Bill Details
S.509 - 119th Congress
Status
Latest action
2025-02-11 - Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Introduced Date
2025-02-11
Policy Area
Labor and Employment
Committees
View committees (1)
Sponsors
Cosponsors
8
0
0
AI Summary This summary was generated by AI from the bill text. AI can get information wrong.
This bill would change federal child labor rules for some logging work. It creates a new rule for 16- and 17-year-olds who work in logging operations that use machinery, and it says that some of these jobs may be allowed under the law. But it does not give young workers a free pass to do all logging tasks. Jobs that the Labor Secretary says are especially dangerous would still be covered by child labor protections, and certain high-risk methods, like manually using chainsaws to fell or process timber and using cable skidders to move timber, are not included in the bill’s definition of covered logging work. The bill also keeps a special exception for young people working in a logging operation owned or run by a parent or someone acting like a parent.
- It adds a legal definition of “logging operation” focused on machine-based work such as cutting, moving, loading, unloading, and processing timber products.
- It says logging work does not include manually using chainsaws or using cable skidders to bring timber to the landing area.
- It defines “mechanized operation” as logging work done with equipment rather than by hand, and lists machines like harvesters, processors, loaders, forwarders, and grapples.
- Even with this change, 16- and 17-year-olds would still be protected from jobs the Labor Secretary decides are especially dangerous, unless they are working for a parent or parent-like guardian in a family-owned logging operation.
Official Summaries
No summaries available
Current Full Text
[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 509 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 509
To exempt certain 16- and 17-year-old individuals employed in logging
operations from child labor laws.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
February 11, 2025
Mr. Risch (for himself, Mr. King, Ms. Collins, Mr. Crapo, Mr. Cornyn,
and Mr. Sheehy) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To exempt certain 16- and 17-year-old individuals employed in logging
operations from child labor laws.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Future Logging Careers Act''.
SEC. 2. CHILD LABOR LAW EXEMPTIONS FOR LOGGING OPERATIONS.
The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 201 et seq.) is
amended--
(1) in section 3 (29 U.S.C. 203), by adding at the end the
following:
``(z) `Logging operation'--
``(1) means--
``(A) a mechanized operation;
``(B) the bucking or converting of timber into
logs, poles, ties, bolts, pulpwood, chemical wood,
excelsior wood, cordwood, fence posts, or similar
products;
``(C) the collecting, skidding, yarding, loading,
transporting, or unloading of such products in
connection with the activities described in this
paragraph;
``(D) the constructing, repairing, or maintaining
of--
``(i) roads or camps used in connection
with the activities described in this
paragraph; or
``(ii) machinery or equipment used in the
activities described in this paragraph; or
``(E) any other work performed in connection with
the activities described in this paragraph; and
``(2) does not include the manual use of chainsaws to fell
or process timber or the use of cable skidders to bring the
timber to the landing.
``(aa) `Mechanized operation'--
``(1) means the felling, skidding, yarding, loading, or
processing of timber by equipment other than manually operated
chainsaws or cable skidders; and
``(2) includes the use of whole tree processors, cut-to-
length processors, stroke boom delimbers, wheeled and track
feller-bunchers, pull-through delimbers, wheeled and track
forwarders, chippers, grinders, mechanical debarkers, wheeled
and track grapple skidders, yarders, bulldozers, excavators,
and log loaders.''; and
(2) in section 13(c) (29 U.S.C. 213(c)), by adding at the
end the following:
``(8) The provisions of section 12 relating to child labor shall
apply to an employee who is 16 or 17 years old employed in a logging
operation in an occupation that the Secretary of Labor finds and
declares to be particularly hazardous for the employment of children
ages 16 or 17, except where such employee is employed by his parent or
by a person standing in the place of his parent in a logging operation
owned or operated by such parent or person.''.
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