Steve Southerland on Jobs

Voted YES on allowing compensatory time off for working overtime.

• Amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to authorize private employers to provide compensatory time off to private employees at a rate of 1 1/2 hours per hour of employment for which overtime compensation is required.
• Authorizes an employer to provide compensatory time only if it is in accordance with an applicable collective bargaining agreement.
• Prohibits an employee from accruing more than 160 hours of compensatory time.
• Requires an employee's employer to provide monetary compensation for any unused compensatory time off accrued during the preceding year.
• Requires an employer to give employees 30-day notice before discontinuing compensatory time off.

Opponent's Argument for voting No:

Rep. COURTNEY: This is the fifth time that the majority party has introduced [this bill since] 1997; and each time, the huge flaws in this legislation have resulted in its complete collapse. And once again, it doesn't deserve that support. Despite the representations made in its title--that it promotes workers' flexibility, that it gives workers choice--a closer examination of the bill shows the opposite is true. The better way to describe this bill is the More Work, Pay Less bill.

The 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act created a bright line to protect people's right to a 40-hour work week, and make sure that that next hour after 40 hours is paid for with the time-and-a-half of wages. That created the weekend in America. That created the time off that middle class families have taken for granted for decades.

What this bill does is it blurs that line; it creates total chaos in terms of trying to come up with a system to set up ground rules with a case-by-case written contract, and then leaves it to the enforcement of State Labor Departments Wage and Hours Divisions, which are totally incapable of going into the tens of thousands of workplaces all across America.

Member of House Committee on Agriculture.

The House Committee on Agriculture has general jurisdiction over federal agriculture policy and oversight of some federal agencies, and it can recommend funding appropriations for various governmental agencies, programs, and activities, as defined by House rules. The Committee was established in 1820; in 1880 forestry was added to its jurisdiction. Its jurisdiction now includes:

1. Adulteration of seeds, insect pests, and protection of birds and animals in forest reserves.
2. Agriculture generally.
3. Agricultural and industrial chemistry.
4. Agricultural colleges and experiment stations.
5. Agricultural economics and research.
6. Agricultural education extension services.
7. Agricultural production and marketing and stabilization of prices of agricultural products, and commodities (not including distribution outside of the United States).
8. Animal industry and diseases of animals.
9. Commodity exchanges.
10. Crop insurance and soil conservation.
11. Dairy industry.
12. Entomology and plant quarantine.
13. Extension of farm credit and farm security.
14. Inspection of livestock, poultry, meat products, and seafood and seafood products.
15. Forestry in general, and forest reserves other than those created from the public domain.
16. Human nutrition and home economics.
17. Plant industry, soils, and agricultural engineering.
18. Rural electrification.
19. Rural development.
20. Water conservation related to activities of the Department of Agriculture.