On November 15, 2017 the House Committee on Education and Workforce held a hearing to receive updates on the Department of Labor’s (DOL) priorities. The video can be accessed here – this was the first hearing held with DOL Secretary Acosta since his nomination.
The topic of the Department of Labor Overtime Rule was raised and Secretary Acosta responded that the Department is currently reviewing comments (including from ANCOR) on the Request for Information (RFI) they issued earlier this year. Secretary Acosta confirmed they are planning on issuing a new DOL Overtime Rule, but did not provide a timeline or thoughts around what it will look like although he did note the Obama-era rule’s salary range was too high (ANCOR’s intel estimates we will see a salary range around 30-35K consistent with Secretary Acosta’s previous on the record remarks). This video shows Secretary Acosta’s discussion of the DOL Overtime Rule after being questioned on it by U.S. Representative John Lewis (see the 1 hour 23 minute mark).
Also of note, Secretary Acosta mentioned their recent appeal of the Eastern District of Texas’ decision which halted the Obama-era rule from going into effect. Of important note, this does not indicate that the Trump Administration is seeking legal action to make further determination of the previous DOL Overtime Rule, but rather they needed to appeal the decision in order to keep open legal options should they need further legal decisions on the Department of Labor’s authority to craft a new rule. For those interested in reading into the legal strategy of the Department – check out this article.
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