Norton’s Worker Protection Bill Included in Obama Executive Order Today

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), a senior member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, praised President Obama for including key components of her recently introduced Restore Opportunity, Strengthen, and Improve the Economy (ROSIE) Act in an Executive Order (EO) issued today that provides workplace protections for federal contract workers. The ROSIE Act requires employers seeking federal contracts to demonstrate compliance with workplace protection laws, including laws governing labor relations, wages and hours, and health and safety laws. Similarly, the EO not only requires prospective federal contractors and their subcontractors to disclose labor law violations in all of these same categories, but it also provides assistance to companies to help them come into compliance, requires employers to provide their workers with a pay stub with wage and hours information, and simplifies contractor reporting by developing a single website for contractors to meet any reporting requirements required under the EO.

"Millions of federal contract workers will appreciate that President Obama incorporated significant components of our ROSIE Act into his federal contract worker protection Executive Order," Norton said. "The President has done the right thing for the workers and the taxpayers. Why should contractors, whose revenue comes from the federal government, be continuously rewarded preference for violating federal laws and cheating their workers? I am grateful that the President has put some consistent accountability in the federal contract process."

On Monday, Norton introduced the ROSIE Act at a rally in front of Union Station with hundreds of federal contract workers. The ROSIE Act incentivizes federal government contractors who support workers' collective bargaining, pay living wages and benefits, stop wage theft, and avoid paying CEOs excessive salaries. Norton announced the ROSIE Act with the organization known as Good Jobs Nation, a federal contract workers' rights advocacy group, with whom she worked closely on the bill. At the rally, Norton called on the President to put the ROSIE Act into an EO.