'Did Nothing For Years To Keep Those Children Safe': Ryan Mackenzie Rips Biden On Child Labor Issues

Forbes Breaking News

During a House Education & Workforce Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA) spoke about child labor violations during the Biden administration.

Transcript

00:00I'd like to thank all of our witnesses for joining us here today for this important conversation

00:04about ways that we can keep workers safe in their workplaces.

00:09Voluntary protection programs can be one important component of workplace safety,

00:14and we heard in the testimony today about how we can actually prevent accidents before they occur

00:20by creating that culture for safety that exists throughout the entire year for workers,

00:25not just a snapshot of the time when an enforcement official shows up for OSHA for a day or two days

00:30and they get to see and experience what's going on in that workplace.

00:34I think, again, we all want to have that preventative maintenance going on, that preventative safety,

00:39and I think voluntary protection programs help aid and assist workers

00:44in having that culture of safety in their workplaces.

00:48We also had a broader discussion about the reforms that are going on at the Department of Labor.

00:53I think they're critically important because I think we saw during the last administration

00:58the absolute failings of the Biden administration and Democrats to hold them accountable for workplace safety.

01:04We saw that during the last administration in the spike of child labor violations that went on around this country,

01:11hundredfold increases, multiple hundredfold increases in child violations.

01:16So all the regulations that they want to talk about,

01:18all the people that were at the Department of Labor during the last administration,

01:21they did nothing to keep children in this country safe, absolutely nothing.

01:26So to sit here and say that we need no reforms and no changes is absolutely absurd.

01:32We want to work hand-in-hand with the Trump administration

01:35to make sure that we're keeping workers safe in all environments,

01:39and that's what we're going to do.

01:40The administration is making critical reforms that are so important,

01:44and we're going to work with them as a legislative body

01:46to make sure that workers across this country are kept safe.

01:49Again, I can't believe that we sit here and hear from the other side

01:55about how they want to keep workers safe in this country

01:58when they did nothing for years to keep those children safe in their workplaces.

02:03Absolutely nothing.

02:05That's an outrage, and it should be on the record that they did nothing,

02:09they said nothing, and now they want to sit here

02:11and try to take the moral high ground for workers.

02:14Absolutely absurd.

02:16So with that, I would again like to thank our witnesses for being here today.

02:20Look forward to working with all of you and everybody across the aisle

02:24in a bipartisan fashion to find ways that we can keep workers safe in this country,

02:28whether it's in a voluntary fashion or in a regulatory fashion.

02:32We all share that same goal, and I want to thank you again for being here.

02:35With that, this meeting is adjourned.

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