Today in a legislative hearing to hear testimony on h. R. 2694 the pregnant workers fairness act. I note for the subcommittee that ms. Bass of georgia and mr. Cohen of tennessee are permitted to participate in todays hearing. Members who sit on the subcommittee and our present shall have First Priority to ask questions followed by members who sit on the full committee and only after all Committee Members who are present have gone show members who are not on the committee asked questions. Pursuant to Committee Rule seven Opening Statements are limited the chair the Ranking Member. This allows us to hear from her witnesses in her and provide all members with adequate time to ask questions that i recognize myself now for the purpose of making an opening statement. As a a mom and a policymaker hih know how important it is to havo Economic Security. Unfortunately our current laws aree inadequate in many pregnant workers are placed on unpaid leave or forcedd out of work whn they only need a simple accommodation to stay on the job during their pregnancy. Today we arele holding a legislative hearing on h. R. 269 for the pregnant workers fairness act. This bill takes an important step to guarantee the pregnant women will get reasonable accommodation that will allow them to stay in the workplace that had like to her witnesses for being hereac to provide important insight on the discrimination and hardship pregnant women face when they in denied reasonable accommodations in the workplace. I also wantd to thank the judiciary chairman jerryin nadlr the sponsormi of this bill for taking time to join us this morning. According to a better balance 75 of women will be pregnant while employed at sometime in their lives. Women are increasingly either the primary or full breadwinners of households and as a result more pregnant women work later into their pregnancies. In Fact Research suggests that more than 80 of parttime others work until their final month of pregnancy. Pregnant workers may need reasonable accommodations to protect the health of mother and baby. Reasonable accommodations can range from providing feeding, water and light duty to excusing pregnant workers from tasks involving dangerous substances. They do not need to be nor are they typically complicated or costly but when pregnant workers do not have access to the reasonable Workplace Accommodations they need their often forced to choose between their Financial Security and their pregnancy. The consequences can be devastating to their health and security. Its also important to note women of color are overrepresented in lowwage physically demanding jobs and are therefore disproportionately affected with access to reasonable accommodation. 1978 Congress First recognized the responsibility to provide pregnant women with equal treatment in the work place when they passed the pregnancy discrimination act to the law clarified discrimination against pregnant workers at discrimination on the basis of sex under title vii of the Civil Rights Act of o 1964. The law requires businesses to treat pregnant workers as they would other physically impaired workers yet 41 years after the passage of the pregnancy discriminationa act law falls short ofw guaranteeing that all pregnant workers at reasonable Workplace Accommodations. Under current law a pregnant worker must show her employer, dated similarly situated coworkers burdensome and often difficult standard to me. The americans with disabilities act covers pregnancy related impairments that leaves women with less serious pregnancy related impairments without legal recourse. Even the Supreme Courts decision in young verses ups which affirms pregnant workers rights reasonable accommodations under the pregnancy eadiscrimination act not providg workers aremo businesses the clarity or Legal Certainty theyy need. In fact since young verses ups or possibly 70 of courts have denied reasonable accommodations for pregnant workers. Pregnantntai women continue to suffer Workplace Discrimination at an alarming rate. According to a 212 2012 survey more than 60 of workers have seen pregnancy discrimination on the job. To these women meeting pregnant can mean losing u a job being denied a promotion are not being hired in themi first place for guaranteeing that women have the reasonable accommodation workplace eradicates pregnancy discrimination without protections for federal workers several states from across the geographic and political spectrum have taken action to fill the void. In my home state of oregon is one of those offices that lead the way. The state Legislature Passed a bill to require employers to provide reasonable accommodations for employees with no limitations related to pregnancy childbirth or related medical conditions unless it was imposing undue hardship and as of this month 27 states and for cities have required employers more than 15 employees to provide accommodations. Bringing certainty to business preventing costly basin important to keeping pregnant women safely onn the job of without benchmark workers andti employers are left with a patchwork of law to provide strong protections for some and no protections for others. We need to make sure all pregnant workers regardless of where they left can access the protection they need to stay and workplace and thats why we are discussing the pregnant workers fairness act today are just this bill would establish a. Workersn right to guarantee the pregnant workers can takee accommodations without discrimination or retaliations workplace. The pregnant workers fairness act askp an opportunity for congress to finally fulfill the