The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“CHILDREN'S ACT FOR RESPONSIBLE EMPLOYMENT” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Labor was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H3295-H3296 on June 12, 2013.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
CHILDREN'S ACT FOR RESPONSIBLE EMPLOYMENT
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Roybal-Allard) for 5 minutes.
Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD. Mr. Speaker, today is International Day Against Child Labor, which gives us the opportunity to reflect on the plight of hundreds of millions of children throughout the world who perform work that endangers their health, deprives them of an adequate education, and denies them basic freedoms and protections.
Unfortunately, the United States is not immune to the scourge of child labor. Long hours and dangerous working conditions are, sadly, a reality for hundreds of thousands of children working in our country's fields and farms.
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Throughout our Nation, there are children like Zulema, who at age 12 works in the fields picking fruits and vegetables, while her classmates spend afternoons doing homework and playing with friends. Despite her young age, Zulema frequently, with bare hands, wields adult-sized harvesting shears. When crop dusters fly overhead, she is often covered in pesticides meant to kill insects in the field. In spite of Zulema's exposure to these serious and dangerous conditions, she takes home to her struggling family a mere $64 a week.
Our farming industry is alarmingly plagued by preventable tragedies like the one in Mount Carroll, Illinois, where a 14-year-old boy cleaning a grain bin suffocated to death when he was sucked into a sinkhole of flowing corn. Tragic accidents like this underscore the fact that agriculture is one of our Nation's most dangerous industries. Yet it is the only industry in which our children are not protected equally by our child labor laws.
While reserved for adults in every other occupation in agriculture, children as young as 16 are allowed to perform hazardous work, like driving tractors and operating chain saws. It is also the only industry in which children as young as 12 are allowed to labor in the fields with virtually no restrictions on the number of hours they work outside of the school day.
To address this shameful reality in our country, I am reintroducing the Children's Act for Responsible Employment, better known as the CARE Act. While retaining current exemptions that protect family farms and agricultural education programs like 4-H and Future Farmers of America, the CARE Act raises labor standards and protections for farmworker children to the same level set for children in all other occupations.
Specifically, the CARE Act ends our country's double standard that allows children employed in agriculture to work at younger ages and for longer hours than those working in all other industries. The bill raises the minimum age for agricultural work to 14 and restricts children under 16 from work that interferes with their education or endangers their health and well-being. The CARE Act also prohibits children under the age of 18 from working in agricultural jobs which the Department of Labor has declared particularly hazardous. This is consistent with current law governing every industry outside of agriculture.
Mr. Speaker, no child should be discriminated against based on the work they do. All of America's children deserve to be protected equally under our laws. It is our moral obligation to do all in our power to protect the rights, safety, and educational future of our most precious resource--America's children.
The time has come for the United States of America to bring our child labor laws in line with our American values and to give all of our children the fundamental protections they rightfully deserve. I urge my colleagues to support and to help pass the CARE Act.
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