Taking Today Off
1 hour ago
Friday, June 26, 2026
The Snapshot
Friday, June 26, 2026. Chump's partisan celebrations passed off as national celebrations continue to underwhelm, his corruption is only matched by his administration's, a member of Congress calls for the impeachment of the Secretary of Labor, Health and Human Services Secretary Junior is caught lying to Congress and attempting to use his government position to influence whether candidates run for office or not, Katie Phang wins in court on The Epstein Files, and much more.
Marco
Battaglia, a Libertarian running in Iowa's 3rd District, said Kennedy
made a similar, unrecorded appeal to him on June 8, warning that the
House could flip to Democrats if Battaglia stayed in the race. Battaglia
said he rebuffed Kennedy, invoking the legacies of Kennedy's father and
uncle.
“Now,
[sic] that Trump’s approval is in the toilet after endless broken
promises to the American people and blatantly Israel first policies,
they are using Q propaganda in a last ditch desperate attempt to reel
the deceived loyalists back in," he wrote.
As can be seen in aerial
photos captured on Wednesday, workers have arrived to repair the grass
damaged by the UFC Freedom 250 event held on June 14.
[. . .]
Ben (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) notes the failure that was Chump's MAGA State Fair yesterday.
At IN THESE TIMES, Hamilton Nolan reflects on Chump's festivities:
One of the only nice things about downtown Washington, D.C. is the fact that anyone can stroll freely through the Mall. Now that’s been ended. To celebrate America, security fencing has been erected and entry is restricted to a couple of access points that are manned by heavily armed National Guard, Metro Police, Park Police, Capitol Police, U.S. Marshals, Secret Service, TSA, and anyone else capable of carrying a gun and doing seemingly nothing at all. All of this to access a space that consists of: sod. The grass is nice. Unbroken by a single tree, its greenness under the broiling sun is a nod to the golf course style that is fascism’s highest aesthetic.
“When you walk around Washington, D.C.,” said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, one of the night’s warmup acts, “not only is it safe again. It’s beautiful again.” As she spoke, a line of black-clad snipers were clearly visible on the roof of the Agriculture Department headquarters across the street. Their rifles commanded the entire field of sweltering sod. These square blocks of our nation’s capitol, from 12th to 14th street, have been made both safe and beautiful, simply by fencing them off, filling them with soldiers, and redesigning them as a suburban lawn. First, these blocks, and next, the world.
You might already know the humiliating backstory of this entire event: first it was announced as a big concert, and then the announced acts — all the way down to Milli Vanilli and Bret Michaels—pulled out in fear of public backlash, prompting a petulant President Donald Trump to declare that he would “take the place of these highly paid, Third Rate ‘Artists,’ and give a major speech, rallying the Country forward.” So the unlucky planners of the event were forced to cobble together a show plausible enough to satisfy the president’s ego, without the benefit of any actual celebrities.
The resulting event leaned heavily on speeches by second-tier members of the cabinet and music from the Marine Corps band, giving it the air of a boss who threw a birthday party and required his employees to attend. To honor the total capture of America’s institutions by cronyist incompetence, Alexis Wilkins, the country singer girlfriend of podcaster-turned-FBI Director Kash Patel, sung the national anthem. Christopher Macchio, a Trumpian crooner, did a cruise ship version of “Hallelujah.” The military band sent up uniformed singers and guitar players for karaoke-level covers of “Gloria” and “Walking on Sunshine.”
The whole thing felt like a show that might be inflicted upon a desultory crowd of students at a reform school, forced by their principal to listen to the hits of the past, with the threat of juvenile hall looming over anyone who made a wisecrack.
Convicted Felon Donald Chump has surrounded himself with
crooks. Kristi Noem jetting around with her consort, Markwayne Mullen
now using the same luxury $70 million dollar Boeing 737 jet, Tom Homan taking a $500,000 bribe -- the list is
endless. And of course there's Junior. Junior has a long history of
ethical lapses and now a new one has emerged. Travis Gettys (RAW STORY) reports:
A
newly obtained audio recording shows that Health Secretary Robert F.
