Chairman Rehberg questions Labor Secretary Hilda Solis at a
hearing before the Labor, Health & Human Services and Education
Appropriations Subcommittee.  Hi-res image available here.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health & Human Service and Education Chairman Denny Rehberg, today called Labor Secretary Hilda Solis to testify before his subcommittee in preparation for the FY 2013 Appropriations bill.  Rehberg, who questioned Deputy Administrator Nancy Leppink about a proposed “Youth Ag Rule” at a Small Business Committee hearing in February reiterated his opposition to the rule and renewed his promise to insert language into the Appropriations Bill to prevent any funding from being used to implement the rule in its current form.

“Frankly, it’s insulting that federal bureaucrats thousands of miles away from a family farm would presume to think it’s their job to tell parents to keep kids safe,” said Rehberg, a fifth-generation rancher from Billings, Montana.  “On family farms around the country, youth safety is a way of life, enforced by parents and communities.  What the Department of Labor needs to understand is that a rule that denies formative training under the watchful eye of loved ones actually puts kids at greater risk.  Putting kids in a bubble may be safe as long as they’re in the bubble, but heaven help them if they’re not properly trained when they leave the bubble.”

The Department of Labor has proposed significant changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) that will severely impact the type of work young people are allowed to do on farms and ranches.  While the FLSA already prevents young workers from doing some tasks, there has previously been sufficient flexibility within those rules to allow for the employment of young workers in agriculture.

In today’s hearing, Rehberg once again drew on his personal experience as a rancher and father to press Secretary Solis to abandon efforts to change these rules in a way that will be detrimental to the family farm.  He also re-iterated his intention to prevent funding for the implementation of such a rule.

In October, Rehberg led a bipartisan letter with 77 other House Members which secured an extension of the public comment period with the Department of Labor.

In early December, he stood with the Montana Farm Bureau, Montana Grain Growers Association and Montana Wool Growers Association and many others in formally submitting a comment to the Department of Labor.

Later in December, he once again led a letter (PDF), this time signed by 152 additional members of the House including 23 Democrats to the Secretary of Labor asking her to abandon the new rules.

In a February hearing, despite not being on the committee, Rehberg was asked to participate in a hearing before the House Small Business Subcommittee on Agriculture, Energy and Trade called "The Future of the Family Farm."  At that hearing, he promised to work as the Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee that oversees Department of Labor spending to block funding to implement the rule.