savings . The President will not agree to that austere of a budget , but it is an opening bid for the Speaker .
The good news for us optimists is if the Speaker is focused on discretionary spending caps there have been many times over the past thirty years where discretionary spending caps have been put in place on a bipartisan basis .
The President may insist if they put in spending caps there needs to also be some new revenues that can be paired with the budget caps .
There is surely going to be a lot of fingering pointing between now and whenever the President and Speaker find a negotiated solution . It is worth pointing out is that with a breach of the debt limit it is not like an expiration of appropriations where the entire government is shut down . Rather there will be disruptions to some programs - like they may not be able to pay Social Security benefits or Medicare reimbursements - but not all federal employees will be required to stop working .
Workforce policy issues are also drawing a lot of attention in Washington . There have been some both positive and negative developments in the past few weeks .
On the positive side , Representative Darrell Issa ( R-CA ) introduced a resolution ( H . Res . 72 ) recognizing the contributions independent workers make to America ’ s economy . The resolution recognizes that nearly 40 percent of the U . S . workforce is comprised of independent workers . The resolution also notes that 61 percent of the independent workforce state their income is equal or greater than their income would be in the traditional workforce . The independent workforce contributed $ 1.35 trillion to the U . S . economy last year . Sixty-seven percent of independent workforce stated that their jobs prepared them better for the COVID pandemic than the traditional jobs would have done . We are expecting the independent workforce to grow to 50 percent of the workforce by 2027 .
Representative Bobby Scott ( D-VA ,) who serves as the Ranking Member on the Education and Workforce Committee in the House of Representatives , reintroduced H . R . 20 – the Protecting the Right to Organize ( PRO ) Act on February 28 , 2023 . The bill already has over two hundred Democratic cosponsors and one Republican cosponsor . The PRO Act contains most of the leading priorities of organized labor . A Senate companion bill was introduced on the same date by Senator Sanders . Upon introduction the bill had 47 Democratic cosponsors , with Senators Kelly , Sinema , and Warner being the only three Democrats who haven ’ t signed on this Congress . Both of Arizona ’ s Senators have been relatively quiet on the bill , while Senator Warner has indicated he supports it .
The PRO Act would establish a new ABC test for independent contractors . Under the new ABC test , businesses would have to prove that their independent contractor meets all three criteria of the test in order to be classified as an independent contractor . The three tests are as follows .
• The worker is free from control or direction in the performance of their work .
• The service is performed outside the usual course of business .
• The worker is customarily engaged in independent trade , occupation , profession , or business
The PRO Act would effectively annul the right-to-work laws passed in twenty-eight states without those states ’ legislatures having to take any action . Right-to-work laws prohibit contracts requiring that employees must pay union dues . States like South Carolina contend that their right-to-work laws have allowed the state to attract new investments like the Boeing facility that was built because the workforce in the state would not be unionized .
The bill also allows unions to organize a workforce by
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