April 2008 Archives
The Committee held a hearing to examine allegations of child abuse and deceptive marketing at residential programs for teens, including boot camps, wilderness camps, therapeutic boarding schools, and behavior modification facilities. The hearing also examined legislation to prevent child abuse in these programs by establishing standards for the programs.
The committee heard about the results of undercover work from the Government Accountability Office and from individuals who attended residential programs when they were teenagers.
Archived Webcast »
The committee heard about the results of undercover work from the Government Accountability Office and from individuals who attended residential programs when they were teenagers.
Witnesses:
-
Kay Brown »
Director
Education, Workforce and Income Security U.S. Government Accountability Office -
Greg Kutz »
Managing Director
Forensic Audits and Special Investigations U.S. Government Accountability Offic - Jon Martin-Crawford » Former Program Participant the Family Foundation School the Family Foundation School Hancock, New York
- Kathryn Whitehead » Former Program Participant Mountain Mission School Condon, Montana
- Christopher Bellonci, MD » Medical Director and Senior Clinical Consultant Walker School Needham, Massachusetts
The Workforce Protections Subcommittee of the House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing on the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s lack of adequate enforcement and oversight of workplace safety and health conditions within large, multiple-facility corporations.
Witnesses explored events at the Cintas Corporation, the largest uniform supplier in North America. In 2007, a worker died at the company’s Tulsa facility despite previous evidence, known to both OSHA and Cintas, of similar hazards at other Cintas facilities and industrial laundries. The death resulted in the largest service sector fine in OSHA’s history and was followed by additional citations of similar problems at other Cintas facilities.
Witnesses:
-
Randy Rabinowitz »
Member
American Bar Association Occupational Safety and Health Law Committee - Ron Taylor » Partner Venable LLC
- Emmanuel Torres » Son of Eleazar Torres-Gomez who died at Cintas’s Tulsa facility in 2007
-
Frank White »
Senior Vice President
Head of Health, Safety, and Environmental Practice ORC Worldwide
Witnesses:
- Panel I:
- Governor Martin O'Malley » State of Maryland
- Panel II:
- Dr. Nancy S. Grasmick » Superintendent Maryland State Department of Education
- Ms. Karen Harris » Principal Pot Spring Elementary School Timonium, Maryland
-
Dr. Oliver Pergams »
Conservation Biologist
Department of Biological Sciences University of Illinois at Chicago -
Dr. Robert Lawrence »
Director
Center for a Livable Future Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Baltimore, Maryland - Mr. Sean Davidson » Co-founder Greenlight Biofuels
Witnesses:
- The Honorable Victoria Lipnic » Assistant Secretary for Employment Standards U.S. Department of Labor Washington, D.C.
-
The Honorable Pat Schroeder »
Former U.S. Representative (D-CO)
Original sponsor of the Family and Medical Leave Act Washington, DC - Chante Lasco » New Mother Easton, Maryland
- Jennifer Hunt » Airline Attendant Richmond, Virginia
- Brenda Cossette » Testifying on behalf of the Society for Human Resource Management Alexandria, Virginia
- Debra Ness » President National Partnership for Women and Families Washington, DC