Senate Chief Counsel for Employment: Comments Received on Proposed Rulemaking Implementing New Overtime Regulations – October 29, 2004
Posted October 29th, 2004
Dear Mr. Thompson:
We submit this letter to the Board of Directors of the Office of Compliance (“the Board”) in response to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPR), 150 Cong. Rec. S99 17-27 (daily ed. Sept. 29, 2004). The NPR invites comments with respect to proposedregulations implementing new overtime regulations for covered employees of the Senate.
Below we submit our section-by-section analysis. At the outset, however, we note that there are currently three bills pending in Congress, H.R. 5006 (passed by the House on September 9, 2004), S. 2975 (passed by the Senate on October 10, 2004), and S. 28 10 (on the Senate calendar), that would substantially void the overtime regulations promulgated by the Department of Labor (DOL). As the Board’s proposed regulations are based on those DOL regulations, the Board’s NPR is precipitous.
We have two additional general comments before the section-by-section analysis. First, the proposed regulations use a numbering system that differs from that of the existing regulations, but the NPR does not state which of the existing regulations are being replaced. You verbally informed us that the proposed regulations are intended to replace the currently existing 541 series, and our comments are based on that representation. Additionally, the DOL regulations often refer to a “business” or “company.” To make the regulations more applicable to the Senate, the Board should replace “business” or “company” where appropriate with “employing office.”
Section 541.0 Introductory statement
The proposed section 541.0 appears intended to replace current Office of Compliance (OC) regulation S541 .O1. Subsection (a) of the proposed regulation begins with “Section 13(a)(l) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (Act), as amended. . . .” Currently, regulation S541 .O1 does not contain the language “as amended,” and it is erroneous for the Board to insert “as amended” in the proposed regulation. As the Congressional Accountability Act (CAA) incorporated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by specific reference, well-recognized principles of statutory construction require that the CAA be interpreted as adopting the FLSA as the FLSA existed on January 23, 1995 (the date of the CAA’s passage), without subsequent amendments.
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Senate Chief Counsel for Employment: Comments Received on Proposed Rulemaking Implementing New Overtime Regulations – October 29, 2004
Posted October 29th, 2004
Dear Mr. Thompson:
We submit this letter to the Board of Directors of the Office of Compliance (“the Board”) in response to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPR), 150 Cong. Rec. S99 17-27 (daily ed. Sept. 29, 2004). The NPR invites comments with respect to proposedregulations implementing new overtime regulations for covered employees of the Senate.
Below we submit our section-by-section analysis. At the outset, however, we note that there are currently three bills pending in Congress, H.R. 5006 (passed by the House on September 9, 2004), S. 2975 (passed by the Senate on October 10, 2004), and S. 28 10 (on the Senate calendar), that would substantially void the overtime regulations promulgated by the Department of Labor (DOL). As the Board’s proposed regulations are based on those DOL regulations, the Board’s NPR is precipitous.
We have two additional general comments before the section-by-section analysis. First, the proposed regulations use a numbering system that differs from that of the existing regulations, but the NPR does not state which of the existing regulations are being replaced. You verbally informed us that the proposed regulations are intended to replace the currently existing 541 series, and our comments are based on that representation. Additionally, the DOL regulations often refer to a “business” or “company.” To make the regulations more applicable to the Senate, the Board should replace “business” or “company” where appropriate with “employing office.”
Section 541.0 Introductory statement
The proposed section 541.0 appears intended to replace current Office of Compliance (OC) regulation S541 .O1. Subsection (a) of the proposed regulation begins with “Section 13(a)(l) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (Act), as amended. . . .” Currently, regulation S541 .O1 does not contain the language “as amended,” and it is erroneous for the Board to insert “as amended” in the proposed regulation. As the Congressional Accountability Act (CAA) incorporated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by specific reference, well-recognized principles of statutory construction require that the CAA be interpreted as adopting the FLSA as the FLSA existed on January 23, 1995 (the date of the CAA’s passage), without subsequent amendments.
Learn more and continue to read by downloading the following document(s).
Senate Chief Counsel for Employment: Comments Received on Proposed Rulemaking Implementing New Overtime Regulations - October 29, 2004
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CATEGORIES: Comments Pending Regulations
TAGS: Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM)