Debt Ceiling Disaster Dodged. After months of political posturing, weeks of negotiating, and days of nail-biting, the U.S. Congress approved legislation to lift the debt limit to ensure continued payment of the nation’s...more
6/5/2023
/ Biden Administration ,
Debt Ceiling ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Monitoring ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Federal Budget ,
Native American Issues ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Trade Secrets
Debt Ceiling Debate Deadlock. Over the years, the Buzz has bemoaned our elected officials’ penchant for brinksmanship, but the current situation is getting ridiculous. Once again, negotiations over raising the debt ceiling...more
SCOTUS to Revisit Precedent on Agency Deference. This week, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) agreed to hear Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, a case that will invite the Court to overrule its 1984 decision...more
5/8/2023
/ Arbitration ,
Chevron Deference ,
Chevron v NRDC ,
Employee Misconduct ,
Minimum Wage ,
NLRB ,
OSHA ,
Presidential Nominations ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Race Discrimination ,
SCOTUS ,
Senate Confirmation Hearings ,
Workplace Hazards
He’s Running. President Joe Biden announced this week that he will run for reelection in 2024. President Biden has stated that he is the most pro-union president in history, so the Buzz will not be surprised if labor and...more
5/1/2023
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Joe Biden ,
Joint Employers ,
Make-Whole Doctrine ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
OSHA ,
OSHRC ,
Political Candidates ,
Presidential Elections ,
Presidential Nominations ,
Senate Confirmation Hearings ,
Unions
Senate Committee Vets Biden’s Labor Pick. -
On April 20, 2023, the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions held a confirmation hearing on Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su’s nomination to be...more
4/24/2023
/ Biden Administration ,
Confirmation Proceedings ,
Congressional Investigations & Hearings ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Independent Contractors ,
NLRB ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Secretary of Labor ,
Unions
POTUS Signs Bill Ending COVID-19 Emergency. On April 10, 2023, President Biden signed a congressional resolution officially ending the COVID-19 national emergency. The resolution was passed out of the U.S. House of...more
4/17/2023
/ Biden Administration ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Federal Contractors ,
H-1B ,
NLRB ,
OSHA ,
Proposed Rules ,
Public Health Emergency ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
USCIS
Michigan Repeals Right-to-Work Law. Late last week, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed into law legislation repealing the state’s right-to-work law, which was enacted in 2012. Right-to-work laws allow for voluntary...more
POTUS Issues First Veto. On March 20, 2023, after more than two years in office, President Biden issued his first legislative veto. As expected, President Biden rejected the bipartisan Congressional Review Act resolution that...more
3/27/2023
/ Administrative Priority ,
Biden Administration ,
Climate Change ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Federal Contractors ,
H-1B ,
NLRB ,
OFCCP ,
Presidential Veto ,
Retirement Plan ,
Scheduling Letters ,
Severance Agreements
House of Representatives: Standing Room Only. On March 7, 2023, Jennifer McClellan (D-VA) was sworn in as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives after winning a special election last month to fill a seat that had been...more
SCOTUS Rules in OT Case … More Challenges on the Way? On February 22, 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a 6–3 decision holding that an employee making $200,000 each year is entitled to overtime pay under the...more
2/27/2023
/ Bureau of Labor Statistics ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Fees ,
Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc v Hewitt No 21-984 ,
Highly Compensated Employees ,
NLRB ,
Over-Time ,
SCOTUS ,
Severance Agreements ,
USCIS
The Pandemic Is Dead! Long Live the Pandemic! This week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution to immediately end the COVID-19 national emergency, as well as a bill to end the COVID-19 public health emergency....more
2/6/2023
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Congressional Investigations & Hearings ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employment Contract ,
Enforcement Guidance ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
NLRB ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
OSHA ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Public Health Emergency ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Union Elections ,
Unions
Union Membership Decreases. The percentage of workers who are union members dropped to 10.1 percent in 2022 from 10.3 percent in 2021, according to data released this week by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). In the...more
1/23/2023
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Congressional Committees ,
Deferred Action ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
