The Leader’s Floor Lookout: Week of January 12, 2026
Hardworking families deserve access to affordable care for their children and elderly loved ones who rely on them. But current law discourages employers from providing assistance such as dependent care payments or on-site child care because of confusing pay calculations that increase costs and burdensome regulations.
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) mandates that the value of child and dependent care benefits, such as on-site child care or child or dependent care payments, must be included in employees’ regular pay calculations.The value of these benefits is added in before calculating overtime, increasing the overtime pay owed by the employer.
Child and dependent care assistance benefits are as critical to families as other employer-provided benefits – it makes no sense to limit accessibility to these crucial benefits with overly burdensome regulations.
Americans shouldn’t have to choose between meeting work obligations and caring for loved ones. House Republicans are bringing forward legislation to cut this burdensome bureaucracy and make it easier for employers to provide child and dependent care assistance to their workers, supporting both working families and American businesses while improving workforce participation.
Rep. Mark Messmer’s legislation, H.R. 2270, the Empowering Child and Elder Care Solutions Act, lowers the cost and cuts the red tape for employers to offer child or dependent care assistance, treats these pro-family benefits similarly to other employer-provided benefits, and increases access to care for hardworking American families.
House Republicans are ensuring employee access to child and dependent care assistance to provide peace of mind and bolster workforce retention and productivity.
Clarifying the “Tipped Worker” Definition and Ending Regulatory Whiplash
Across the United States, there are around 6 million tipped workers nationwide.
The law regulating these workers – the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) – has been in place since 1938 and has not been significantly updated, using an outdated and unclear definition to describe a “tipped worker.” This has resulted in regulatory whiplash, with confusing reporting requirements and inconsistent regulations changing with every administration.
Both tipped workers and business owners need stability and the certainty that the definition of a tipped worker and the regulations surrounding their work won’t change with every presidential election.
This week, House Republicans are bringing forward legislation to decrease burdens and compliance costs on small businesses, reduce regulatory confusion, and safeguard tipped workers’ ability to earn a living by updating the outdated FLSA “tipped worker” definition.
H.R. 2312, the Tipped Employee Protection Act, introduced by Rep. Steve Womack, amends the FLSA to clarify the tipped worker definition, preserves the tipped wage system, and limits bureaucrats from implementing arbitrary restrictions or requirements on tipped employees’ hours or duties that hurt workers and industries like the restaurant industry that rely on tipped workers.
House Republicans are fighting to make sure businesses have the ability to thrive and American workers bring home higher paychecks.
Expanding Access to Upskilling and Educational Opportunities for Workers
Instead of making it more costly and burdensome for employers to offer additional training or skill-developing opportunities outside of regular work for employees to grow in their careers, we should be encouraging employers to offer these opportunities and promoting upskilling for all workers, giving employees control of their professional development.
House Republicans are bringing forward legislation to get rid of restrictions in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) that stifle upward mobility for workers by allowing employers to offer outside-of-work educational and training opportunities, skills development tools, and career growth without counting this off-hour voluntary training as hours worked or as part of the overtime calculation.
Rep. Ashley Hinson’s legislation, H.R. 2262, the Flexibility for Workers Education Act, amends the FLSA to exclude time spent on voluntary growth and professional development opportunities by an employee outside of regular work hours from counting towards hours worked for the purposes of minimum wage and overtime compensation, as long as participation is voluntary and no work is performed for the employer during the activities.
House Republicans are working to increase educational opportunities and upward mobility for American workers that wish to grow in their career by simplifying and modernizing the FLSA for workers and employers.
Protecting Small Business from Sweeping Joint Employer Standard
One of the many regulations stifling small businesses today is the joint-employer standard.
Until 2015, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) assessed joint employer status by determining if two or more entities shared “actual, direct, and immediate” control over essential employment terms, including hiring, wages, work schedules, and discipline.
Under the Obama and Biden Administrations, however, the NLRB radically expanded the joint-employer standard to include companies sharing indirect or potential control over another entity’s workforce as joint employers, resulting in higher operational and consumer costs, killing job opportunities, and threatening the American franchise model that supports millions of workers and promotes small business growth.
The definition of a joint-employer relationship, which has shifted between Democrat and Republican administrations, has blurred the lines of responsibility for decisions impacting day-to-day business operations across the country and left businesses and entrepreneurs confused regarding their legal liabilities. An expansive joint-employer standard takes away business owners’ freedom, reduces the incentive for larger entities to contract with smaller companies, and places the American Dream of owning a small business out of reach for many entrepreneurs.
We should be empowering small businesses and growing job opportunities to allow Americans to succeed – not imposing more red tape, raising costs, undermining entrepreneurship, and increasing regulatory confusion.
H.R. 4366, the Save Local Business Act, sponsored by Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer, restores a commonsense joint-employer standard by amending the National Labor Relations Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act to define joint employers as two or more employers that have “actual, direct, and immediate” control over employees, providing clarity for workers and employers and preventing future overreach while protecting job creation.
House Republicans won’t stop fighting for small businesses and their employees.
