On Tuesday, Susan Collins (R-ME) and Joe Donnelly (D-IN) introduced S. 1782, and on Thursday Representatives Jackie Walorski (R-IN) and Dan Lipinski (D-IL) introduced H.R. 3798, the Forty Hours is Full Time Act. This is the third iteration of the legislation, after having been introduced in both the 113th and 114th Congress and not received consideration on the Senate floor. The House version from the last session of Congress, H.R. 40, was passed out of the chamber almost immediately after the session was called to order, but quickly hit a roadblock in the Senate where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) opted not to bring it up due to the lack of votes for passage. The legislation still faces some of the same challenges as it did in previous sessions of Congress, but because a full repeal/replace of the ACA has not occurred and is not expected to happen anytime soon, moderate members from both parties may be more willing to support the bill.

NAHU believes that the 30-hour workweek requirement is hurting both American employees and the companies that drive economic productivity. That’s why we are again strongly urging bipartisan support on the legislation to demonstrate the importance of changing the workweek back to 40 hours for employers who are burdened with the extensive tracking of employee hours as well as employees who are seeing their hours slashed and paychecks reduced. NAHU will be spending an Operation Shout on this bill shortly, and we encourage you to help spread the message of the importance of the legislation by emailing your senators and asking them to co-sponsor and vote for the 40 hours bills.