Kennedy Jr. personally pressured a Libertarian congressional candidate
in Iowa to abandon a competitive House race, urging him to step aside to
protect Republican control of Congress.
The Washington Post obtained
a recording of the 12-minute call in which Kennedy told Rick Stewart,
the Libertarian candidate in Iowa's 2nd Congressional District, that he
was acting as a "liaison" with the White House, and he warned that a
Democratic takeover of the House would derail President Donald Trump's
agenda and suggested he could help Stewart if he exited the race.
“I
can’t go into specifics because there’s legal prohibitions about that,”
Kennedy told Stewart in the June 11 call. “If it’s something that you
want to talk about, you know, you and I can talk about specifics.”
Stewart
said he interpreted the call as a clear, if carefully worded, attempt
at a quid pro quo. "He was very careful about the words that he used,
but the whole implication is: You help us, we'll help you," Stewart
said, adding that he has no intention of dropping out.
Government ethics experts said the confirmed recording bolsters concerns that Kennedy's calls may have violated federal law.
Danielle
Caputo of the Campaign Legal Center said federal officials should not
be "tipping the scales, behind the scenes" by pushing candidates to
withdraw, though she noted proving a Hatch Act violation could be
difficult. Stanley Brand, a Penn State law fellow, said Kennedy could
face exposure under separate criminal statutes barring officials from
using their authority to interfere with elections or offering benefits
in exchange for political activity.
Junior
has disgraced himself yet again. He and his trashy wife have squeezed
just about everything that they could out of his late father's name.
Now Junior is left exposed as the grifting con artist he always has been
and always will be.
Let's move back to Chump and the Republicans meeting on Wednesday. Because while Wednesday appeared to show some strength on the part of Republicans, Thursday popped up and there were some who were brought on to have their spines removed.
Even
by our fully debased standard of grading President Donald Trump on a
curve, yesterday was a rolling catastrophe of astonishing political
blunders. Not even the kind that seem like gaffes to normies but
energize his base with high-fiving celebrations of owning the libs. No,
Trump didn’t own the libs yesterday. The only person he owned was
himself. And yet, Senate Republicans remain submissive, even after
showing small flashes of fight.
Voters
of both parties are worried and stressed about housing costs and
affordability, so any sane politician would seize the opportunity for a
photo op of his support for a bipartisan housing bill. Instead, Trump,
who lives in a gilded penthouse and private golf club when he’s not in
residence rent-free at the White House, which he is needlessly renovating with taxpayer money,
unexpectedly cancelled a scheduled signing ceremony (via Truth Social,
of course), saying he would not sign the bill unless Senate Republicans
passed the SAVE America Act,
a voter suppression bill. Wow, this guy really knows how to negotiate,
doesn’t he? As any viewer of Schoolhouse Rock knows, the housing bill
will become law without his signature, and then he will have missed the
opportunity to show everyone how much he cares. Instead, he hands
Democrats an opportunity to show voters how much he only cares about his
delusions and conspiracy theories, and not about addressing their
struggles to afford housing.
Headlines
about Trump’s lunch with Senate Republicans yesterday were dominated by
the shouting matches, especially with Louisiana’s Bill Cassidy,
triggered by the tensions he has stoked with his own party, stemming
from his SAVE America Act demands, his anger
over the passage of the Iran war powers resolution, and other matters.
While such a confrontation seemed to mark a new era in Trump-GOP
relations, definitively declaring a turning point was perhaps premature.
Late last night the Senate, with Cassidy switching his position, voted against
another war powers resolution in a procedural vote GOP leadership
brought to the floor for the sole purpose of assuaging Trump after his
blow-up with Cassidy earlier in the day. According to the Washington
Post, Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and John Barrasso (R-WY)
successfully pressed Cassidy to change his vote.
