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[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E829]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
COST ESTIMATE FOR H.R. 2694, PREGNANT WORKERS FAIRNESS ACT
______
HON. ROBERT C. ``BOBBY'' SCOTT
of virginia
in the house of representatives
Friday, September 11, 2020
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I am hereby including in the
Record the cost estimate prepared by the Congressional Budget Office
for H.R. 2694, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. The cost estimate was
not available at the time of the filing of the Committee report.
U. S. Congress,
Congressional Budget Office,
Washington, DC, September 9, 2020.
Hon. Bobby Scott,
Chairman, Committee on Education and Labor, House of
Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for H.R. 2694, the
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.
If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Sofia Guo.
Sincerely,
Phillip L. Swagel,
Director.
Enclosure.
H.R. 2694, PREGNANT WORKERS FAIRNESS ACT--AS ORDERED REPORTED BY THE
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR ON JANUARY 14, 2020
[By fiscal year, millions of dollars]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2020 2020-2025 2020-2030
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Direct Spending (Outlays)..... 0 * *
Revenues...................... 0 0 0
Increase or Decrease (-) in 0 * *
the Deficit..................
Spending Subject to 0 3 not
Appropriation (Outlays)...... estimated
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* = between zero and $500,000.
Statutory pay-as-you-go procedures apply? Yes.
Increases on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive
10-year periods beginning in 2031? No.
Mandate Effects:
Contains intergovernmental mandate? Excluded from UMRA.
Contains private-sector mandate? Excluded from UMRA.
H.R. 2694 would require all public-sector employers and any
private-sector employers with more than 15 workers to make
reasonable accommodations for the known limitations related
to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions of
employees and job applicants.\1\ The bill would not require
employers to make any accommodation that would impose an
undue hardship on business operations. Under the bill, the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) would be
required to issue regulations to implement the bill within
two years of enactment.
Using information from the EEOC, CBO expects that for the
first three years after the regulations are issued, the EEOC
would receive roughly 500 more claims related to pregnancy
discrimination (an increase of about 20 percent) each year.
(The EEOC expects that after three years, the number of
pregnancy discrimination claims would return to prior levels
as employers comply with the new regulations.) To meet that
workload, CBO estimates that the commission would need seven
additional employees, at a cost of about $3 million over the
2021-2025 period. Such spending would be subject to the
availability of appropriated funds. For fiscal year 2020, the
Congress appropriated about $390 million for all of the
EEOC's operations.
Enacting the bill could affect direct spending by some
agencies that are allowed to use fees, receipts from the sale
of goods, and other collections to cover operating costs. CBO
estimates that any net changes in direct spending by those
agencies would be negligible because most of them can adjust
amounts collected to reflect changes in operating costs.
CBO has not reviewed H.R. 2694 for intergovernmental or
private-sector mandates. Section 4 of the Unfunded Mandates
Reform Act excludes from the application of that act any
legislative provisions that would establish or enforce
statutory rights prohibiting discrimination. CBO has
determined that the bill falls within that exclusion because
it would extend protections against discrimination in the
workplace based on sex to employees requesting reasonable
accommodation for pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical
conditions.
The CBO staff contacts for this estimate are Sofia Guo (for
federal costs) and Lilia Ledezma (for mandates). The estimate
was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Director of
Budget Analysis.
\1\ Current law provides protections to pregnant workers
who are denied reasonable accommodations by their employers.
However, the Supreme Court has ruled that a pregnant worker
may bring a claim against an employer only if the petitioner
can demonstrate that the employer has provided accommodations
to workers with similar limitations who are not pregnant
(Young v. United Parcel Service, Inc., 575 U.S. 12, 1226
(2015). https://go.usa.gov/xG4jx, PDF, 230 KB). H.R. 2694
would allow pregnant workers to bring such claims without
meeting that requirement.
____________________