|
Labor
"El Paso is home to some of the hardest working people in the country. Serving this strong and dedicated community is a privilege and fighting for strong worker protections and better pay has been my goal throughout my years in Congress." -Congressman Silvestre Reyes
Throughout his years in Congress, Congressman Reyes has worked hard to assist El Paso's workers by:
1. Bringing new employment opportunities to the area;
2. Expanding federal workforce training and development programs, especially for displaced workers;
3. Supporting measures to ensure that union rights such as collective bargaining rights and prevailing wage rules are upheld, and;
4. Opposing proposals that would undermine civil service protections.
Congressman Reyes supported the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, landmark legislation that included significant investments in work training and education programs. Investments included, $53.6 billion to help states prevent cutbacks and layoffs as well as funds to modernize schools and shovel ready projects. In Texas alone, an estimated 269,000 jobs are expected to be saved or created in 2009 and 2010. The legislation included millions for job training, matching, and preparation programs,as well as youth services, subsidies and extensions for COBRA insurance premiums, and funds to extend and increase unemployment benefits for people in El Paso. Congressman Reyes also supported a new tax credit called the “Making Work Pay Tax Cut” that provided up to $800 for over 8 million Texas workers and their families, designed to start paying out immediately into workers' paychecks.
Congressman Reyes hosted U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis in El Paso at a roundtable with workforce and small business leaders to discuss both initiatives that are working to create jobs in El Paso and to provide input on areas that need to be addressed.
The Congressman advocated for and supported the first federal minimum wage increase in a decade, from $5.15 to $7.25 over two years. An estimated 13 million Americans, including over, 10,000 El Pasoans are benefitting from the increase.
Congressman Reyes, a former federal employee, led efforts in the Armed Services Committee to restore labor rights for federal employees, which eroded under the Bush Administration and the Republican-led Congress. He worked to pass legislation that restored collective bargaining rights and access to an appeals system for employees of the Department of Defense and revised the A-76 public-private competition process for the Department of Defense to restore balance and fairness to the A-76 process. Congressman Reyes also sponsored and passed legislation in the House to stall disruptive changes to the civil service system for Intelligence Community employees until the Administration can demonstrate it has procedures for employee appeals and protections.
In addition, he also worked to pass legislation that included measures to allow workers who have family members wounded in military duty to take six months of unpaid leave from their jobs to care for their loved ones. Because of legislation like this, workers are now also able to use family and medical leave to deal with issues that arise as a result of the deployment of a spouse, parent, or child to a combat zone like Iraq or Afghanistan.
The 111th Congress has had key measures passed through the House and signed into law that aim to preserve and protect America’s middle class.
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act: Ensuring that Victims of Pay Discrimination Are Treated Fairly
On January 29, 2009, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law. The measure overturned a Supreme Court ruling that made it harder for workers to pursue pay discrimination claims. The legislation is named after Lilly Ledbetter, whose pay discrimination claim was denied by a 5-4 Supreme Court decision on May 29, 2007. The court said she had waited too long to sue for pay discrimination, despite the fact that she filed a charge with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as soon as she received an anonymous note alerting her to pay discrimination. The court ruled that since she did not raise a claim within 180 days of the employer’s decision to discriminate, she could not receive back pay. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act would clarify that every paycheck or other compensation resulting, in whole or in part, from an earlier discriminatory pay decision constitutes a violation of the Civil Rights Act. The legislation would also make it clear that employees who are victims of discrimination are entitled to up to two years of back pay, as already provided in the Civil Rights Act.
Paycheck Fairness Act
On January 9, 2009, the House passed the Paycheck Fairness Act to help end the discriminatory practice of paying men and women unequally for performing the same job. Loopholes created by courts and weak sanctions in the law have allowed many employers to avoid liability for engaging in gender-based pay discrimination. The bill, which was introduced by Rep. Rosa DeLauro, will strengthen the Equal Pay Act and close the loopholes that have allowed employers to avoid responsibility for discriminatory pay. Although the wage gap between men and women has narrowed since the passage of the landmark Equal Pay Act in 1963, gender-based wage discrimination remains a significant problem for women in the U.S. workforce. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, women only make 78 cents for every dollar earned by a man. The Institute of Women’s Policy Research concluded that this wage disparity will cost a woman anywhere from $400,000 to $2 million over her lifetime in lost wages.
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law on February 17, 2009 to save and create millions of jobs, invest in education and get the economy moving forward again. Passed by the House on February 13, 2009 by a vote of 246-183, the law provides:
• A $53.6 billon state stabilization fund to help states prevent cutbacks, layoffs, create jobs by modernizing schools and colleges and meet other needs.
• $13 billion in Title I – which goes to educate low-income students – for school districts and $12.2 billion in IDEA funding to help districts educate students with disabilities.
• $2.1 billion for Head Start and Early Head Start
• $2 billion for Child Care Development Block Grants to provide child care services to an additional 300,000 low-income children while their parents are at work.
• $500 increase in the Pell Grant scholarship for the next school year
• A new $2,500 tuition tax credit to help an additional four million students families pay for college.
• Almost $4 billion for job training programs
• $500 million to help prepare Americans with disabilities for employment.
• $120 million to provide community service jobs to an additional 24,000 low-income older Americans.
• $500 million to help states place unemployed workers in open jobs.
• A 65 percent subsidy toward COBRA premiums for up to nine months for workers who recently lost their jobs.
|