Following
his Capitol Hill showdown, Trump met with NATO Secretary General Mark
Rutte in the Oval Office, where he reprised his conspiracy theories
about his botched reflecting pool renovation, insisting
there is photographic proof of “thugs” vandalizing it. “They took razor
blades and they cut patches like that, 350 feet long. A lot of them are
like a foot, a foot, a foot. They cut the lining and there’s pictures
of the guy bending over. I don’t know if anybody saw that, but there are
pictures of the guy,” he said. Reporters, of course, have asked the
White House, the National Parks Service, and the Department of the
Interior to see these photos for themselves. This is not just a “Trump
claimed, without evidence” moment. Trump is just making stuff up — not
unprecedented for him, but notable because the reflecting pool debacle
is such a huge, visible, and easily comprehensible tale of corruption
and incompetence that it will prove much more difficult for him to
bulls[**]t his way out of it.
Chump's actions are making it very hard for Republicans up for re-election to make a case to voters. Adam Lynch notes:
Former GOP U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Penn.) lamented
before a CNN panel at how eagerly President Donald Trump appears to be
trying to ruin Republicans’ chances in November, even when he’s
allegedly campaigning on their behalf.
Dent was responding to a recent comment about Trump from U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, (R-La.) comparing Trump to a child.
Trump
allegedly called Cassidy a ‘lunatic,’ in a recent war of words, which
prompted Cassidy to tell reporters: “Can I imagine that the President
called me things that would be said on a school playground? I can
imagine [that]”
But Dent said Republicans like Cassidy appear
to be late in showing their feelings as the midterm elections begin to
close in on them, with the public growing ever more frustrated at
Trump’s economic policies and his unilateral attack on Iran, which
inflated U.S. fuel and food prices in time for November.
“If I
wanted to lose a midterm election, I would do the things the President
is doing,” said Dent. “I would steal defeat from the jaws of victory on
this Housing Bill. I would obsess over a ballroom. I would obsess on a
pond — the reflecting pool — and an arch. I would say ‘I don't care
about Americans’ financial condition. I mean it's as if he's trying to
deliberately undermine his own party's electoral prospects.”
An interview with a former Donald Trump voter
from Rolla, Missouri, has gone viral on social media. The woman spoke
about how hard life is for poor people today. The interview aired on the
news channel MS NOW. The reporter was speaking with residents about
their views ahead of the midterm elections.
The woman said she believes the president’s policies are harming financially struggling families.
“I’m not into politics, but I know what’s right and wrong,” she said.
The
reporter then asked her what was wrong with the country right now. She
explained that the president does not understand what it is like to be
poor.
“The way Trump is treating us. Treating
us poor people. I mean, it’s just bad because he has never been poor. He
has always had that gold spoon in his mouth,” she said.
He is losing so many one-time supporters. ATLANTA BLACK STAR NEWS notes:
Donald Trump’s political magic may be wearing off, as some of his most devoted supporters have turned their backs on him.
The
president’s MAGA movement appears to be shrinking month by month as job
approval ratings dip well below 40 percent in national polls.
More signs of Trump’s slipping grip on his supporters emerged at a White House event he heavily promoted and headlined.
[. . .]
Trump thought everyone would enjoy the over-the-top attractions and having him as a headliner but that was not the case.
Footage
shows people leaving early from the State Fair, as the president was in
the middle of giving his final remarks on stage on Wednesday night.
“America
is now the largest producer of oil and gas on earth, larger than Russia
and Saudi Arabia by far combined,” Trump could be heard saying as
scores of attendees walked away.
Even some MAGA hat
wearers were seen abandoning ship just 16 minutes into Trump’s address.
Clips of the exodus sparked widespread ridicule of the POTUS.
“HOLY
S–T. People are flooding the [exits] right in the middle of Trump’s
speech. It FINALLY happened. Even his supporters are over his
nonsensical blabbing,” read a second tweet.
On Wednesday's embarrassing kick-off to Chump (Fading) Mania, Tommy Christopher (MEDIAITE) notes Jen Psaki's MS NOW commentary:
So
who did Trump manage to book for his big event? Who was the big name
they managed to lock in? Well, it’s Kash Patel’s 27-year-old girlfriend.
Get excited everybody.
The FBI director’s
27-year-old girlfriend is a featured performer at Trump’s big
celebration, which I’m sure was thrilling news for all of these 6,000
people who are following her budding country music career on Spotify.
I’m sure they are absolutely delighted.
