During a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Thursday, Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) questioned Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer about proposed cuts to the department.
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00:00The chair recognizes Representative Dean.
00:04Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Ranking Member.
00:07Secretary Chavez de Reimer, thank you for being here today, for your testimony, and for our conversation within the last week.
00:14I appreciate that. And Madam Chair and Madam Ranking Member, I know I'm new to this committee, but I have to tell you there's something a little jarring about what's going on.
00:24I think we are here in appropriations hearings. Am I correct?
00:30And nowhere in your testimony are you revealing what the president is actually seeking, which is a $4.7 billion reduction to the Department of Labor.
00:43These are appropriations hearings. We should be hearing about the dollars.
00:48Your words are at complete odds. Your value of labor and of workers are at complete odds with the deep cuts that are proposed in the president's budget.
01:00And I'm puzzled that you wouldn't have written about it in your written testimony or testified to it today.
01:07You want to protect workers. You want to grow jobs. You just said that. Mackinac Island and everywhere else. You want to grow jobs.
01:13How do we do that with a $4.7 billion cut to the Department of Labor? 36% from 25 enacted levels.
01:23So I'm concerned about these cuts. I'm concerned what impact they'll have on workers across the nation.
01:29Labor is the backbone of this country. It is the backbone of this economy, an economy that we want to go positively as opposed to what is going on right now.
01:40These budget cuts will affect critical programs that support American workers, such as job training, unemployment benefits, workplace safety, and other vital labor protections.
01:52Workers are facing shifting job markets, and they have a lot on the line.
01:58And we have an obligation to fully understand how these proposed reductions that your president, our president, your boss, is putting forward.
02:08You know, I was mindful of our new pope who will be installed this weekend, Pope Leo XIV, who selected his papal name after Pope Leo XIII,
02:20who prized and was really sort of the godfather of social justice, Christian Catholic social teaching, and the rights of working people.
02:31It's in that spirit that I hope we can recognize the importance of all workers.
02:36And yet, if you take a look at the framing of this administration, and labor, and workers,
02:42and read the March 27th executive order by this president, stripping federal workers of their collective bargaining rights,
02:51as I said, this is in complete juxtaposition to the language that you are using.
02:57And you're not talking about the steep cuts.
03:00So let's talk about some of them.
03:02We know the benefits of workforce development programs.
03:05I've seen it directly in the community college in my district with their apprenticeship programs,
03:10working directly with the county to provide one- to two-year Montgomery County Works apprenticeship programs,
03:17called MAP, for students to gain in-demand skills at no cost.
03:22The program partners students with businesses in my area, providing an opportunity for a successful pipeline for employment.
03:30These programs are at risk.
03:33I'll tell you already, they're cutting.
03:35The Montgomery County Commerce Department in my district has already received notice of a 15% cunt
03:41in annual Workforce Investment Opportunity Act, WIOA funding totaling almost $600,000.
03:50This is in conflict, again, with your words.
03:53You prize workforce development, and we are already forced, as a result of the actions of this administration,
03:59to cut.
04:00You talk about cutting waste, fraud, and abuse, and to restore freedom.
04:05The president's proposed budget cut would take $1.6 billion from Department of Labor grants,
04:13and remove- and move the remainder to make America skilled again.
04:18I guess that's MASA.
04:19We'll add that to MAGA.
04:21We'll add that to MAHA and AHA.
04:24I cannot stand these slogans.
04:26I want substance.
04:27Let's talk about the substance of cutting $1.6 billion and shifting, and I say shafting,
04:35when you send it over to the states in a block grant program.
04:39Your argument is, the president's argument is, the states will have greater control.
04:44We know that not to be true.
04:46You're cutting what the states will get, and they've cut, as I just showed you, at the county level, what we can do.
04:54You propose, the budget proposes, eliminating WIOA, adult job training, which would deny job training and employment services to more than 300,000 adults who face barriers to funding-
05:08finding good-paying jobs, which would rob 135,000 young people of employment opportunities.
05:15Do you understand the conflict that we hear from your words and the deep cuts that this administration-
05:22they're already starting, and they're proposing for the 2026 budget, which you have not raised whatsoever?
05:30Congresswoman, I know we're out of time, but I just do want to answer.
05:35And thank you for the phone call.
05:36Thank you for recognizing my values for the American worker.
05:38I do appreciate it.
05:39And so my words are true.
05:41This is a re-evaluation of the taxpayer dollars in understanding how we can best dedicate it to the workforce.
05:48So while you want to call it cuts, that's up to you.
05:52I want to call it a re-evaluation, and we want to focus those tax dollars.
05:55Because that's the American first agenda that we are putting forward.
05:58And I can guarantee you this.
06:00I will work my tail off day in and day out to protect the American worker, to provide the drop-down menu for the words that I've used in this testimony today.
06:09And I will work with you and everybody in this office to do exactly that.
06:12While we re-evaluate taxpayer dollars that can save the taxpayer dollars and not the waste, fraud, and abuse.
06:18That's the goal of the American first agenda.
06:20That's the goal of this administration.
06:22And I will enact this administration and do both.
06:24We can do both.
06:26But in your role here today, you did not describe a single cut.
06:29I think that misses what you were supposed to be doing here today.
06:34I'll yield back.