GOP Senators Push for Child Labor Bills in Rare Bipartisan Move

Senate Republicans are pushing a range of new bills designed to address the growing problem of child labor violations, as US Department of Labor data show a near 50% increase in children working illegally in the US in 2023.

Several GOP senators have signed on to measures along with Democrats, from raising penalties for infractions to giving the DOL more time to halt goods made by illegal child labor.

“I think when the Department of Labor sees us, with bipartisan legislation like this, it’s a signal to them that we are watching you, we do know there’s a problem,” Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) said in an interview with Bloomberg Law.

The recent bills show there may be growing bipartisan momentum for child labor legislation, even if Republicans tend to favor narrower changes than what many advocates and Democrats are seeking. But even with the cooperation across the aisle in the Senate, Congress’ packed legislative agenda, a lack of House Republican interest in the bills, and the historical difficulties of modifying US labor laws will create roadblocks to meaningful change.

Child labor violations have been on the rise for the past few years, and the DOL has bumped up its enforcement capabilities. But the administration has said it needs more funding to really crack down on the issue.

Lawmakers—primarily Democrats—have proposed changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act that governs most child labor restrictions. The bills have ranged in reach, with some more comprehensive than others.

There’s only so much the administration can do without action from Congress, said Catherine L. Fisk, professor of labor and employment law at University of California, Berkeley Law.

Expanding the liability chain for businesses that have illegal child labor present in their supply chains would be the best way to tackle the crisis, she said.

“It would create an incentive for companies to ensure that no children are working in hazardous jobs or at hours that have been prohibited by law for a century,” Fisk said. “It’s important both to raise the penalty and to have entities with direct or indirect control over the facility to be liable for them.”

Expanding the Liability Chain

Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) recently introduced legislation that would do as much, holding contractors and subcontractors liable for child labor violations in the same manner as the employer. The idea has so far mostly failed to gain bipartisan support.

However, bipartisan legislation by Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) appears to have more momentum. It would require companies competing for contracts with federal agencies to disclose child labor infractions by the company itself as well as by any of its contractors over the preceding three years.

The bill would also require the labor secretary to prepare a list of companies ineligible for federal contracts based on repeated or serious violations.

“These corporations are happy to have child labor because it’s cheap,” said Hawley. He expects his bill to be marked up in committee by the end of the year, he said.

“In my state, you’ve got Tyson Foods closing plants and putting thousands of people out of work. But yet, they’ve got child labor in their supply chains, cleaning their factories, their plants,” Hawley said. “We gotta end up throwing real penalties for the corporations doing this stuff.”

Tyson, as well as another meatpacking giant Perdue Farms Inc., have been under the close scrutiny of the DOL for child labor violations.

Greater Fines, More Time

While Hawley has been more hawkish against corporations, narrower proposals to increase civil penalties and give the DOL more time to investigate infractions have been more popular with Republicans.

Legislation from Sens. Brain Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Todd Young (R-Ind.) would bump civil fines up to as much as $132,270 for a routine child labor violation, and up to $601,150 for those that result in death or serious injury of a minor. It would also create criminal penalties for repeated and serious offenders, and allow the victim children to pursue punitive and compensatory damages in court of up to $250,000.

“I think it can pass, I think there’s bipartisan agreement that the penalties are too low,” said Schatz. “The whole point of these fines is to serve as a deterrent and the dollar figure is just too low, so I think this is something that we can accomplish in this Congress.”

The only bipartisan child labor bill in the House—introduced by Reps. Hillary Scholten (D-Mich.) and Nancy Mace (R-S.C.)—would similarly raise civil penalties.

A different approach in the Senate would expand the window for the DOL to halt goods made by illegal child labor from 30 to 90 days, beefing up the DOL’s “hot goods” enforcement tool under the FLSA. The provision allows the labor agency to prevent a business from shipping products made in plants where children worked illegally.

The bill—authored by Republican Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Marshall along with Democratic Sens. John Hickenlooper (Colo.) and Alex Padilla (Calif.)—would also require the DOL to provide Congress with detailed reports of child labor activity that also would have policy recommendations.

Border Security Issue

Republicans have often tied the rise in child labor to issues on the southern US border, claiming the administration is failing to contain migrants which is ultimately resulting in child trafficking and minors working illegally.

“I just see so many young adults, so many kids coming across the border that they would be the easy victims,” Marshall said. “Their parents don’t know better, most likely they don’t even have their parents with them.”

President Joe Biden has also drawn a connection between border security and the rise in child labor. In his recent supplemental appropriations request to Congress, the president asked for $100 million to the DOL to tackle the child labor wave under the border security section.

Any reforms to child labor laws may have to go along with border policy changes for some Republicans, particularly in the House.

The Committee on Education and the Workforce’s Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) has indicated the GOP’s main border security bill could serve as a legislative solution to the current child labor crisis. The bill passed the House but is very unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate.

The packed agenda for Congress in the next several months also presents some challenges. The government’s next funding deadline is Nov. 17 and national security priorities with the wars in Israel and Ukraine have taken much of lawmakers’ attention, holding up most of the other policy proposals.

“This is a place that between all these ‘must pass’ bills that are eating up floor time, and hundreds and hundreds of nominations—that seems to be all that we’re doing,” Rubio said.