House Hearing on the Future of Work. Earlier
this week, the House Higher Education and Workforce Investment
Subcommittee held a hearing titled "The Future of Work:
Ensuring Workers are Competitive in a Rapidly Changing
Economy." The hearing focused on training and educating
America's workforce of the future, particularly as we continue
to deal with worker displacements related to technological
developments.
New Democrats Seek Balanced Approach to Future of
Work. On the same day as the hearing, the New Democrat
Coalition, which describes itself as "103 forward-thinking
Democrats who are committed to pro-economic growth, pro-innovation,
and fiscally responsible policies," sent a letter to Education
and Labor Committee Chairman Bobby Scott (D-VA). In that letter, NDC lays out its views on gig economy
issues and urges proceeding cautiously to preserve choice for
workers and consumers. The letter is important in that it sets out
a marker, but it also perhaps gives the business community another
tool to criticize the PRO Act's (H.R. 2474) adoption of the ABC test, which
would fundamentally change the independent contractor/employee
analysis under Section 2 of the NLRA.
Spending Bill Addresses Immigration
Issues. The House $1.4 trillion spending bill (H.R. 1865) that passed on Tuesday had some
interesting nuggets for the employer community. The "four
horsemen" — the EB-5 Regional Center Program, the
E-Verify program, the Non-Ministerial Religious Workers Exemption,
and the Conrad 30 J-1 Visa Waiver for Doctors — were all
reauthorized, as expected. Also included (again) was language
providing for additional H-2B visas above the annual 66,000 cap.
Protections were also included for the J-1 Exchange Visitor
Program. Unrelated to the package — but nevertheless of
interest — is that Sens. Durbin and Lee have apparently
worked out an agreement on the Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants
Act, a.k.a. the "per country" bill, H.R.1044, S.386, which has already been passed by
the House. Nevertheless several senators have objected to it
being hot
lined.
Obamacare's Cadillac Tax Repealed. Of
particular interest to unionized employers, the employer community
and the unions won their long-fought — and joint —
battle to repeal the so-called Cadillac Tax on premium health care
plans which had been part of the Affordable Care Act's funding
mechanisms. (The Medical Device Tax and the Health Insurance
Tax were also repealed.) The spending bill contains a full repeal
of the tax, which had been effectively stayed until this point. Who
said unions and employers couldn't work together?
USMCA. The House passed the new US –
Mexico – Canada Agreement (USMCA, H.R. 5430) today, 384-41, the successor to
NAFTA. Although the full scope of this agreement is beyond this
newsletter, important changes were made to the labor provisions of
NAFTA, as detailed in this CRS analysis.
Coal Miner Retirement. The House spending bill
also included the Bipartisan American Miners Act (S. 2788) sponsored by Senator Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell and Sen. Joe Manchin, among others, addressing
underfunding of the UMWA 1974 pension plan and maintaining health
care coverage for retirees.
SECURE Act. The Setting Every Community Up
for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act (H.R. 1994), which includes many provisions to
increase access to workplace retirement plans and facilitate
retirement savings, was also included as part of the House spending
bill.
Note: The Senate just passed the House
spending bill (H.R. 1865), 71-23, as of this writing, so
stay tuned for future developments as many of these provisions head
to the President's desk in the very near future.
And that is the final issue of Policy Matters for 2019. Thank you to all of our readers! We wish you a happy holiday season and wonderful New Year‼‼ See you in 2020!
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