promise of the pregnancy discrimination act to take an important step toward workplace gender equity healthy pregnancy and Economic Security of all pregnant and parenting women and their families that i welcome this opportunity to work with my republican colleagues to move this bill forward in a bipartisan manner. A request unanimous consent to enter the twor. Letters and a record one from the International Teamsters and 100 stakeholder groups and another one in support of the pregnant workers fairness act. Without objections order. I yield to the Ranking Member mr. Coleman. Thank you madam chairman i want to welcome all the witnesses including my friend and fellow kentuckian irish wilbur. Republicans have long been committed to policies that empower all americans to achieve success. Discrimination of anysh type should not be tolerated and no one should ever be denied an opportunity because of Unlawful Discrimination. That is why there are important protections under federal law to prevent Workplace Discrimination including federal laws that protect pregnant workers. The americans with disabilities act provides protections to pregnant workers. The pregnancy discrimination act outlaws pregnancy discrimination 2015 Supreme Court ruling affirmede employers must treat pregnant workers equally and fairly in states including my state of kentucky have passed laws protecting pregnant workers. The equal Employment Opportunity commission the primary federal agency that enforces civil rights laws against Workplace Discrimination has stated that ada requires employers toke accommodate trinity related limitations. A republicans in congress have long supported meaningful and clearly defined protections for pregnant workers that ensure they are not being unlawfully discriminated against as it relates to pregnancy childbirth or related medical conditions. We should promote policies in washington that encourage Strong Family allow families to first and protect live at all stages. The purpose of americas nondiscrimination law the agency enforcing them is to give all americans equal opportunities to succeed. That being said overzealous Government Intervention often causes more harm than good. While we are committed to preventing and combating Unlawful Discrimination we should carefully examine legislation that could cause confusion and prove difficult to implement permission should protect his Commission Policies that are responsible and effective sore nations workers and job creators can forage and americas workplaces can be free from discrimination. The committee should review and evaluate the federal laws on the books that provide protection for pregnant workers as well as provisions of h. R. 2694 before dancing legislation that could have unexpected consequences. The hearing today is a starting point in this regard. Bottom line pregnant workers should be protected and reasonably accommodated in thend workplace. I lookh forward to hearing from our Witnesses Today as we examine the pregnant workers act. Ess madam chair iul yield back. C think yoube could without objection all members who wish to enter written statements into thee record may do so by submitting them to the committee electronically and microsoft format. I will introduce her witness for the first panel. Congressman jerry nadler represents the tenth congressional district. Congressman nadler is the chairman of the House Committee on the judiciary. For more than 30 years chairman nadler has been on the frontlines to fight for civil rights and he has been a relentless defender of our countrys fundamental promise of equality for all. Congressman nadler praises a different t role in womens rigs serving as aam central figure in the rasterization of the violence against women act and the author of the pregnant womens fairness act. We appreciate the witness for being here today and look forward to your testimony but let me remind the witness if you statement thaten bothan appear in the record pursuant tot rule deanmack. Before your begin your testimony please remember to press theou button on the microphone in front of you and as you begin to speak the light in front of you will turn green and after four minutes it will be yellow and when it turns red your five minutes havee expired. I now recognize chairman jerry nadler. Thank you chair bonamici and Ranking Member komar for hearing this hearing today in inviting me to testify on the pregnant workers fairness act. This hearing is long overdue prepregnancy discrimination is not a new issue. As long as women have been in the work horse they have been fired for promotional hiring had their work cut back when they became pregnant or start a family. For the last six months we have seen multiple reports. Disability. Not a sometimes due to complications or even healthy pregnancys workers need a reasonable accommodation from their employer such as an extra bathroom break limiting contact with certain chemicals or reducing the amount of lifting the two previous accommodations typically cause little to provide however for millions of pregnant workers they are criticalr. Simple accommodations can mean the difference and in gene staying on the job and being forced out of leave. The difference between keeping Health Insurance are putting their pregnancy or worse at rest. The law prohibited discrimination on the basis of pregnancy childbirth or related conditions but over the last 40 years the law means if you treat your nonpregnant employees will you have to treat your pregnant employees well. The inverse t is also true. You treat your nonpregnant employees terribly you have every