The US Labor Department is running out of time to finish some of its highest-profile labor policy changes, putting several regulations at risk of being sidelined or completely undone.
With roughly a year and a half left in the Biden administration’s term, at least three major DOL rules haven’t yet been finalized: one updating prevailing wage rates paid to workers on federally funded projects, one outlining independent contractor status under federal wage laws, and another that sets when salaried workers are due overtime pay.
Those policy changes not only take time to complete the regulatory process, but are expected to face legal challenges that could put them on hold.
“The regulatory process itself is a slow one. And then because everything these days ends up in the court, that also tends to make the process go much slower because you have to be absolutely sure that it’s not going to be challenged on one grounds or another,” said David Weil, who headed the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division under President Barack Obama.
“When you’re running against the clock in terms of the election cycle, that makes it all the more challenging,” said Weil, who is now a professor at Brandeis University. “There’s a lot in process and the clock is ticking and it will be a challenge to complete all the regulations that the administration hopes to in the labor area.”
Julie Su’s pending nomination for Labor...
Over the last year, beyond traditional healthcare and federal procurement matters, the government has pursued federal False Claims Act (FCA) investigations and enforcement across high-risk areas, i...