ATA Endorses Modern Worker Empowerment Act
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WASHINGTON — American Trucking Associations voiced support for steps to rescind a Biden-era labor rule during a recent hearing on Capitol Hill.
, ATA’s vice president for workforce policy, told a House panel the group backs the current Labor Department’s trajectory toward rescinding a standard for classifying independent contractors.
Earlier this month, the department announced it was revisiting the Biden administration’s 2024 worker classification guidance, which directs employers to proceed with a determination of either an employee or independent contractor. During this review, the department will not be enforcing the previous guidance.
“We strongly welcome this development and urge [the Department of Labor] to move quickly to restore the standard from the first Trump administration,” Mehrens said during the House Workforce Protections Subcommittee hearing May 20. “Changing standards from administration to administration pose significant compliance issues for everyone.”
Happening now: ATA’s Nathan Mehrens testifies before a House panel on the importance of protecting the choice of independent contractors in trucking.
Watch live: — American Trucking (@TRUCKINGdotORG)
The ATA official also pointed to a Republican-sponsored bill as a tool meant to reinforce the industry’s support for the Trump-era independent contractor model.
The , introduced by Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.) in February, would establish a comprehensive test for arriving at a worker classification.
“If enacted,” Mehrens explained, “this bill would codify the common-sense framework from the first Trump term to determine whether an individual is an independent contractor or an employee.”
Kiley’s legislation is meant to push back on California law AB 5. That state law outlines factors for companies to evaluate and determine whether an employee’s classification meets the standard of an independent contractor.
“California’s disastrous AB 5 law wreaked havoc on independent workers, stripping them of their ability to work on their own terms and forcing businesses to cut off contractor relationships. Shifting federal regulations threaten to impose similar uncertainty nationwide, putting millions of workers at risk,” Kiley said during the bill’s introduction. He is chairman of the Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education Subcommittee.
“By codifying both these protections into law,” the California congressman added, “we prevent future administrations from undermining independent workers and provide businesses with the confidence to fully engage with a modern, flexible workforce.”
ATA's Mehrens says that, if enacted, theModern Worker Empowerment Act would "codify the common-sense framework from the first Trump term." (House Committee on Education and Workforce via YouTube)
ATA also reminded House lawmakers of its ongoing opposition to provisions in the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would — among other things — revise the federal definitions of an employee, supervisor and employer. As Mehrens argued, the PRO Act “doubles down on the failed experiment from California’s AB 5 that jeopardizes the livelihoods of independent contractors.”
At the House hearing, Liya Palagashvili, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, sought to provide context about the ongoing national labor debate.
“The American workforce is not one size fits all. Workers differ in their needs, goals and circumstances,” she said. “A rigid employment model does not reflect the complexity of how people work today. Some policymakers have tried to stifle the independent workforce through overly rigid worker classification tests.”
Work in America is changing—that's why the Workforce Protections Subcommittee had a hearing today to examine how we can help empower the American workforce. ICYMI, read Chairman 's opening statement from the hearing here — House Committee on Education & Workforce (@EdWorkforceCmte)
Workforce Protections Subcommittee Chairman Ryan Mackenzie (R-Pa.) touted benefits associated with the freight industry as he endorsed his colleague’s Modern Worker Empowerment Act. He also criticized the Biden-era independent contractor rule.
“Despite California’s terrible results, the Biden-Harris administration attempted to nationalize AB 5, depriving an estimated 72.7 million independent workers of clarity and consistency in the law,” Mackenzie explained.
“The 2024 independent contractor rule imposed a confusing and complicated six-factor economic realities test to determine worker classification,” the chairman continued. “These factors range from the workers’ skill and initiative to his or her integrality to the company’s success and the degree of permanence of the relationship, among other factors which may even include unnamed factors. This would have drastically increased the federal government’s control over the American workforce.”
Democrats, for the most part, raised concerns about the Trump administration’s efforts specific to independent contractors.
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Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), the subcommittee’s ranking member, said, “We should all be supportive of real, legitimate, independent contractors and supportive of America’s small businesses while also noting that the Department of Labor has found that millions of American workers today are illegally misclassified as contractors when they really are employees.
“When that happens to them, they are stripped of their right to overtime, minimum wage and other basic protections.”
This month, the Department of Labor announced a review of the Biden administration’s 2024 worker classification guidance. That rule directs employers on how to determine whether a worker is an employee or independent contractor. The department on May 1 explained its review is meant to provide “greater clarity for businesses and workers navigating modern work arrangements while legal and regulatory questions are resolved.”
“This guidance does not change existing regulations but reflects how the department is allocating enforcement resources during the review of the 2024 rule,” per the department’s update.
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