And Biden Administration acting labor secretary was on capitol hill to testify the departments goals and other topics including Vaccine Mandates child labor abuses and classification shes been serving and acting secretary since march after the resignation of marty walsh. Her nomination by president byington officially serve as secretary is still awarding confirmation by the u. S. Senate. This hearing is about three hours 40 minutes. [background noises] [background noises] is nick any on education and workforce will come to order. I note the quorum is present. That objection the chairs authorized to call recess at any time. Good morning everyone and welcome to todays hearing. Acting secretary at soup, i like to start by saying you have been a hard witness to schedule. The committee began working with the department to secure your in person testimony beginning in march. You would not appear in may, we honored your request to appear in june. Using the day, june 7, that was offered by your staff into which you agreed. More than a commenting to establish a mutual date for this meeting, this hearing. Why is it that late friday evening following the committees public posting of the hearing a week ago, your staff told us you were quote no longer to make june 7 work . What was so important that you are willing to stop the work of a Congressional Committee come up in the schedule 45 members of congress and leave the American Peoples concerns and answer . The hearing is not about you or your pending nomination. It is about assessing the Budget Proposal for the department of labor and the departments performance and adherence to statutory mandates. However, your effort to evade transparency at the 11th hour calls into question your ability to fulfill your duty as a potential secretary of labor. I think secretary sue, you are sitting here today only because i informed you i would issue a subpoena to compel your attendance this previously agreed to hearing. To reconsider trip cancellation. I am glad to consider that lapse in judgment. Im unaware of this committee ever meeting consider such action for Department Annual hearing until now. You cannot run from this responsibility. Congress and the American People have questions about how do you have been running the department. Overall bidens fy 2024 budget calls for 1. 5 billion more in Discretionary Spending for the department of labor than it received last year. Considering your continued unwillingness to provide fully responsive answers to Committee Oversight requests, this budget increase can only be seen as a tacit nod of approval by the president that the department can continued skirting accountability to taxpayers. If enacted the budget would add 2000 federal bureaucrats at the current 17000 cannot sufficiently respond to a single committee request i do not think adding 2000 more will help the departments bureaucratic sclerosis. If anything more bureaucrats is more mounds of paperwork and more red tape under which to bury our oversight requests. Worse, this paperwork and red tape will berate workers and businesses trying to make a living. We should be shrinking, not expanding the size of the federal government. Nevertheless after years of conducting oversight i have found no amount of bureaucratic red tape can obfuscate an objectively poor record. When the record speaks for itself, its inherent contradictions, its complications and its confusions will naturally resolve to clarity. We are here to talk about your departments record, acting secretary su and it does not hold up well. The rap sheet is long. It includes over 100 plan rulemakings and longterm actions from his first day in office invited reverse Many Trump Administration policies that would have promoted hiring and Employment Opportunities and he began pursuing a radical policies that would expand the size and scope of government and payback big labor. The Biden Administration has amassed a troubling record of big labor bias at the expense of American Workers. This culture of union favoritism undermines workers rights. Washington should not be in the business of picking winners and losers in our economy. But that is exactly what the biden ministration is whether it be through attempting to overturn every right to work law in the country, eliminating independent contracting, jeopardizing franchise businesses, over rewarding union bosses with unchecked power by acquiescing to every item on their wish list. Proactive is one example of the administrations of union favoritism. It is championed by the aflcio, big labor groups, socialist Bernie Sanders and now the department of labor. Due to legislative gridlock the department is trying to bypass Congressional Authority by implementing the key features in pieces through regulation. If enacted it would destroy the Life Insurance of workers. Including independent contractors overwhelmingly for further current worker status. Present invited anti woke agendas hurting our economy. Wed watch its impact on their workforce during covid. Acting secretary su when your deputy secretary of the department imposed facial radical illegal Vaccine Mandates on employers. The rule applied 84 million in our workforce. Was it not only wrong on the science of coveted compromise or economic supply chain because of its sweeping dictates. America needs a department of labor aligned with its priorities. Like feeling more than 10 million open jobs in the United States. In every action the Department Takes is one of two things. At best it pushes a misguided union agenda. At worst it subverts or economic stability and prosperity to desales hoods as i review the 2024 budget request, i saw more of the same. And if the administration requested 81 million more for the wage and Hour Division. Whd. Business currently at 310 million federal office responsible for enforcing several workforce laws and the American People would be incensed they knew just how badly it is run. Under your supervision the number of workers receiving back wages is the lowest on record. Down by more than 51 from four years ago. Over those four years the whd has received a 10 bump in funding yet it has achieved half results. The taxpayers are not giving a blank check with the department ineptitude whd does not deserve a dollar more per acting secretary su aiken spent all day going to live by lane this budget there places where we agree like expanding Apprenticeship Programs. But even here i think the department comes up short. Consider making the workforce system more responsive to Employer Needs the Biden Administration is doubled down on burdensome registered apprenticeships while shuttering the industry recognized is hard to think of a worse response or worker shortage. At the park for disagreement Guiding Principles and how we envision the governments role in our workforce. The government itself is on a job creator the administration in the near 100 plan workforce rules not to enforced universal unionization. Whether we should promote job creation by removing the government is much as possible from the equator. Yes, that means subtracting from not adding billions to your budget. With that other torch of the hearing to the day yield to the Ranking Member for an opening statement. Thank you doctor fox. In acting secretary su good morning thank you for being with us. You are here with us now we have had problems getting Previous Administration officials to the committee. But thank you for being with us today. We have an opportunity to discuss the work of President Biden acting secretary su what theyve done for workers, businesses in our economy as well as investments we must continue to make. Democrats and i strongly support mrs. Nomination for secretary of labor because she represents the best of america. She is the daughter of immigrants who owned a small laundromat in a franchise pizza restaurant in first family to attend law school. We support secretaries sues nomination