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To exempt certain 16- and 17-year-old individuals employed in logging operations from child labor laws.
Summary
This bill amends the Fair Labor Standards Act to create an exemption allowing 16- and 17-year-old individuals to work in mechanized logging operations, which includes timber processing, skidding, yarding, loading, and related activities using equipment such as feller-bunchers and forwarders. The exemption does not apply to manual chainsaw use or cable skidder operations. The bill allows the Secretary of Labor to declare specific logging occupations as particularly hazardous for workers ages 16-17; in those hazardous occupations, only minors employed by a parent or legal guardian in a family-owned logging operation would be permitted to work. General child labor restrictions would continue to apply to all other logging work.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Sen. Risch, James E. [R-ID] (R-ID)
5 cosponsors
- Sen. Collins, Susan M. [R-ME] (R-ME)
- Sen. Cornyn, John [R-TX] (R-TX)
- Sen. Crapo, Mike [R-ID] (R-ID)
- Sen. King, Angus S., Jr. [I-ME] (I-ME)
- Sen. Sheehy, Tim [R-MT] (R-MT)
Money behind the sponsor
Top reported contributors to James E. Risch’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.
- ALPHA SERVICES LLC $10,000
- 1ST FINANCIAL BANK USA $6,600
- CIVIC SERVICE INC. $6,600
- SINCLAIR COMPANIES $6,600
- SOROBAN CAPITAL PARTNERS LP $6,600
Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for James E. Risch → · Outside spending →
Actions (2)
- Feb 11, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. · senate
- Feb 11, 2025 Introduced in Senate
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
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.”. <all>
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