Labor Secretary Hilda Solis faced congressional opposition Wednesday over the Obama administration’s proposed regulations that would determine what chores children are allowed to do on their own family’s farm.
Among other things, the Labor Department wants to bar children under age 16 from participating in the cultivation, harvest and curing of tobacco; operating almost all “power-driven” equipment; and working with animals in feed lots, grain silos, stockyards, or livestock auctions.
Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) told Solis that the proposed regulations would change the way family farms work, preventing farm kids from learning their parents’ trade.
“This is an issue that fundamentally alters an historic and familiar relationship [that is] so important to America and particularly important to rural America.”
Click here to read the Labor Department’s news release.
Leave a Reply