Save American Workers Act of 2014

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise today in support of H.R. 2575, the Save American Workers Act. This Act would restore the traditional 40-hour definition of a full-time job.

Washington may think that it knows best, but that is simply not true. This provision in ObamaCare is a perfect example of how the law hurts the very people it was intended to help. In Arkansas, we try to apply a little common sense. We all know 30 hours isn't full time, but that is what ObamaCare says, and no one seems to know why. We had a hearing in the Ways and Means Committee, and many of those who testified were puzzled as to why 30 hours was chosen. Even in France, a full-time job is 35 hours a week. Because of ObamaCare's mandates and taxes, employers are cutting workers' hours and are replacing full-time folks with part-time folks. This is real. We have seen this in Arkansas.

Let me give you some examples:

Arkansas State University reduced some workers to a maximum of 29 hours per week. The Area Agency on Aging of Western Arkansas cut hours for hundreds of home health aides and drivers to 28 hours per week. Pulaski Technical College limited hours for adjunct faculty, directly impacting students' education choices.

Just yesterday, I received a letter from the Arkansas Hospitality Association. They say ObamaCare's 30-hour rule will hurt roughly 100,000 hospitality workers.

These are folks who are working hard, playing by the rules, and trying to make it. All they want is a fair shot at success. That is what they deserve, but ObamaCare has taken that away.

According to research by the Hoover Institution, this ObamaCare rule puts 2.6 million workers making under $30,000 a year at risk. Almost 90 percent of these workers do not have college degrees. Over 60 percent of them are women. These are good, hardworking Americans, but they may lose their hours or even their jobs thanks to ObamaCare.

Wasn't this law supposed to help people get health insurance? But what are they getting? They are getting no insurance and less pay. Incredible.

I want to thank my colleague and good friend, Mr. Young, for introducing this important bill, and I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan solution that will help people keep their jobs and higher wages.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I think it is instructive to think about what this bill does in the context of the ACA.

ObamaCare defines full time as 30 hours. That doesn't surprise me coming from this administration; but we all know that just because Washington says it is so, doesn't make it so.

Thirty hours isn't full time. When we asked some experts who testified in Ways and Means, they had no idea where the 30 hours came from. They surmised that people were sitting around at the White House and just said 30 is a good number. They could have said 20. How about 10? How about 1 hour a week is full time?

If we tried to change it, and it was 1 hour, of course people that had insurance would have their situation changed. But this is about what is full time and what isn't.

The French consider 35 hours full time. Can we not at least agree that in this country 40 hours used to be full time?

That is the issue.

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to my good friend from Illinois (Mr. Rodney Davis).

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source