Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, SENATE NEWS—Republican senators introduce bills, share agendas affecting workers, (Jan 13, 2025)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

Senator Joni Ernst introduced the “REMOTE Act,” which would have agency heads monitoring federal employees’ computer usage.

Now in control of the Senate, Republicans have begun advancing bills and agendas that would impact workers. Among those are bills introduced by Senators Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), as well as a framework reportedly being circulated by Senator Hawley.

Workers’ rights. Senator Hawley has been circulating “A Pro-Worker Framework for the 119th Congress,” reports indicate, while at the same time pushing forward a bill entitled the “Defense of Conscience in Healthcare Act.” The latter is a bill that is intended to restore one of President Trump’s first-term policies and would instruct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to issue a final rule to that effect.

As for the framework, surfaced by various news sources and industry groups, the labor policy proposal seeks to strengthen protections for organizing and collective bargaining through employer-required actions such as posting and maintaining notices of employees’ labor rights, as well as prohibiting unsafe work speed quotas, ending “captive audience” meetings, setting negotiation deadlines, and boosting penalties for unfair labor practices.

Federal employees. Meanwhile, Senator Ernst introduced several bills in Congress last week that could impact federal workers, including one entitled the “REMOTE Act.” That bill, building on a report released by Ernst in December entitled “Out of Office: Bureaucrats on the beach and in bubble baths but not in office buildings,” would have agencies tracking and reporting computer usage for teleworking and in-office employees. The other two bills introduced by Senator Ernst also relate to the December report and push for relocation of certain federal offices.

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