![]() “As the House of Representatives, we have an obligation to taxpayers-and in all truth this institution has been neglecting that duty. Is it any wonder that some schools haven’t used this money for pandemic relief, or have wasted it on unrelated projects? Take one school district in Wisconsin, for example, that used COVID relief money to build a new football field, or a high school in Iowa that renovated its weight room. ![]() “All this money was sent to schools with few guardrails on how it was supposed to be spent and with no accountability system in place. “Are we conveniently forgetting about the $204 billion sent to schools during the pandemic, the most our country has ever spent on K-12 schools at one time? Price spikes in raw materials, a shortage of construction workers, and record high diesel costs, are a perfect recipe for ensuring taxpayers don’t get a good return on their money. “Forcing schools to start construction projects during record high inflation, and a major supply chain crisis, is completely irresponsible. This bill was rejected on a bipartisan basis, and revisiting it now is a waste of time. 604, or the Reopen and Rebuild America's Schools Act, is a bill that was already rejected by the Senate and the American people during Build Back Better fiasco. 7701 will have a devastating impact on small businesses, independent contractors, and the franchise business model. “Americans should have the freedom to pursue flexible work arrangements without being strangled by red tape. Fear of Biden’s Department of Labor could be the reason thousands of Americans lose work-this is fundamentally unfair. This will disadvantage thousands of workers who rely on the flexibility that independent work provides. “Further, liabilities like this will dissuade employers from hiring independent contractors. These massive and unreasonable fines could completely bankrupt small businesses. What else would you call legislation that increases penalties on job creators by 900 to 4,900 percent? Talk about overkill. “What we do reject is weaponizing the Fair Labor Standards Act, or any federal legislation, to be used against our country’s job creators. Republicans believe that every worker should be paid in full that is not under debate. 7701, or the Wage Theft Prevention and Wage Recovery Act, is the wrong answer for American workers and job creators. It leads me to ask, is putting legislative notches in the belt before November than doing what’s best for the American people? While there are two bills today that Republicans support, there is much more bad than good being marked up today. “Today’s markup deals with a wide breadth of bills, but many haven’t received appropriate consideration. Tim Walberg (R-MI) delivered the following remarks, as prepared for delivery, at an Education and Labor Committee markup on bills ranging from school construction to onerous wage and hour penalties:
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