But it
turns out well-known musicians are not the only ones dropping out of
Trump’s big state fair. The website for the event says it will feature
more than 150 exhibits from all 50 states and territories. Sounds good,
right?
Only it turns out that some of America’s
states and territories are just as reluctant to participate in this
thing as Milli Vanilli or one half of Milli Vanilli, to be exact,
because several states have now also announced that they are pulling out
of this event, too. According to various news outlets, at least 10
states have dropped out and will not have exhibits at the event.
Trump couldn’t even get all 50 states of the United States of America to attend the Great American State Fair.
And
he can’t even deliver on the food he promised for this event, it turns
out, because yesterday “Axios” reported that a local D.C. sandwich shop
that appeared on the event’s vendor list said they never agreed to
participate in the fair at all. Again, this is — this is supposed to be
the kind of thing that is easy for a president. It’s the kind of — kind
of the presidential equivalent of a local politician showing up at a
ribbon cutting ceremony, but Donald Trump can’t even pull this off.
And Jen was right. In fact, as Ben reported in the video at the top of the snapshot, thee food situation was much worse because some vendors did show up . . . only to have the power go out and food get ruined. And the Ferris wheel wouldn't work.
How much of our tax dollars were wasted on that garbage? And don't pretend you want the nation to come together and to unify when you've got Sean Duffy on stage cursing at liberals or Chump onstage insisting that two years ago the country was the laughing stock and blah blah blah. This was a partisan event. This was not about unity, it was not about America.
Glory was being sought. But not for this country. Not for its founding. Not for the hope of what it can be. Everyone on stage was present to glorify the Convicted Felon.
And, no, you're not going to get even half the country willing to go along with that as a celebration of 250 years of existence.
Last night, in "MAHA finally catches on to Chump," Elaine noted Chump was seeing members of Make America Healthy Again leaving his hate-filled tent. Tom Boggioni (RAW STORY) notes:
The
Make America Healthy Again movement that helped sweep Donald Trump back
into the White House is fracturing over his betrayal on pesticides —
and MAHA activists are now threatening to stay away from Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections.
According to a report from MS NOW's Arielle Hixson, the Trump administration's decision to back Monsanto in the Supreme Court's Roundup
pesticide liability case is turning into a pivot point for the
administration. The company is fighting to shield itself from state
lawsuits claiming the herbicide should have carried cancer warnings. By
supporting Monsanto's legal team, Trump signaled whose side he's on—and
it's not the health-conscious base that carried him to victory.
According
to a report from MS NOW's Arielle Hixson, the Trump administration's
decision to back Monsanto in the Supreme Court's Roundup pesticide
liability case is turning into a pivot point for the administration. The
company is fighting to shield itself from state lawsuits claiming the
herbicide should have carried cancer warnings. By supporting Monsanto's
legal team, Trump signaled whose side he's on—and it's not the
health-conscious base that carried him to victory.
[. . .]
That
threat of voter disengagement represents a catastrophic risk to Trump
heading into 2026. MS NOW is reporting a Kaiser Family Foundation poll
found 41% of American adults support MAHA — voters who skew Republican
but whose loyalties are now visibly shaken.
Alexandra
Muñoz, a toxicologist working with the MAHA movement, warned that a
Monsanto victory would "strip accountability from a category of
chemicals that includes known carcinogens and could clear the way for
more hazardous pesticides to reach the market," according to the report.
Hannah
Dunning, the "Clean Clothing Chick," articulated the movement's
ultimatum, telling MS NOW, "If they want to be disrespectful to the
point where they're going to side with Big Chemical in the Supreme
Court, watch out for angry moms, because we're here; we're ready."
President Trump, facing a backlash from supporters of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for allying himself with the chemical industry, issued an executive order on Thursday aimed at reducing pesticides in the food supply and studying the health risks they pose.
The order does not involve new federal funding, and does not call for new regulations or legislation. Critics contended that it did little to meaningfully address the consequences of pesticide use. Two White House officials, speaking anonymously to preview the order before it was announced, said it was timed to coincide with a dinner Mr. Trump was hosting for farmers.
