Press Releases
Graves and Tipton Applaud the Reversal on DOL Youth Labor Rule


Washington, Apr 27, 2012 -

Graves and Tipton Applaud the Reversal on DOL Youth Labor Rule

WASHINGTON, DC—House Small Business Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO) today issued the following statement in response to the Department of Labor’s reversal of its harmfully intrusive rule on youth labor on family farms:

“This Committee has worked hard to highlight the negative consequences of nonsensical rules including those proposed by the Department of Labor to restrict our youth’s ability to work on family farms. It appears our oversight has yielded some positive results as the Department of Labor is finally abandoning efforts to further regulate the industry. Having grown up on a farm, I understand how important they are to rural communities and what this proposed rule would have meant to their way of life. Restricting family chores and a child’s ability to learn the trade of their parents by regulation is a primary example of agency overreach and I will continue to provide the necessary checks and balances to ensure similar efforts fail.”

“After much pressure from Congress and agriculture producers, the Department of Labor has announced that it will pull the proposed rule, which would have restricted youth from on-the-job learning, the ability to participate in 4-H programs, and to do chores on the family farm,” said Small Business Subcommittee on Agriculture, Energy and Trade Chairman Scott Tipton (R-CO). “This is a tremendous victory for common sense. I applaud the Department of Labor for coming to its senses and joining Congress in support of farming and ranching families across America.”

On February 2nd, Small Business Subcommittee on Agriculture, Energy and Trade Chairman Scott Tipton (R-CO) held a hearing on the effects of this rule and encouraged the Department of Labor to pull it.

###

Print version of this document

News