right under the law to treat pregnant employees terribly. In 2015 Supreme Court tempted to address how pregnancy disability act interacted with the needs for pregnancy accommodations of the work ways. The decision only exacerbated the travel. The courts found nor to receiveo accommodation to pregnant worker has to prove nonpregnant employees were similar in their ability to work. That places a huge burden on pregnant workers and requires detailed knowledge of medical and employment history every proveee pay when must their accommodation is just as valid as a hernia. For most workers are simply no way to get that information to prove their case. Thats why a better balanced sound courts side with employees and twothirds of pregnancy accommodations cases post young. The bird. The burden be on decision places places on pregnant workersrd tos prove the case is for most pregnant women insurmountableos. Other members of congress have introduced legislation to address pregnancy combination including an bill by my republicande colleague. The new legislation appears to be based on the young test and requires it simpler to provide accommodations for nonpregnant employees and must do so fored pregnant employees in similar working conditions but happy to see judicial interest in ensuring the pregnant workers accommodations on the job. The problem with mr. Walberg and ms. Wagners proposal as they require pregnant workers to prove that theyve been discriminated against in order to access accommodations. It doesnt have to be that complicated. Thats why it traduced a bipartisan workers fairness act. The bill simply creates an affirmative right to accommodation rather than relyingat on discrimination. Using the framework and language of the ada requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to. Workers and not impose an undue hardship on employed for those accommodation should be available for pregnancy childbirth or related conditions includingod lactating. Courts know how to interpret that language are there three decades of ada guidelines. Employers have worked with requirements for decades and notes that cle what their responsibilities will be. Most importantly women who have the certainly they can safely stem a job as long as they choose during their pregnancy to keep their paycheck and their health Health Insurance throughout. We know this framework for pregnancy accommodation works because we have seen it in action. To date 27 states around the countrys economies and laws similar to the pregnant workers fairness act. States like new york nebraska Washington State and most recently South Carolina kentucky the ball pass legislation to provide reasonable accommodation. Here in the house the bill has 100 cosponsors and is supported by aon broad range of health lar business and womens rights organizations. Thank you again chair bonamici and Ranking Member comer and i look forward to working with you in this committee to move this critical piece of legislation forward. Thank you chairman nadler. Thank you for taking the time to testify before the committee today. Your testimony is of value valuable piece of legislative record. We willti now receive the second panel. L. Thank you to the witness in the Committee Staff for that smooth transition. I will now introduce her witnesses for the second panel. Kimberly Michelle Durham is from alabama. The durham made the trip to washington d. C. To share her story. Or myrlie and emergency medical technician inma alabama ms. Durm was forced off the job when she became pregnant. Next ms. Iris wilbur joint Greater Louisville inc. A Metro Chamber of commerce in 2016 pages served as their vice Vice President of Government Affairs and public policy. In her role she works on policy and legislation for local state and federal level to help advocate for the Business Community. Ms. Ellen mclaughlin is a partner in the Chicago Office of shot at low pay and former chair of the labor Employment Law department. Ms. Mclaughlin is engaged in a broadbased employment practice specializing in federal and state courts and Administrative Agency in litigation. Ms. Dina bakst is cofounder and copresident of a better balanced at leading National LegalAdvocacy Organization headquartered in new york city. A better balance is dedicated to advancing the rights of working families promoting fairness in the workplace and helping workers across the economic spectrum and their families without risking Economic Security. We appreciate all the witnesses for being here today and we look forward to your testimony. Let me remind the witnesses that have read your your written statements and they will appear in full and hearing record. Or so to Committee Rule seven eat and committees he we asked you limit your a presentation to a fiveminute summary of your written testimony. Let me remind the witnesses pursuant to title xviii of the u. S. Code section 1001 it is illegal to knowingly and willfully falsify any statement or representation writing document or material presented to congress or otherwise reveal or cover up facts. Therefore giving your testimony presumably depress the button on the microphone in front of you so will turn on the members can hear you. As we begin to speak the light inin front of you will turn gren and after four minutes light will turn yellow to signal that you have one minute remaining and when thet light turns red or five minutes has expired and we ask that you please wrap up your testimony. We will let the entire panel make their presentation before we moved to member questions. When answering questions please again remember to turn