{"id":10713,"date":"2025-07-15T03:59:06","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T03:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/10713\/"},"modified":"2025-07-15T03:59:06","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T03:59:06","slug":"policy-week-in-review-july-11-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/10713\/","title":{"rendered":"Policy Week in Review \u2013 July 11, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Senate Republicans Introduce Legislation to Empower Independent Workers\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this week, Senators Bill Cassidy, (R-LA), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Senators Rand Paul (R-KY) and Tim Scott (R-SC), members of the HELP Committee, introduced a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.help.senate.gov\/rep\/newsroom\/press\/chair-cassidy-scott-paul-release-legislative-package-empowering-independent-workers-to-access-portable-benefits\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">legislative package<\/a> that would provide a safe harbor from certain worker misclassification claims for employers that voluntarily provide benefits to independent contractors, and would harmonize the definition of employee with the common law. In a press release, Chair Cassidy stated, \u201cOutdated labor laws should not prevent workers from receiving health care or saving for a secure retirement\u201d and that \u201c[m]odernizing our federal labor laws ensures all independent workers can access workplace benefits without losing their flexibility to work how and when they want.\u201d This legislation follows a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.help.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/Portable%20Benefits%20White%20Paper%20Update%205.5.25.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">white paper<\/a> that Chair Cassidy released on the topic earlier this year. The Senate HELP Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on these issues, \u201cFreedom to Work: Unlocking Benefits for Independent Workers,\u2019\u2019 on Thursday, July 17 at 10:00 a.m. ET.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>House Introduces Bipartisan NIL Legislation\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, members of the House Education and Workforce Committee, House Energy and Commerce Committee, and the Judiciary Committee introduced the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/edworkforce.house.gov\/news\/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=412625\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Student Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements Act<\/a>\u201d (SCORE Act) that would set federal standards to protect the name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights of student athletes and to promote fair competition with respect to intercollegiate athletics. This landmark legislation would set a national framework, preempting the patchwork of state laws, to allow student athletes to profit from the use of their NIL and require institutions and colleges to provide comprehensive academic support and career counseling, including mental health and financial literacy services, to student athletes. Importantly, the bill makes clear that no student athlete may be considered an employee of an institution or college based on their participation on a sports team or an intercollegiate athletic competition. Leading up to the introduction of this legislation, Littler attorneys Dan Nash and Tyler Simms, in their own right, testified at Committee hearings. You can read their testimony <a href=\"https:\/\/edworkforce.house.gov\/uploadedfiles\/nash_testimony.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/edworkforce.house.gov\/uploadedfiles\/sims_testimony.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Senate to Hold Confirmation Hearing on NLRB, EEOC, and HHS Nominees\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On July 16 at 10:00 a.m. ET, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is scheduled to hold a confirmation hearing on the following White House nominees: Crystal Carey to be the general counsel of the NLRB; Brittany Panuccio to be a member of the EEOC; and Brian Christine to be assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health, and Human Services. Click <a href=\"https:\/\/youtube.com\/live\/2_D2LmiNGgU?feature=share\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">here<\/a> to watch live.<\/p>\n<p>House Subcommittee to Hold Hearing on OSHA Compliance Assistance<\/p>\n<p>The Subcommittee on Workforce Protections Chair Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA) will hold a hearing titled, \u201cSafe Workplaces, Stronger Partnerships: The Future of OSHA Compliance Assistance\u201d on Wednesday, July 16 at 10:15 a.m.\u00a0 The hearing will be live-streamed on the <a href=\"https:\/\/house.us19.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=242c4a1c0560b7d513ce7962f&amp;id=87269e769d&amp;e=43a836d437\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Committee\u2019s YouTube page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Senate Republicans Introduce Legislation to Empower Independent Workers\u00a0 Earlier this week, Senators Bill Cassidy, (R-LA), chair of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-10713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}