Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., are reintroducing legislation Monday that would bar companies from receiving federal contracts if they’ve been found to have made serious, repeated or pervasive violations of child labor laws.
The senators reintroduced the bill ahead of the confirmation vote scheduled for Monday evening for Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the former Republican House member from Oregon who is President Donald Trump’s choice to serve as labor secretary.
Hawley and Booker's legislation would require companies seeking federal contracts to disclose child labor violations by the company or any subcontractors during the prior three years. It would also require the labor secretary to compile a list of companies that are ineligible for federal contracts based on any violations.
“Companies that illegally employ children should not be rewarded with lucrative federal government contracts that make corporations millions,” Hawley, who raised child labor concerns during Chavez-DeRemer’s confirmation hearing, said in a statement. “This bipartisan legislation would hold companies accountable for engaging in child labor exploitation and rightfully ensure offenders face consequences.”
The push comes after a number of American companies were found to have employed adolescents illegally and in dangerous jobs, as investigations from NBC News and The New York Times found. Many of those children who were illegally employed were unaccompanied migrants who entered the United States in recent years.
Companies such as Perdue Farms and JBS have had to pay penalties after they were found to illegally employ migrant children in their slaughterhouses. Other U.S. businesses have said they were moving to eliminate child labor in their supply chains.
“Right now in America, big corporations are exploiting children in workplaces where federal law says they shouldn’t be in the first place,” Booker said in a statement. “Children are cleaning dangerous machinery in factories, handling toxic chemicals, working exhausting shifts in meat processing plants, and more, all in flagrant violation of the law.”
“Federal contracts must not be used to drive profits for corporations that continue to jeopardize our children’s safety and well-being,” he added.
Last week, Hawley introduced another bipartisan piece of labor legislation ahead of Chavez-DeRemer’s confirmation. That bill calls for hastening first contracts for new unions and is co-sponsored by Booker and Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.
