Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3231, the Federal Intern Protection Act. This bill would amend title 5 of the U.S. Code to extend protections against discrimination and harassment to unpaid interns who work at Federal agencies. The bill would define an intern as someone who performs uncompensated voluntary service in an agency to earn credit awarded by an educational institution or to learn a trade or occupation. Internships are often the first real entry into a profession; yet, unpaid interns are not expressly protected from the discriminatory practices prohibited by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Rehabilitation Act, and other laws and regulations. This bill would remedy this problem and extend those workplace protections to unpaid interns who may be vulnerable to egregious treatment. Madam Speaker, all too often, when unpaid interns have taken cases of workplace discrimination to the courts, the courts have ruled against them. In the Second Circuit, a unanimous panel of judges concluded that unpaid interns are not employees covered by existing laws. In the 1997 case of O'Connor v. Davis, an employee at a State hospital harassed an unpaid intern, calling her Miss Sexual Harassment and subjecting her to sexually explicit comments.…”