Workforce Protections Ranking Member Omar Remarks at Hearing on President Trump’s Deregulatory Agenda at the Department of Labor

September 2, 2026 Press Release WASHINGTON – Ranking Member Ilhan Omar (MN-05) delivered the following opening statement at today’s Workforce Protections Subcommittee hearing entitled, “Less Red Tape, More Opportunity: Unleashing American Workers and Job Creators.” “Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to our witnesses for joining us today. “My Republican colleagues love to talk about getting rid of red tape, but let’s look at what they actually want to get rid of:  it is the light at a construction site;  it is the respirator a worker wears to protect themselves from asbestos exposure;  it is an inspector looking at a mine and simply asking a coal operator whether the roof is going to hold. “Every one of these commonsense rules is on the books because a worker was hurt or killed on the job.  And this country decided it would not let it happen again. “But now the Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans are trying to repeal them. “They have also fired staff across the Department of Labor and weakened important safety agencies like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. “The attacks on workplace protections have made it harder to hold bad employ[ers] accountable, and harder for workers to trust that someone has their back. “Now, 2025 was a very good year for President Trump personally. “According to his own federal disclosure forms, Trump received 2.2 billion dollars in income after returning to the White House. “Let me put that in perspective: the median American worker would have to work over forty-three thousand years to earn what President Trump made in a single year in office.  Forty-three thousand years. “While working families were falling further behind on their bills, the man in the Oval Office is cashing in.  And Congressional Republicans are just looking the other way. “Worse, they actually added red tape of their own to the very programs all of these families need to survive. “In the year since this Republican Congress passed the ‘Big Ugly Bill,’ more than eight million Americans have lost their health coverage and more than four million lost food assistance. “Republicans know they don’t have a good economic record to run on.  But let’s be clear about the plan they are offering to the American people: it is more red tape [and] hardship for you, and less of it for their corporate beneficiaries. “Instead of crafting an agenda that helps working people with the cost of living, Committee Republicans have consistently chosen to take the wrong priorities. “They have chosen to make labor cheap. “That is what their bills would do: making it easier for an employer to treat a worker like an independent contractor instead of a full-time employee; letting employers off the hook for wage theft; and making overtime cheaper and worth less for the workers putting in the time. “And they have chosen to make jobs more dangerous. “Just last month, Committee Republicans voted to block OSHA from ever issuing any standard [protecting] workers from extreme heat – in one of the hottest summers in our country’s history. “Just as troubling is what they have chosen not to do.  This Committee has held zero hearings on issues that working people in my district and across the country care about most:  not one hearing on raising the minimum wage;  not one hearing on addressing the violence in the workplace;  and not one hearing on our child labor laws, even as this Administration announced a plan to weaken them for 14-year-olds. “Mr. Chair, every worker in America deserves to come home safe at the end of the day.  That should be one of the most basic obligations we have to our constituents. “Working families are not asking for much.  They are asking for a fair shot, an honest wage, and a safe workplace. “But this Congress, and this Administration, are failing to meet the moment. “Stripping away labor protections will not unleash anything good. “It will just move the cost of doing business onto the bodies and livelihoods of working-class people who do the real work that powers this economy. “Working Americans deserve a government that works for them, not corporate interests. “Thank you, and I yield back.” ### Issues : Workers and Economy