And it's not just independents, swing voters, Republicans and MAGA that Chump's losing, Nicole Charky-Chami (RAW STORY) reports even the tin foil hatters of QAnon are leaving Chump Land:
QAnon
believers have turned on President Donald Trump, and despite an attempt
from the White House to win them back, it has backfired among the
president's former allies, an analyst reported on Thursday.
Will Sommer, senior reporter at The Bulwark,
described how the Trump administration dropped a "bizarre QAnon-themed
social media campaign" this week. In posts on X, the White House used
slogans associated with QAnon, including “trust the plan” with a mock Q
design to try to promote Trump executive orders and references to
"quantum computing."
"There are several reasons why
QAnon believers are turning on Trump," Sommer wrote. "But the main
thrust boils down to this: After trying to block the release of the
Jeffrey Epstein files and failing to deliver deep-state arrests, some of
the movement’s dissatisfied stars think it’s a bit gauche, if not
insulting, that the president and his team are appropriating QAnon
culture."
QAnon John, a former movement personality, described the backlash over Trump's second administration and the online group.
Chump's reflecting pool nightmare continues but it's not the only damage he's physically done to the area. Vic Verbalaitis (DAILY BEAST) notes:
Yet another of President Donald Trump’s vanity projects has left a nasty scar on an iconic Washington, D.C. landmark.
The
White House South Lawn, the featured site of the president’s 80th
birthday bash, housed the 600-ton metal behemoth dubbed “The Claw” for
Trump’s birthday fight night, which ruined the historically pristine
green lawn in the process.
[. . .]
Trump’s
other vanity projects, such as his botched Lincoln Memorial Reflecting
Pool renovation and his demolition of the White House East Wing to make
way for his $600 million ballroom, have irrevocably changed the historic
People’s House and its surrounding landmarks.
All
that money wasted on Chump's personal birthday. Corruption, corruption,
corruption. Chump can -- and does -- add to our national debt
constantly. He's just not very good when it comes to generating income
for the United States. Tristan Bove (FORTUNE) reports:
U.S.
colleges are dealing with plummeting international student enrollment,
and the consequences could go far beyond shrinking tuition revenue.
International
students have become less likely to pursue education in the U.S. since
President Donald Trump’s return to office. The administration has
introduced more restrictive anti-immigration policies, including
measures that explicitly target foreign-born students, and tightened rules about post-schooling employment for international graduates.
Last
fall, schools reported international student enrollment had dipped 17%,
according to NAFSA, an education nonprofit. Declining tuition spending
translated to $1.1 billion in lost revenue for universities, and almost
23,000 fewer jobs.
Those figures might just be a
drop in the bucket if international students end up permanently
absconding from U.S. schools. International enrollees disproportionately
pursue technical degrees, including in scientific, technology,
engineering, and mathematics domains, otherwise known as STEM. The
skills and the professions these lead to are cornerstones to U.S.
innovation and technological breakthroughs, which in turn bolster all
sorts of businesses and jobs. By cutting off those foreign-born grad
students and PhDs at the source, the U.S. risks gutting its own economy
years down the line.
That’s the finding of a paper
published Tuesday by researchers at the Peterson Institute for
International Economics. If the number of transplant STEM graduates
trained in the U.S. were to fall by a third over the next decade, the
blow to entrepreneurship, productivity, and business dynamism would claw
anywhere between $240 billion and $481 billion from the country’s GDP,
the paper found.
Whether it's the
White House lawn or the influx of money to the country from foreign
students, Chump destroys it all. He's a screw up, a loser, and always
has been.
Back
to his corrupt and criminal administration. The worst and the dimmest
that the nation has ever seen. Each one is a dirty joke. Linda
McMahon, for example, Linda's still part of the sex abuse case -- she
and her husband are accused of enabling the abuse of underage boys. The
most recent development in the case was a month ago. Max Everett (WRESTLING INC) reported:
Judge
James K. Bredar ordered that the plaintiffs in the Maryland lawsuit
against Vince McMahon, Linda McMahon, and WWE may continue under
anonymity for the time being.
The plaintiffs
sued the defendants, for their alleged role in covering up the child
sexual abuse they endured as WWE "ring boys" at the hands of senior
staff like Mel Phillips and Pat Patterson, under the Child Victims Act
of 2023 allowing historic child sexual abuse survivors to seek
reparation that had previously been unavailable to them.
