Committee on Education and Workforce
More on Committee on Education and Workforce
March 23, 2018
WASHINGTON, DC – Ranking Member Bobby Scott (VA-03) issued the following statement on the National Labor Relations Board Office of Inspector General’s Report of Investigation involving Member William Emanuel’s violation of his ethics pledge: “The Inspector General’s investigation confirms that Member William Emanuel violated his ethics pledge by participating in a case where he had a conflict of interest. In doing so, Member Emanuel has undermined the public’s confidence in the Board’s ability to protect workers’ rights in an impartial manner. I have previously called on the Chair of the Committee on Education and the Workforce to conduct a hearing on this manner, and I reiterate that call today, so we can hear from the Inspector General and get a full understanding of his findings and what is being done to prevent this from happening again.”
March 19, 2018
WASHINGTON, DC – In response to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s ruling to vacate the U.S. Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule, Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce; Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Financial Services; Congressman Dan Kildee (D-MI), Vice Ranking Member of the House Committee on Financial Services; and Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) issued the following statement. The common sense rule, which is partially in effect, simply requires financial advisers to act in the best interests of their retirement clients. Up to this point, several federal district courts and the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals have upheld the rule.
March 19, 2018
WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Bobby Scott (VA-03), Ranking Member of the Committee on Education and Workforce, sent a letter to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos requesting the Department of Education (ED) maintain a 2014 School Discipline Guidance Package. The guidance, developed jointly with the Department of Education and the Department of Justice (DOJ), was issued to remind schools of their legal obligations to administer school discipline without discriminating on the base of race, color, or national origin. The Ranking Member requested that any decision from the Department to rescind or alter the guidance be made after the public has access to a new, soon to be published a GAO report regarding disparities in discipline policies and practices applied to students of color, boys, and students with disabilities.
March 13, 2018
WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Bobby Scott (VA-03), Ranking Member of the Education and Workforce Committee, along with top Democrats, sent a letter to Peter Robb, General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), requesting that he resume the litigation of the McDonald’s case. The General Counsel decided to pursue settlement of the McDonald’s case – with only a handful of days remaining before the close of hearings. “[W]e are troubled that your decision to prematurely suspend this litigation adversely impacts the charging parties’ due process rights,” the Members wrote. “Imposing a settlement that the charging parties do not approve would risk denying them recourse for the harms the General Counsel’s office alleged in its complaints. For that reason, it appears both imprudent with respect to resources already committed, and unfair to the charging parties to prematurely terminate prosecution of this matter.”
March 12, 2018
WASHINGTON, DC – Ranking Member Bobby Scott (VA-03) issued the following statement after the Trump administration released their proposals for school safety. “Yesterday’s school safety proposals from the Trump administration are both inadequate and concerning. The administration has misplaced its focus on arming school personnel and dismantling civil rights protections for students instead of offering meaningful, evidence-based solutions to gun violence prevention. Our students and families do not need a federal Commission to study violence prevention, when real solutions that curb access to high-powered firearms and evidence-based violence prevention strategies are readily available.
March 9, 2018
WASHINGTON, DC – Ranking Member Bobby Scott (VA-03) issued the following statement after the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the economy added 313,000 jobs in February, with the unemployment rate unchanged at 4.1 percent. “Today’s job report shows the economy has built on the progress of the previous administration by adding almost as many jobs in 13 months as the number of jobs added in the last 13 months of the Obama administration. However, even though the economy is generating new jobs, workers are still struggling to find economic security. Compounding this instability is the Trump administration’s proposed rule that would allow employers to confiscate workers’ hard-earned tips. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that tipped workers could lose $5.8 billion dollars a year.
March 9, 2018
WASHINGTON, DC – Ranking Member Bobby Scott (VA-03) issued the following statement after the Department of Education (ED) published a ‘notice of interpretation’ of state’s rights to protect federal student loan borrowers. “In recent years, there have been numerous credible claims of servicing failures stemming from potentially unethical practices and purposeful misinformation provided to student loan borrowers. States under both Democratic and Republican leadership have rightly increased their investigation of such claims; implemented additional consumer protections for borrowers in their states; and where appropriate, taken legal action. States are well within their rights to enact and enforce consumer protection laws.
March 6, 2018
WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Bobby Scott (VA-03), ranking member of the Education and the Workforce Committee, released the following statement after the Department of Education (ED) Office of Inspector General (OIG) released their recommendations for H.R.4508. “Independent analysis continues to confirm what we have said about H.R. 4508 from the beginning, it makes college more expensive for students and is a wish list for for-profit schools. Our claim that it will make college more expensive was supported by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office’s analysis that the bill slashes $15 billion from federal student aid. And today, the Office of the Inspector General has confirmed that the ‘accountability’ provisions in H.R. 4508 could result in less scrutiny of the sector responsible for the overwhelming majority of OIG investigations and monetary recoveries.
March 5, 2018
WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Bobby Scott (VA-03), ranking member of the Education and the Workforce Committee, released the following statement after the Department of Education announced their final list of priorities last Friday March 2, 2018. “As with many recent actions by the Department, I am deeply disappointed with Friday’s announcement. I am disappointed by the Secretary’s failure to heed the advice of many commenters, including Members of Congress, who urged her to abandon school privatization proposals and focus on making sure every public school succeeds. I am disappointed that the words espoused in the final priorities –‘ to support the needs of students with disabilities and improve school climate’ – do not align with recent actions taken by the Department to remove protections for students of color with disabilities and undermine the efficacy of the Office of Civil Rights.
March 1, 2018
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to rise, on behalf of Congressman Morgan Griffith and myself, to recognize the achievements of Ron Carson who has made the plight of tens of thousands of disabled coal miners a central part of his life's work. Through his decades of work directing three black lung clinics in Southwest Virginia, and tireless advocacy efforts across the coal fields of this country, he offered help and hope to miners whose lungs were irreversibly scarred with the scourge of black lung disease.