Pete Sessions: “I want to continue to discuss the white-collar exemptions on the overtime legislation and the amendment we are dealing…”

“I want to continue to discuss the white-collar exemptions on the overtime legislation and the amendment we are dealing with. I want to express how frustrating it is to see a very carefully constructed proposal by the Secretary of Labor, Elaine Chao, being mischaracterized, therefore placing fear in the American people through the misrepresentation of the nature of these regulations. First of all, Secretary Chao is one of the finest public servants I know. From the time she gets to work in the morning until the time she gets home late at night, she is committed to making this a better country, a good country to live and work in. She wants to do something about these regulations that have not been changed since 1954 in any significant way. They need to be updated. Her proposed rule changes have received 70,000 comments. The Department of Labor is considering those, and they ought to be able to update these regulations. There is no doubt about it. It is time to do that. The impact has been completely misrepresented. We need to talk about it. I think the reason, frankly, is that we are in a political season. People want to make this a political issue. If they can go around and say, Mean old President Bush wants to deny you your overtime and you can't get overtime anymore, and they can stir this up and make these complaints, then they think some people might believe it. But it is not right. What is being said is not right. It is not fair.”