Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. TLAIB. Mr. Chair, I would like to begin by thanking our chairman, Chairman Bobby Scott, and his staff for working with me on this and for their bipartisan leadership on this bill. I appreciate the chairman's help in allowing me to better serve what I lovingly call Michigan's 13th District strong.

Before us is an amendment that requires, within 5 years, the United States Commission on Civil Rights to submit a comprehensive analysis and review of Federal mixed-motive age discrimination in employment claims made against Federal agencies.

Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has made it harder for older workers to prove that they were discriminated against at their job based on age.

This bill will strengthen protections against age discrimination for our residents by placing greater accountability on the hiring practices of large corporations rather than placing it on the shoulders of our older working-class residents.

We know that when an older resident and worker loses their job, they are far more likely to join the ranks of the long-term unemployed community and that their age plays a significant role in this. I heard countless stories back in my district of older residents who had significant struggles landing other jobs after they were laid off during the auto bailout in Michigan.

One of my residents, Lena, was laid off at 55 years old after 22 years with Ford Motor Company. She tried for 6 months to get a similar position, to no avail. She told me: ``When they see 22 years with a company, they know how old you are.'' Since then, she had to relocate her family after her 9 months of severance pay ran out.

Passing this bill means that we will be safeguarding our older Federal workers from having to go through similar challenges.

My amendment is a protection measure that requires the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to submit an analysis of mixed-motive age discrimination in Federal employment claims. We have to fight back against these motivating factors that have nothing to do with a person's experience or ability.

It is important that when we pass legislation, we ensure that it has public data on the outcome in order to be transparent and accountable to the residents who we serve back home.

For the sake of our residents and to protect our older workforce, Congress must ensure that age is not again a motivating factor in employment decisions.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. FOXX of North Carolina. Mr. Chair, I claim time in opposition to the amendment.

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Ms. TLAIB. Mr. Chairman, I think it is really important to note that this came about because the last report that we could find on age discrimination in this particular area is from the 1970s. It is about time that we bring this forward.

We could not find anything anywhere that specifically looked at this particular Federal mixed-motive age discrimination kind of study, again, since the 1970s.

The burden of proof is just too high on Federal employees. We need to go back and be very centered around making sure that there is equal access to proving a discrimination case of this type.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. FOXX of North Carolina. Mr. Chair, this is a solution in search of a problem.

We all know that it is almost impossible to fire a Federal employee. In fact, I think the number is less than 1 percent who are fired each year.

Maybe the reason we haven't had an updated report is because there hasn't been the need for an updated report. I think, again, this is a totally unnecessary amendment, and I am totally opposed to it.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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