Dive Brief:
- If House Republicans want to revoke the overtime rule, they might use the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to do it, says SHRM. If a rule is presented to congressional members and 60 legislative days haven’t expired since then by the year’s end, Congress gets 45 additional days during the new legislative session to override the regulation.
- SHRM sources said Congress was expected to adjourn the 114th legislative session by the end of last week. A Dec. 9 adjournment would have given GOP lawmakers the full amount of time allotted to bring in the rarely used CRA and revoke the overtime rule in the 115th legislative session if there are enough congressional votes to do so.
- SHRM also reports that states with pending legal challenges against the overtime rule wanted the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to deny the Department of Labor’s motion for an expedited review of its appeal, but expedited review was granted anyway. SHRM said it doubts an appeals resolution will occur before President-elect Donald Trump is sworn into office on Jan. 20.
Dive Insight:
The running down of the clock before the legislative sessions ends won’t likely stop Republican lawmakers from getting rid of the overtime rule and overturning other pro-labor legislation left over from the Obama administration. With Trump's nomination for Labor Secretary coming from the business world, the overtime rule is likely to be acutely amended, if not completely repealed.
That outcome is especially likely since the expedited review was placed after Trump's inauguration, meaning Trump could opt to drop the appeal if he so chose.