Biden’s SOTU, Part II. This week, President Biden delivered his second State of the Union (SOTU) address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress. (Over the years, the Buzz has been quite candid with our feelings about the...more
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
POTUS Re-ups Labor Nominees. This week, President Biden renominated Jessica Looman to serve as administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division and José Javier Rodriguez to serve as assistant...more
1/30/2023
/ Biden Administration ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Disability ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Fraud ,
GAO ,
OFCCP ,
PBGC ,
Presidential Nominations ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Withdrawal Liability
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
118th Congress Takes Shape. The Buzz certainly didn’t think we’d still be dissecting the results of the 2022 midterms ten days after Election Day, but here we are....more
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
DOL Proposes New Independent Contractor Test. On October 13, 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division published a notice of proposed rulemaking—“Employee or Independent Contractor Classification Under the...more
10/17/2022
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
EEO-1 ,
Federal Contractors ,
FOIA ,
Independent Contractors ,
NDAA ,
Pay Data ,
Railroads ,
Strike ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour
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
DACA Regulations Finalized. On August 24, 2022, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released a final rule to codify the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals...more
8/29/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Construction Contracts ,
DACA ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Federal Contractors ,
H-1B ,
OFCCP ,
Project Labor Agreements ,
Proposed Rules ,
USCIS ,
Visa Caps ,
Visas
Inflation Reduction Act: Guidance on the Way? On August 16, 2022, President Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, Democrats’ $737 billion reconciliation bill that focuses on tax reform, climate change,...more
Congressional Update. It’s the dog days of summer in Washington, D.C., and both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives are out on recess. But Congress is still making news....more
8/15/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Congressional Committees ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
OSHA ,
Pending Legislation ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Proposed Rules ,
Proxy Voting ,
Wage and Hour
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
Report on EEO-1 Data Confirms Flaws Yet Recommends Expansion. On July 28, 2022, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released a report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine titled...more
8/1/2022
/ Antitrust Division ,
Biden Administration ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
EEO-1 ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Gig Economy ,
Heat Exposure ,
Independent Contractors ,
Information Reports ,
NLRB ,
OSHA ,
Presidential Nominations ,
Safety Standards ,
Wage and Hour
Respect for Marriage Act Advances. On July 20, 2022, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 267-157 to approve the Respect for Marriage Act (H.R. 8404). All Democrats and forty-seven Republicans voted in favor of the...more
7/22/2022
/ Arbitration ,
Biden Administration ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Nineteenth Amendment ,
NLRB ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
OSHA ,
Pending Legislation ,
Railway Labor Act ,
Railways ,
Sexual Assault
EEOC Updates COVID-19 Guidance. On July 12, 2022, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission updated its COVID-19 guidance as it relates to the testing of employees in the workplace. Since the start of the pandemic, the...more
7/18/2022
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Appropriation ,
Biden Administration ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Budget ,
Federal Contractors ,
Guidance Update ,
NDAA ,
NLRB ,
NPRM ,
Service Contracts ,
Union Elections ,
Union Representatives ,
Wage and Hour