Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, today, Senator Donnelly and I are reintroducing the Forty Hours is Full-time Act to correct a serious flaw in the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, that is already causing workers to have their hours reduced and their pay cut. We are pleased to be joined in this bipartisan effort by Senators Murkowski and Manchin. Our legislation would raise the threshold for ``full-time'' work in Obamacare to the standard 40 hours a week. This is consistent with the threshold for overtime eligibility under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the common-sense understanding of ``full-time'' work.

Under Obamacare, an employee working just 30 hours a week is defined as ``full-time,'' a definition that is completely out-of-step with standard employment practices in the U.S. today. According to a survey published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American actually works 8.7 hours per day, which equates to roughly 44 hours a week. The Obamacare definition is nearly one-third lower than actual practice.

Similarly, the Obamacare definition of ``full-time'' employee is ten hours a week fewer than the 40 hours per week used by the GAO in its study of the budget and staffing required by the IRS to implement Obamacare. In that report, the GAO described a ``full-time equivalent'' as: ``a measure of staff hours equal to those of an employee who works 2,080 hours per year, or 40 hours per week.......'' Even the Office of Management and Budget recognizes that 30-hours is not ``full-time.'' A circular it issued to Federal agencies actually directs them to calculate staffing levels using more than 40 hours a week as a ``full-time equivalent.''

The effect of using the 30-hour a week threshold is to artificially drive-up the number of ``full-time'' workers for purposes of calculating the penalties to which employers are exposed under Obamacare. These penalties begin at $40,000 for businesses with 50 employees, plus $2,000 for each additional ``full-time equivalent'' employee. While these draconian penalities were scheduled to begin in January of last year, we have yet to feel their full effect because the Obama administration delayed their implementation through 2014, perhaps knowing the negative impact that will result. But that artificial grace-period expired January 1 for employers with 100 or more workers and will end for employers with between 50 and 99 employees in January of next year.

Needless to say, these penalties will force many employers to restrict or reduce the hours their employees are allowed to work, so they are no longer considered ``full-time'' for the purposes of the law. In addition, these penalties will discourage employers from growing or adding jobs, particularly those close to the 50-job trigger.

These are not hypothetical concerns. According to the Investors Business Daily, more than 450 employers had cut work hours or staffing levels in response to Obamacare as of September of last year. Employees of for-profit businesses are not the only ones threatened by Obamacare's illogical definition of full-time work. Public sector employees and those who work for non-profits are also affected.

I am concerned that educators, school employees, and students will be particularly hard hit. As the ASAA, the School Superintendents Association, explained in a letter in support of our bill, Obamacare's 30-hour threshold puts an ``undue burden on school systems across the Nation, many of [which] will struggle to staff their schools to meet their educational mission'' while complying with this requirement.

For example, the school superintendent of Bangor, ME, has told me that Obamacare will require that school district to reduce substitute teacher hours to make sure they don't exceed 29 hours a week. This will harm not only the substitute teachers who want and need more work, but it will also harm students by causing unnecessary disruption in the classroom.

Likewise, in Indiana, a county school district had to reduce the hours of part-time school bus drivers to make sure they do not work more than the 30-hour threshold. As a result, the school district has been forced to cut field trips and transportation to athletic events, and employees who used to work more than 30 hours total in two jobs have been forced to give up one of their jobs, hurting their financial security.

The 30-hour rule will also affect our Nation's institutions of higher education. According to the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, Obamacare's full-time work definition has already caused 122 schools to announce new policies capping hours for students and faculty.

It is troubling that the 30-hour threshold will also harm delivery of home care services. The requirement will likely result in reduced access to needed services for some of our Nation's most vulnerable citizens: home-bound seniors, individuals with disabilities, and recently discharged hospital and nursing home patients. Information provided to my office by the Home Care & Hospice Alliance of Maine shows that many of its member organizations will be forced to reduce work hours for employees or even to cease operations due to Obamacare's definition of ``full-time'' work. If that happens, hundreds of home care workers could lose their jobs, and a thousand seniors could lose access to home care services--in Maine alone.

Data from Maine's Medicaid program show that home care services are extremely cost-effective compared to alternatives. Thus, by making it harder for home care service providers to give their workers the hours they need, Obamacare's definition of ``full-time'' work will end up reducing the home care services available to seniors, depriving them of care or forcing them into costlier care, driving up Federal costs.

Before I close, I would like to read a few lines from a letter I recently received from Randy Wadleigh, the owner of a well-known and much-loved restaurant institution in Maine called ``Governor's.'' Randy's letter sums up what Maine employers have always told me--their employees are the heart and souls of their businesses, and are the face of their companies to the public. As Randy puts it, businesses recognize the importance of their workers ``because without GREAT employees, businesses really don't have anything. [The 30-hour threshold] is hurting many of our employees. They don't understand it, they can't afford it and they just want to work more hours.''

The bipartisan bill we are introducing today will protect these workers by changing the definition of ``full-time'' work in the ACA to 40 hours a week, and making a corresponding change in the definition of ``full-time equivalent'' employee to 174 hours per month. This is a sensible definition in keeping with actual practice.

Among the many organizations that have endorsed our bill are: the College & University Professional Association for Human Resources, the National Association for Home Care & Hospice, the American Hotel & Lodging Association, the American Staffing Association, the Asian American Hotel Owners Association, the Associated Builders and Contractors, the Food Marketing Institute, the International Franchise Association, the National Association of Convenience Stores, the National Association of Health Underwriters, the American Rental Association, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Association of Theatre Owners, the National Grocers Association, the National Federation of Independent Business, the National Restaurant Association, the National Retail Federation, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, ASAA, the School Superintendents Association, the Society for Human Resource Management, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Regardless of the varying views of Senators on the Affordable Care Act, surely we ought to be able to agree to fix this problem in the law that is hurting workers' paychecks and creating chaos for employers. I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan legislation.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the letters of support be printed in the RECORD.

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