1700 This expanded joint employer standard has limited his investment in his business and the number of workers that he has. Reverting back to the former joint employer standard that we had for so many years would allow him to hire the employees that he needs to hire and reinvest money.…”