Regulatory Relief for Small Businesses, Schools, and Nonprofits Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. CHABOT. Mr. Speaker, as chairman of the House Small Business Committee, I want to thank the gentleman from Michigan for his leadership on this issue. I am a cosponsor, and I strongly support passage of this legislation.

The Department of Labor's overtime rule is yet another one-size-fits- all mandate out of Washington that will have severe negative impacts on small businesses and their employees.

Countless small employers, including small businesses, nonprofits, and counties, simply do not have the profit margins or budget flexibility to increase the salaries of workers who are currently exempt to the new salary level.

Not only is the 100 percent salary level increase too high, but the compliance timeline is far too short. With the December 1 deadline looming, small businesses are scrambling to figure out how the rule will impact them and what they need to do to comply to stay out of trouble with this Federal Government.

According to a survey by Paychex, 49 percent of businessowners aren't even aware of the final overtime rule, which is rapidly breathing down their necks.

Over the past year, the Committee on Small Business has heard from countless small businesses that share their concerns about the overtime rule.

Many small businesses currently give their employees flexible schedules, pay increases when they can afford it, and offer career advancement opportunities because employees are the key to their successes. They want to treat their employees well. They don't need the Federal Government telling them to do that.

The new labor rule would limit the ability of small businesses to provide these benefits, which would have a devastating impact on employee morale. Our committee members, and other officials, including the Chief Counsel for Advocacy at the Small Business Administration, joined small businesses in urging the Department of Labor to change course.

In fact, the Chief Counsel for Advocacy sent the Department of Labor a letter that described numerous problems with the rule and recommended that small businesses be given at least a year or 18 months to comply.

Instead, the Department of Labor finalized the rule without addressing small business concerns and made the compliance deadline December 1, providing barely 6 months to comply, when they said that they ought to have at least a year or 18 months.

H.R. 6094, this bill, is critical because it will provide small businesses with 6 more months to figure out how the rule affects them, how to deal with it, and what changes they need to make to stay out of trouble with the Labor Department.

I urge my colleagues to stand up for small businesses and support this bill.

I would, again, thank Congressman Walberg for his leadership on this.

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