Sen. Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, discussed Congress pushing for student loan forgiveness for anti-Israel protesters and voting on anti-Semitism bills.
First appearance on FOXPresident Biden’s administration is under fire for allegedly withholding $800 million in federal funds from Florida in response to a law opposed by labor unions in the state.
“The Department of Labor is violating federal law to intimidate Florida and other states seeking to increase worker power and union transparency. This is completely unacceptable,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said in a statement. “This is another example of the Biden Administration using its enforcement power to tilt policy in favor of its political allies rather than the American worker.”
The congressman wrote Acting Department of Labor (DOL) Secretary Julie Su on Thursday, requesting “any legal analysis that justifies the DOL’s ignoring of the DOL’s grant decision and withholding $800 million in federal grant funding to Florida.”
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President Biden has been accused of withholding federal funding from Florida because of legislation opposed by public sector unions. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, left; (Getty Images)
According to a lawsuit filed by Florida against the Biden administration last year, Florida groups were contacted by the Department of Labor just days before a state law banning unions from collecting union dues directly from workers’ paychecks was set to go into effect. The department said the law ” [their] “Continued eligibility to receive Federal Transit Administration funds,” according to the lawsuit.
In an October 2023 complaint, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said the Florida Public Transportation Association expects the Florida group to receive about $800 million in funding over several years through federal transportation law.
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Moody’s has sued the Biden administration over funding bottlenecks. (Getty Images)
But “the Department of Labor has given Florida an ultimatum: abandon the reforms enacted in SB 256 or lose hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding,” she argued.
The law, signed in 2023, specifically regulates public employee unions and employees’ rights to join or leave unions. It also prohibits unions from deducting union dues from members’ pay. The reforms are widely opposed by public employee unions.
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Su was a controversial candidate. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Moody wrote in his lawsuit that as a condition of receiving federal funding, states must ensure “fair and equitable” deals for workers and protections for collective bargaining rights. “To be clear, Florida does not intend to abolish the collective bargaining rights of transportation workers,” the Florida attorney general said.
But she added that the Biden Administration “is interpreting the ‘continuation of the right to collective bargaining’ language in Section 5333(b) to mean that Florida cannot enact reasonable regulations governing the collective bargaining process.”
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Cassidy is a senior member of the HELP Committee. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
“Florida law simply guarantees that state public employees are free to choose whether to join or remain a union. In fact, the right to join a union and bargain collectively is enshrined in the Florida Constitution,” Cassidy reiterated in the letter.
In addition to seeking a legal analysis from the Department of Labor, the senators also requested the standards the department will use to determine what “fair and just” means in this situation, communication regarding the decision to withhold funding, and reasons why a temporary waiver cannot be issued.
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Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House and DOL for comment.
Cassidy’s assertion that the Biden administration is withholding funds to please political allies comes as the president seeks to shore up union support ahead of the 2024 election. Former President Trump proved a formidable opponent when it came to workers, taking it upon himself to target union members who lean toward the Democratic Party.
