Weighing in at 2,135 pages, the Build Back Better bill drafted by the House is a heavyweight.
Many of its historic proposals are well known and discussed: universal pre-K, an overhaul of child care, sweeping climate change and renewable energy programs, expanded health care subsidies, and lower costs for some prescription drugs.
WATCH: The Build Back Better bill wants to lower prescription drug costs. Does it go far enough?
But there are scores and scores more. We’d like to start with one we spotted while reading through the bill.
It’s just 14 pages, found in sections 22201 and 22202 of the bill — titled “Competitive Integrative Employment.” That is a classic government phrase that could apply to nearly any job in any industry. What’s it mean here? This is about a fact of life for tens of thousands of American workers with disabilities: They are legally paid below minimum wage under a piece of U.S. law created more than eight decades ago. NPR reported last year that some workers are paid as little as $3.34 an hour.
This practice goes back to 1938, when Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, the start of modern labor law, which established the federal minimum wage. But there was concern by some in Congress that the minimum wage would freeze out people who are visually impaired or live with other disabilities from being hired at all. So lawmakers created an exemption to the minimum wage....
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