Press Releases

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Chairman Bobby Scott (VA-03) issued the following statement after a federal court ruled that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration had “reasonably determined” that workers do not need an enforceable emergency workplace safety standard, or “Emergency Temporary Standard,” to protect them against infection during the COVID-19 pandemic.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Bobby Scott (VA-03) sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General William Barr demanding the Justice Department to enforce the Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2013 (DCRA). The DCRA requires states receiving federal criminal justice grants to report the death of any individual detained, arrested, in transit to incarceration, or incarcerated in state or local facilities. Congressman Scott sponsored the Death in Custody Reporting Act in 2000 and it became law with bipartisan support. In 2014 the law was reauthorized by Congress.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Bobby Scott (VA-03) issued the following statement after the Congressional Black Caucus, along with House and Senate Democrats, introduced the Justice in Policing Act of 2020: “Americans from all walks of life have taken to the streets to protest police brutality after the senseless murder of George Floyd. The bill introduced today is a good first step in outlawing choke holds and no-knock warrants, as well as establishing federal standards for law enforcement and making it easier to hold police officers accountable for misconduct.

WASHINGTON, DC – Chairman Bobby Scott (VA-03) issued the following statement after the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the economy added 2.5 million jobs in May with the unemployment rate at 13.3 percent. “Today’s jobs report is evidence of Congress’ strong initial response to this crisis, but it does not diminish the devastating and unprecedented scale of the economic hardship facing workers and families across the country. On average since this crisis began, weekly unemployment claims have been nearly six times higher than the pre-pandemic record set during the Great Recession.

NEWPORT NEWS, VA – Congressman Bobby Scott (VA-03) issued the following statement on the arrest of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd: “Today former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin was charged with the murder of George Floyd after days of protests and demonstrations in Minnesota and across our nation. I share in the pain and grief for Mr. Floyd’s family and that of the millions of Americans who witnessed another video of a senseless and avoidable death of an unarmed black man at the hands of law enforcement. For several minutes, as a police officer kneeled on his neck, Mr. Floyd cried out that he could not breathe – a cry that has become all too familiar.

WASHINGTON, DC – Chairman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (VA-03) issued the following statement after President Trump vetoed legislation, passed in March, to reverse the Department of Education’s Borrower Defense rule. The Department’s rule would deny debt relief to students defrauded by predatory colleges. “Earlier this year, Democrats and Republicans came together to block Secretary DeVos’ Borrower Defense rule that shields predatory schools from accountability and denies relief to student borrowers who were defrauded billions of dollars.

WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03), Chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, Congressman Bobby Scott (VA-03), Chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, introduced new legislation, the Child Care is Essential Act, to create a $50 billion Child Care Stabilization Fund within the existing Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) program.

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, in a letter to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, House and Senate education leaders called on the Education Department to rescind its “equitable service” guidance, which would redirect COVID-19 relief funding away from students in public schools to fund services for students in private schools, regardless of their wealth or residence.