While
the case is being litigated before a decision is made to go to trial,
the McMahons opposed an order granting the plaintiffs anonymity, citing
that they were unduly prejudiced as public figures while they went on
unknown to the public. The judge rejected those arguments and believed
that the risks are not great enough to outweigh the risk to the
plaintiffs if they were to have their identities known to the public.
Accused
of covering up sexual abuse of underage boys. And she's our Secretary
of Education. Not a lot of pride in the administration, is there? Well
she's in the news again and I guess anything's better than being
accused of being part of pedophile ring. Linda Jacobson (THE 74) reports:
Linda McMahon became the first U.S. education secretary to be the target of impeachment proceedings Thursday.
Rep.
Suzanne Bonamici, a member of the House education committee, filed
three articles of impeachment against McMahon, noting the secretary’s
“willful intent to unilaterally dismantle and eliminate the Department
of Education.”
The
resolution accuses McMahon of compromising the ability of the
department to fulfill its duties. That’s also the conclusion that the
department’s Inspector General reached in a report
released Wednesday detailing how the administration has slashed the
agency’s staff by 40% and canceled billions of dollars in grants and
contracts.
Miss Sassy JD Vance is Vice President and part of the administration and deeply corrupt and even more deeply stupid. Today on MS NOW's MORNING JOE, they took on Vance's stupidity.
In legal news, let's note this.
On Thursday, a federal judge based in Washington, D.C., ordered the Justice Department to unredact additional pages of the Epstein files in a suit brought by attorney and independent journalist Katie Phang.
The preliminary injunction orders redactions be removed in key documents of interest in the files, including “at least eight email exchanges with Mr. Epstein regarding a ‘torture video’ and sexual activity with young women, including minors” as well as interviews with a woman who said she was abused by President Trump as a minor.
“The Attorney General’s arguments are unpersuasive. First, Ms. Phang has identified ‘some concrete consequences of not receiving the information.’ She has identified ‘half a dozen stories she is currently unable to report’ because the Attorney General has not disclosed the information,” U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan wrote in a decision that also found Phang had a right to bring the case under the Administrative Procedures Act.
He also rebuffed the idea that Phang could have simply requested the documents through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), noting that the department itself had previously said the Epstein Files Transparency Act “directed a much broader and less redacted release of the files than would have been made under the FOIA. Certain exemptions which may have been made under FOIA were not made” in the Epstein Act release.
The Justice Department must either produce the documents or “show cause” as to why they cannot comply.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:
The Wage Theft Prevention and Wage Recovery Act would put money back in workers’ pockets by protecting their right to fair pay, strengthening accountability for violations, and improving recovery of stolen wages
One report estimates that roughly $50 billion is being stolen from American workers via corporate wage theft every year, potentially even more
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), and U.S. Representatives Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee and Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-VA-03), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Education and Workforce, reintroduced their Wage Theft Prevention and Wage Recovery Act, comprehensive legislation that puts hard-earned wages back in workers’ pockets and cracks down on employers who unfairly withhold wages from their employees. The proposed legislation would give workers the right to receive full compensation for the work they perform and receive regular paystubs and final paychecks in a timely manner.
Each year, wage theft denies workers tens of billions of dollars in pay they have earned as employers commit a variety of minimum wage, overtime, off-the-clock, tip, and meal-break violations. Wage theft violations are pervasive at many large corporations. In fiscal year 2025, the U.S. Department of Labor recovered more than $259 million in stolen wages on behalf of workers—representing just a small fraction of wages stolen nationwide. These illegal practices disproportionately hurt low-wage workers—amplifying poverty and inequality in America. As many as 35% of tipped workers, and 17% of low-wage workers generally, report being paid less than the prevailing local minimum wage in their state—denying workers $50 billion annually from minimum wage violations alone, potentially even more.
