Ranking Member DeLauro Statement at Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Request for the Department of Labor

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee and the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee delivered the following remarks at the Subcommittee's hearing on the fiscal year 2025 budget request for the Department of Labor:

Thank you, Chairman Aderholt, for holding this hearing on the 2025 budget for the Department of Labor.

Before I make my comments, I do want to make a very quick comment about the issue of the high cost of groceries these days. We need to take a very hard look and investigate the price gouging that is being done by corporations, and the consolidation in the industry, which increases food prices. There is not a shortage of food in the United States. That means we do not have to raise food prices, but we do need to take a hard look at the corporations that are raising the prices because they can. I think that should be the focus of our attention, in this committee and in other committees as well.

And thank you to our witness, Acting Secretary Su, for appearing today, for your many years of public service, and for your dedication to protecting the rights of America’s workers – though I must say, I am perplexed by the “Acting” prefix in your title. I will not pretend to understand why the Senate does what it does, but it is my hope you will be confirmed in the very near future.

Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman elected to the House of Representatives, said that public service is the rent you pay for space on this Earth. You have paid that rent many times over, and you set an example for the rest of us by continuing to do so.

I also want to thank you for visiting my district, the Third District of Connecticut, earlier this year to celebrate a grant awarded in the 2023 bill that will boost the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system. You, like me, believe that our workforce is our infrastructure – and thus our current and future workforce is one of the best places for us to invest.

When we think of the benefits many of us might take for granted today – like safer working conditions, paid leave, weekends, an 8-hour workday, and a 40-hour work week – we have the hard-fought victories of unions and the labor movement to thank for all of that.

In recent years, workers have been organizing at a pace this country has not seen since the Great Depression.

This is unequivocally a good thing. We all know that labor unions are the driving force for progress. The middle-class is built on a union label.

The fight for workers’ rights has always had a special place in my heart. I am the daughter of a garment worker. My mother toiled in the sweatshops of New Haven, sewing shirt collars and piece work for pennies each.

And now, every day, I work to ensure that her early struggles were not in vain.

When President Biden took office over three years ago, the economy was in crisis, and workers were struggling. Unemployment was over six percent. Millions of Americans were out of work.

And while the economy has begun to make progress in giving workers a fighting chance – and that is thanks to President Biden and Acting Secretary Julie Su’s leadership, and the investments made by Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee – but the economy is still difficult for working people today.

Too many families are weighed down by inflation and the high cost of living. They do live paycheck to paycheck. They struggle to make ends meet. While unemployment is down, families are barely able to scrape by while large companies and corporations have reaped record profits – 55 of which pay no tax at all in the United States – which is why your fiscal year 2025 Budget request and your Department’s regulatory actions are so vital.

I specifically commend your department’s work to fight wage theft, when employers fail to compensate workers for the wages they have earned. And through your Independent Contractor and Overtime rules, you are putting desperately needed dollars back in the pockets of these workers.

Unfortunately, many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to roll back these essential protections—but we cannot go backwards. The rollbacks they want would take earned wages away from American workers and their families, hurting their ability to pay their monthly bills and making the cost-of-living crisis even worse.

And while it was a challenging process, I was proud to work with Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate to complete our work on the 2024 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education funding bill.

I am proud that we protected the investments this subcommittee made in job training and worker protection programs during the first two years of the Biden administration.

Last year, House Republicans proposed a destructive cut of $4.7 billion to the Department of Labor.

They proposed the elimination of Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Job Training programs, which would have denied opportunities and services for 420,000 youth and adults who face barriers to finding good paying jobs.

They would have eliminated Job Corps, which would have taken away vital training experiences for 50,000 young people.

And they would have eliminated the Senior Community Service Employment Program, which would have cut 40,000 community service positions for low-wage seniors.

We spent months communicating the devastation this would bring to working people across the country, which is why I am so proud that we protected these programs and avoided cuts to worker protection agencies like Wage and Hour and OSHA.

And we rejected dozens of poison pill policy riders proposed last year by the majority, including a new rider that would put workers at risk of being unlawfully misclassified as independent contractors.

I am proud of where we ended up with the 2024 appropriations bill, but there are still unmet needs for workers, which brings me to the President’s budget for 2025.

The request for $14.2 billion for programs funded at the Department of Labor will help grow the middle class and support working families.

And while it is nice to see a modest increase to Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants, a program I created in my first year as Chair of the Labor-HHS Subcommittee, I believe there is much more we should do to boost this program.

Community colleges are uniquely positioned to support local workforce development and industry needs. They are more accessible to more families, and they should be a focal point for our investments.

And, I am happy to see an increase of $50 million for registered Apprenticeship Grants.

In addition, I am pleased to see a strong $35 million increase to the Wage and Hour Division to fight wage theft and combat child labor.

And I am glad that the President’s budget once again calls for the establishment of a comprehensive paid family and medical leave program so that Americans can take up to 12 weeks of paid leave and do not have to make the impossible choice between providing for their families or taking care of the health of themselves or a loved one.

I am also pleased that the President’s budget calls on Congress to require employers to provide seven paid sick days each year. I have fought tirelessly for paid leave and paid sick days in Congress, and I look forward to working with the Administration to make this a reality for American workers.

In our recent hearing with HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, several Members raised concerns about the scourge of child labor and child trafficking. I noted that the Department of Labor has requested additional funding to investigate employers who prey on child labor—including in some of our most dangerous industries.

Again, I strongly urge my colleagues to support the Department of Labor in its efforts to combat child labor and child trafficking and to penalize employers who profit by exploiting vulnerable children.

And finally, I am thrilled to see a $46 million increase to the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) so it can continue to effectively monitor and enforce the labor provisions of the United States, Mexico, Canada Agreement (USMCA).

Acting Secretary Su, thank you for your commitment to workers — for ensuring there is a pathway to good jobs and the middle class, and for protecting the wages and benefits that workers have earned.

We have made great progress over the past three years, but there is still much to do. I believe that we have an opportunity before us to forge an even brighter future for the American labor movement, and for hardworking Americans across the country.

Thank you again for being here today and I look forward to the discussion.

Thank you, and I yield back.