Protecting America’s Workers Act

Congress possesses the authority to regulate commerce among the several states, which encompasses measures to ensure the safety and health of workers engaged in such commerce, as workplaces and industries materially affect interstate trade. Amendments expanding coverage, enhancing whistleblower protections, increasing penalties for violations, adjusting for inflation, and providing rights to victims or families are legitimate exercises of this power and the necessary and proper means to execute it, promoting the general welfare and the energetic execution of federal laws without encroaching up…

This bill seeks to expand federal authority over occupational safety, whistleblower protections, penalties, and victims' rights by amending prior legislation. Such measures intrude upon the reserved powers of the States and the people, as workplace regulations are local concerns not enumerated among the limited powers granted to Congress. The Commerce Clause does not extend to comprehensive regulation of private employments and safety within States, which would swallow the federal compact's boundaries. Individual liberty demands that such matters remain with sovereign States, lest federal powe…

The proposed bill seeks to expand federal regulation of occupational safety, impose heightened penalties, adjust them for inflation, and grant rights to victims and whistleblowers. Such measures constitute an exercise of the police power over health and safety in workplaces, which is not among the enumerated powers of Congress. The power to regulate commerce among the several states, while granted, does not extend to comprehensive regulation of local employments and safety conditions, which are matters reserved to the states. In an extended republic, the federal authority must remain limited t…

The proposed bill seeks to regulate conditions of labor and safety in occupations, which bear directly upon the commerce among the several States. The power of Congress to regulate such commerce is plenary and extends to those activities that substantially affect interstate commerce, as established in Gibbons v. Ogden (1824), wherein the regulation of navigation was deemed essential to commercial intercourse. Furthermore, the enhancements to penalties, whistleblower protections, and victim rights are measures necessary and proper to the execution of this commerce power, consistent with the doc…