Senate Debates New Labor Regulations Today

Today the Senate debated new regulations proposed by the Department of Labor that specifically target children working on family farms.

Since the beginning of agriculture, children in farm families have contributed to the operation of the farm by doing chores as very young children, then graduating to more complex tasks as they matured. Today, those tasks include driving tractors and combines on farms, and herding cattle on ranches. The participation of the children in the family gave them the opportunity to learn how to run a family farm or ranch and enabled them to take over when the older generation passed the torch.

However, the U.S. Department of Labor under the leadership of Secretary of Hilda S. Solis decided to change the traditional route to agriculture. On September 2, 2011, the Department Labor published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to revise the child labor regulations to strengthen the safety requirements for young workers employed in agriculture. In reality, the proposed changes would fundamentally change the industry.

Today, as the Senate took up those regulations, several senators feel the government has once again overstepped its bounds. Specifically, Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Senator John Thune (R-SD). In their speeches, they wondered how Secretary Solis, a bureaucrat who knows nothing about farming or ranching, could arbitrarily decide such things. They acknowledged that Solis has no experience in agriculture and said that she had no right to come in and tell people how to run their own agricultural businesses, which in many cases have been in the family for many generations.

According to the DOL, the proposed changes include “limiting farm work involving occupations in construction, communications, roofing, at elevations greater than 6 feet, wrecking, demolition, and the operation of most power-driven equipment and manually operated hoists.” In addition, they plan to “revise and expand the current prohibitions against working with animals.” Regarding some of the new technologies used by modern farmers and ranchers, the regulations, “Revise the type of farm implements 14- and 15-year-old student-learners may operate after successfully completing the academic units addressing each type of implement.” The new regulations would also prohibit young people from working in places such as country grain elevators, grain bins, silos, feed lots, feed yards, stockyards, livestock exchanges and livestock auctions."

Both Moran and Thune spoke out against these and other proposed regulations. Moran said he had invited Solis to a farm in Kansas to see first-hand exactly what farming entailed, but she has not accepted his invitation. Both Senators count themselves among a group of five others from the Senate and eight Congressmen who support those in agriculture and have launched a website demonstrating their support for those involved in agriculture and to keep them updated on these proposed changes by the DOL. The discussion and debate will continue.

Image Source: Wikipedia

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