[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 509 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 509

 To exempt certain 16- and 17-year-old individuals employed in logging 
                   operations from child labor laws.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   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.''.
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