Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. WALBERG. Mr. Chair, I rise today in opposition to H.R. 1230.

Let's be clear. All of us are against workplace discrimination of any kind, and, Mr. Chairman, at my age I am certainly against age discrimination.

All of us want to protect all American workers from discrimination, but contrary to the bill's title, this legislation will end up harming workers. It is a payout to trial lawyers by muddying legal standards under the guise of a nice-sounding bill. Any plaintiff who files a discrimination lawsuit under this bill is extremely unlikely to receive any monetary awards, but the trial lawyers will still get paid for their time.

Right now we have an economy that is booming. More than 7 million jobs are unfilled across this country--that is 7 million jobs going wanting right now. The pro-growth policies we put in place are working. Our focus should be on protecting workers and encouraging greater workforce participation and not rewarding lawyers through increased opportunities to garner legal fees.

Sadly, this legislation was rushed through the Education and Labor Committee for partisan purposes. It did not receive a thoughtful consideration of bipartisan ideas. We can do better but, once again, we are using precious time to debate political messaging bills instead of solving problems.

Mr. Chairman, protecting our older workers and encouraging appropriate job training are outcomes we can all agree on. But the crux of this bill is designed to help attorneys, not workers.

I urge my colleagues to look beyond the title and vote ``no'' on this payout to trial lawyers. We can do better, and we can protect all workers, including those of age, from age discrimination.

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