not just because of who she is but for what she has done. Throughout her Service California labor commissioner secretary of the California LaborWorkforce Development agencies deputy secretary of labor. She has a committed Public Service is dedicated her career to supporting workers and families. Thanks to her and President Bidens leadership responsible action figure by democrats in the last congress Unemployment Rates remain near historic lows for the job market is continuing to grow workers are seeing higher wages. Since taking office invited ministration has created more than 13 million jobs. Thats more jobs created in 28 months than any previous president has created in a single 48 month term. According the white house last time at a long stretch of low unemployment was in the 1960s. Working age americans in the workforce is at its highest level in 16 years. That is the record. Want to remind my colleagues every Democratic Administration since the Kennedy Administration has left the republican successors a better deficit situation than the when they inherited. In every republican Administration Since nixon has left for the democratic successors a worse deficit situation than the one they inherited without exception. President biden is continuing this trend as he creates Record Numbers of jobs. Evidence is clear President Bidens economic agenda is working. This means my republican colleagues have had to resort to baseless claims desperate attacks to oppose sues nomination. Theres an old saying amongst lawyers if you have the law on your side with not be of the facts that your side pound of the of if you have neither the law nor the facts, pound the table. Secretary su is impeccably qualified to serve a secretary of labor shes been an integral to assisting economic recovery so get ready for people to be pounding the table. Republicans may talk about Unemployment Insurance fraud in california, this is not mrs. Doing under her leadership california implemented additional safeguards to help prepare for fraud stockton estimated tens of billions of dollars in fraudulent payments. They may attack independent contractors the labor departments proposed rules. Do not be confused by republicans attempts to conflate california state law with federal regulation. Proposed regulation does not implement californias ab five which adopts whats known as the abc tests were infected by demonstration clearly noted it is legally constrained from adopting the abc tests to this line of attack on secretary to suit does not hold of either robin and sok about child labor. Secretary says not among the republican state legislators who are working to roll back labor protections. Unfortunately we can expect republicans on the committee to pound the table this morning since they have no substantive criticism of secretary susie record in the department of labor. In contrast Committee Democrats remain focused on concrete solutions to put money back into workers pockets. Keep workers healthy and safe on the job ensure all workers can enjoy dignified retirement. I hope my republican colleagues will put politics aside and work with us to deliver on these priorities. So thank you secretary see if your leadership joining us today for help remain focused on what is most important, improving the lives of workers and their families. Thank you madam chair in the back. Next thank you mr. Scotts. Pursuant to Committee Role all Member Service to insert written statements into the record may do so by submitting to the Committee Clerk electronically microsoft word format by 5 00 p. M. 14 days after the date of this hearing which is june 21, 2023. Without objection hearing record remain open for 14 days to allow such statements and other extraneous material referenced during the hearing to be submitted for the official hearing record. I now turn to the introduction of our distinguished witness thank you for being here. We have the force of the honorable acting secretary u. S. Department of labor. Thank you chairman fox, Ranking Member scott and members of the committee. Thank you for the invitation to testify today. I am pleased to appear before this committee to highlight the department of labor fiscal year 2024 budget request. An investment in the department of labor is an investment in our workers in the future of our country. Through this budget we can build an economy from the bottom up in the middle out. I recognize Congress Working under statutory budget caps for fy 2024 i look forward to working with you to ensure these priorities are reflected in the final bill. American dream that if you work hard you can make it has always been premised on having a good job. That is why it is just a budget is fundamentally about investments in people. About what a good job does for individual, a family, and a community. No wonder she be injured or killed at work. The budget request will allow the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to improve Workplace Safety and health and be better able to help employers comply with the law. The budget request includes an increase to enable to strengthen its efforts to reduce accidents, injuries, illnesses, fatalities. The department requesting funding for the Training Administration to build on the progress restoring enduring economy following the pandemic. These resources will create pathways into the highquality jobs created by the landmark bar partisan infrastructure law chips in science act and Inflation Reduction Act and other historic investments in our nations infrastructure, Energy Sectors in manufacturing. Investments in evidencebased Workforce Development models will help state and local areas with the Workforce Needs of their communities and the needs of industry across the country. Specifically the budget continue support for the program in line with the president s goal to serve at least 1 million apprentices annually within 10 years. The budget request proposes an employment through Career Training for occupational Readiness Program to support the development and expansion of partnerships between employers, education and workforce evolvement providers and communitybased groups. The department proposes Additional Resources for the veterans employment and Training Service to support a legislative proposal that expands antidiscrimination and reemployment protections to military spouses. Military spouses sacrifice daily to support their families in our country. The administration is proposing we do more to ensure they are able to enjoy the Economic Security they deserve. Protecting workers hard earned pension and Health Benefit is a priority for the department the budget request for the Employee BenefitsSecurity Administration includes increase to continue its important work expanding access to care for Mental Health and Substance Abuse disorders at a time when so Many Americans are living with these conditions. Agencies request an increase for the missing Participant Program as well as establishment of a Retirement Savings lost and found required by the recently enacted to secure 2. 0 to reconnect retirees with the benefits they have earned. These investments will make a real difference retired and elderly people. Working together we can create an economy built surrounding dignity and value of all work and workers. I thank you for the opportunity to testify. Look forward to discussing the fy 2024 budget request with you and all members of the committee. I am happy to respond to any questions you may have. Thank you very much secretary su peller recognized myself for five minutes. I take my duty to conduct oversight. Seriously. Unfortunate secretary walsh did not take his obligation to respond to oversight seriously. During your short tenure track record appears to be about the same as his. At least until you attempted to cancel your appearance at the last minute and are here today only because my threat to issue a subpoena cause you to recon