OFCCP ,
OSHA ,
Union Elections ,
Unions
U.S. House of Representatives Gets to Work. Hours after the Buzz published on January 6, 2023, Representative Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was elected Speaker of the House on the fifteenth round of voting. With that, members were...more
117th Congress Works on Last-Minute Bills as Holidays Loom. Nothing is more typical of the holiday season in Washington, D.C., than a last-minute legislative crisis in the U.S. Congress, and this year is no different. With...more
Democrats Claim Senate Majority. This week, Senator Raphael Warnock won a runoff election to serve a full term as U.S. senator for Georgia. The victory gave Senate Democrats a true majority (51–49) in the upper chamber for at...more
12/12/2022
/ American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 ,
Apprenticeships ,
Comment Period ,
Election Results ,
Joint Employers ,
New Guidance ,
NLRB ,
Pension Funds ,
Political Parties ,
Prevailing Wages ,
U.S. Treasury
Congress and POTUS Act to Avert National Freight Rail Shutdown. The national freight rail dispute that the Buzz had been tracking for months has come to the end of the line. Several holdout labor unions had refused to ratify...more
12/5/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Federal Contractors ,
Green Cards ,
Immigration Procedures ,
NLRB ,
OFCCP ,
Pending Legislation ,
Railroads ,
Railway Labor Act ,
Railways ,
Strike ,
Supply Chain ,
Trade Unions ,
Unions
The 2022 Midterm Election Results Are In! Sort of. The midterm elections are over, but we still do not know who will be in control of the 118th United States Congress. The predicted “red wave,” by which Republicans were...more
DOL Extends IC Proposal Comment Period. On October 25, 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division announced an extension of the public comment period for its proposal to amend the independent contractor...more
10/31/2022
/ Comment Period ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Rights ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Independent Contractors ,
Labor Disputes ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Posting Requirements ,
Railroads ,
Relief Measures ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour
The federal contractor vaccine requirement is back in the news. As T. Scott Kelly and Emily Halliday discussed, in late August 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit narrowed the coverage of a previously...more
10/24/2022
/ Audits ,
Comment Period ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Employer Mandates ,
Federal Contractors ,
Form I-9 ,
H2-B Visas ,
Joint Employers ,
Mail-In Ballots ,
Multiemployer Plan ,
NLRB ,
PBGC ,
Time Extensions ,
Vaccinations
Nomination News. With control of the U.S. Senate in 2023 up for grabs, the Biden administration continues its push to fill agency leadership positions. Late last week, the Senate confirmed attorney Lisa Gomez to run the U.S....more
10/10/2022
/ Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Dues Checkoff ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
LGBTQ ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Preemption ,
Private Property ,
SCOTUS ,
Union Dues ,
Unions
Lawmakers Avoid Shutdown, Extend Government Funding Deadline. The U.S. Congress narrowly averted a federal government shutdown this week, as it approved a stopgap continuing resolution to keep the government funded and...more
10/3/2022
/ Affirmative Action ,
Apprenticeships ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
FAAP ,
Federal Budget ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Funding ,
Fraud ,
Government Shutdown ,
NLRB ,
OFCCP ,
OIG ,
Unemployment Benefits
OSHA Broadens Criteria for “Severe Violators.” On September 15, 2022, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced updates to its Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP) to “broaden the program’s...more
Railroads Back on Track. After months of negotiating - and a very tense last few days - the national freight railroads have reached tentative agreements with the labor unions representing their employees. The agreements avert...more
9/19/2022
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Federal Contractors ,
FOIA ,
Labor Relations ,
NLRB ,
OFCCP ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Railroads ,
Retirement ,
Strike ,
Trade Unions
Congress Is Back. Summer break is over, and like the many children who have recently returned to school, our congressional lawmakers returned to Washington, D.C., this week to kick off a four-week stint before they leave to...more
Senate Scrambles Ahead of Summer Escape. While members of the U.S. House of Representatives returned home for the August congressional recess, the U.S. Senate remained in Washington, D.C., this week to wrap up some...more
8/8/2022
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Climate Change ,
Comment Period ,
Congressional Committees ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Energy Projects ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Federal Funding ,
Finland ,
NATO ,
NLRB ,
NPRM ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Strategic Enforcement Plan ,
Sweden ,
Tax Credits