Labor HHS Funding Legislation Is Laced With Poison Pill Policy Riders
July 12, 2016
Labor HHS Funding Legislation Is Laced With Poison Pill Policy Riders
Statement of Emily Gardner, Worker Safety and Health Advocate, Public Citizen’s Congress Watch Division
Letting Wall Street rip off American workers who are saving for their retirement has nothing to do with funding our government. That’s why a poison pill policy rider rolling back the U.S. Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule has no place in the fiscal year 2017 Labor, Health and Human Services (Labor HHS) funding bill.
On Wednesday morning, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations will mark up the draft Labor HHS funding legislation (PDF), which the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies passed last week.
In addition to repealing the fiduciary rule, this legislation has riders that would block other critical protections for American workers, such as a rule raising the overtime pay threshold and a rule that would streamline the process for holding union elections. These inappropriate policy riders could not pass as standalone measures and do not belong in the federal appropriations process.
Public Citizen urges the committee to vote down this legislation unless lawmakers remove these dangerous and inappropriate ideological riders.
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