Defending American Retirement Funds from Risky ESG Factors
In 2022, the Biden Administration's Department of Labor released a rule that gave retirement plan managers the green light to factor environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations into investment decisions for the retirement funds of more than 152 million Americans. It even allowed plan managers to automatically enroll retirement savers into ESG investments.
Americans invest and depend on their retirement savings for their future and their family’s future – not to fund radical Democrats pushing their political Green New Deal ideology on the American people.
The last thing the federal government should do is encourage retirement plan managers to make decisions that put left-wing environmental and social issues ahead of retirees’ financial security, especially since many ESG funds are high-risk and well-known underperformers.
Let’s be clear: Retirement plan managers should be solely focused on delivering maximum returns for the men and women who rely on them, not advancing a political agenda. House Republicans are bringing forward legislation to protect Americans’ retirement funds from being jeopardized by politically-motivated ESG considerations.
H.R. 2988, the Protecting Prudent Investment of Retirement Savings, introduced by Rep. Rick Allen, forces financial institutions to focus on maximizing returns in retirement plans instead of woke ESG factors by ensuring financial institutions base investment decisions on economic factors and complete information is provided to retirement investors.
House Republicans will continue to stand up against Democrats’ woke ESG agenda for the millions of Americans who work hard to save for their retirement.
Restoring Regular Order and Keeping Americans Safe With America First Appropriations Package
House Republicans are on a mission to responsibly fund the federal government as we fight to get America’s financial house in order and return to regular order. To continue making progress in funding the government, we are bringing forward a package of two appropriations bills that furthers President Trump’s agenda and delivers real spending cuts for hardworking Americans.
The Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act protects U.S. financial systems by enhancing government-wide cybersecurity and IT upgrades and modernizing infrastructure at agencies like the Treasury and the Executive Office of the President. The legislation also supports economic growth by supporting taxpayers and cracking down on fraudsters and tax cheats, maintaining “Buy American” provisions, and defending Americans’ consumer choice. To enhance our national security, our legislation fully funds the Committee on Foreign Investment and strengthens foreign business acquisition review, bolsters efforts to prevent terrorists, criminals, and other bad actors from using the financial system, and combats the spread of deadly drugs like fentanyl. Additionally, as we work to restore fiscal responsibility, the bill helps crack down on waste, fraud, and abuse in government.
The National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Appropriations Act supports President Trump’s America First foreign policy agenda and peace through strength by administering double-digit cuts for the United Nations and other unaccountable international organizations, standing with our allies, countering our adversaries, bolstering border security, and combatting the flow of fentanyl and other illicit drugs into the United States. Our legislation also prioritizes fiscal sanity by cutting over $9 billion and eliminating funding for Biden-era climate, gender, DEI, and other extraneous initiatives that diluted the mission of America’s foreign policy. Additionally, the bill gets rid of “disinformation” and “misinformation” programs that harmed free speech rights, denies the Chinese Communist Party access to U.S.-backed resources, and promotes freedom and security throughout the Western Hemisphere.
With this appropriations package, House Republicans are following through on our promises to gut wasteful bureaucracy, strengthen our national security, promote economic growth, deliver peace through strength, and put America first while returning to fiscal responsibility.
H.R.____, the Financial Services and General Government and National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2026, sponsored by Chairman Tom Cole, makes appropriations through FY26 and supports efforts to bolster our national security, implement the President’s America First foreign policy agenda, boost our economy, protect our financial institutions, and restore fiscal responsibility to Washington spending.
It’s past time to get back to regular order while safeguarding taxpayer dollars – with this legislation, we are responsibly funding our government, keeping Americans safe, and enacting the Republican priorities we were elected on.
Codifying President Trump’s EO to End the War on Water Pressure
Bureaucrats under the Obama and Biden Administrations targeted basic appliances Americans use every day with ridiculous regulations, even going so far as to redefine the term "showerhead."
Under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA), a showerhead is defined broadly and is allowed a maximum water flow of 2.5 gallons per minute (GPM) when measured at a flowing water pressure of 80 pounds per square inch.
Both the Obama and Biden Administrations imposed a stricter interpretation of this law with overly burdensome regulation of showerheads, limiting the entire shower system to the 2.5 GPM standard instead of the individual nozzles. The result? Decreased water flow and pressure in shower systems with more than one nozzle.
This absurd change has led to confusion and uncertainty for manufacturers, unnecessary regulation on Americans, and fewer choices for consumers. Americans should be able to choose their shower system – not the government.
House Republicans are bringing forward legislation to codify President Trump’s executive action to end Democrats' war on water pressure, restore the regulatory definitions to the EPCA’s original intent, and clearly define a “showerhead” as consistent with the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) standard, allowing each nozzle in a multi-head shower system to rightfully be treated as a separate showerhead with each allowed a flow at up to 2.5 GPM.
H.R. 4593, the SHOWER Act, introduced by Rep. Russell Fry, defines “showerhead” using the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) standard, clarifies that each nozzle in a multi-head shower system is an individual showerhead that may operate at up to 2.5 GPM, and prevents future reinterpretations of the definition of a showerhead that would limit water flow and take away consumer choice, providing regulatory clarity and improving water flow for Americans by restoring Congress’ original intent.
House Republicans will continue working to reduce government overreach and protect consumer choice.
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