“Wage theft is the biggest form of theft in America—but right now giant corporations are robbing workers blind,” said Senator Murray. “Workers are robbed of an estimated $50 billion every year, and this administration’s answer has been to slash enforcement to the lowest level on record and give the green light for employers to steal from workers—so I’m doing something about it. Our bill guarantees workers the full pay they’ve earned, strengthens accountability, and makes sure stolen wages actually get recovered. You do the work, you earn the pay—that’s a very basic contract we should expect every employer to uphold.”
“Americans are living paycheck to paycheck,” said Congresswoman DeLauro. “Working people are earning wages that have not kept pace with the cost of living, and on top of that, our most vulnerable workers face the threat of employers stealing or withholding their wages with little to no consequence or ability to make themselves whole. This cannot stand—we are in a cost-of-living crisis. Billionaires and corporations are hoarding every cent they can from the working and middle-class which is struggling to just break even under President Trump’s administration. I am proud to partner with Senator Murray and Ranking Member Scott to introduce legislation to end this theft and give workers the ability to recoup their stolen wages. Americans deserve pay for all the hours they work, including overtime and tips. The theft must end.”
“It is unacceptable that dishonest employers can steal workers’ wages with little to no consequence. Each year, our most vulnerable workers are cheated out of billions of dollars. We cannot grow the middle class when we don’t even have adequate deterrents to prevent wage theft,” said Ranking Member Scott. “Workers and employers must be able to trust that our labor laws will hold unscrupulous employers accountable for violating the law and help workers recover the wages stolen from them. This bill would take critical steps to help workers receive the full pay they’ve earned for all hours worked, including overtime pay, and level the playing field for law-abiding employers.”
Every day, workers across the country work long hours, expecting proper compensation, only to have their employers withhold their wages. While many employers act honestly and treat workers fairly, too many others force their employees to work off the clock, refuse to pay the minimum wage, deny them overtime pay after working more than 40 hours a week, steal tips, and knowingly misclassify workers to avoid paying fair wages.
The Wage Theft Prevention and Wage Recovery Act would strengthen fundamental protections to help ensure workers receive the full compensation they have earned and crack down on corporations that subject workers to these abuses. Taking these steps will put money back in workers’ pockets and help ensure our economy works better for all Americans, not just the largest corporations and wealthiest few.
Specifically, the bill would help combat wage theft and improve wage recovery by:
- Strengthening workers’ right to fair pay and improving employer accountability
- Requires employers to pay all wages owed to an employee. Currently, under federal law, workers can only recover wages at the minimum wage or for overtime worked; for example, an employee may be hired at $9.00 per hour, but would only have the right to recover $7.25 of every $9.00 she was owed. This bill would allow workers to recoup the full compensation that employers have taken from them.
- Increasing deterrence of and penalties for wage theft violations
- Bolstering recovery of workers’ stolen wages
In the Senate, the legislation is cosponsored by Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Dick Durbin (D-IL), John Fetterman (D-PA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Ed Markey (D-MA), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Tina Smith (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).
In the House, the legislation is cosponsored by Representatives Suzanne Bonamici (OR-1), Nikki Budzinski (IL-13), Andre Carson (IN-7), Mark DeSaulnier (CA-10), Dwight Evans (PA-3), Jahana Hayes (CT-5), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC), Ro Khanna (CA-17), Jim McGovern (MA-2), LaMonica McIver (NJ-10), Ilhan Omar (MN-5), Andrea Salinas (OR-6), and Mark Takano (CA-41).
The legislation is endorsed by AFL-CIO, Economic Policy Institute, National Employment Law Project, SEIU.
“EPI’s research has shown that employers steal billions of dollars from workers’ paychecks each year — by misclassifying workers, paying workers less than the minimum wage, stealing tips, or keeping workers’ real hours off the books. Despite this, the federal agency responsible for protecting workers’ paychecks lacks adequate staffing and resources to investigate these violations at scale, and the deterrent penalties in many cases are not strong enough to stop employers from breaking the law in the first place. This bill would go a long way towards cracking down on employers who violate the law, ensuring workers have transparency to understand their rights, and making sure that workers are able to get back the stolen wages they are owed,” said Samantha Sanders, Director of Government Affairs and Advocacy at the Economic Policy Institute.
A one-pager on the bill is available HERE.
Full text of the legislation is available HERE.
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