Two senior members of Congress have asked the acting secretary of labor, Julie Su, for information and data on child labor violations and protections in federally subsidized youth work programs amid a rise in reports of labor abuses against minors, according to a letter obtained by the Guardian.

Child labor violations have been on the rise in the US in recent years as eight states so far in 2024 have passed legislation to roll back child labor protections, though elected officials in 24 states have introduced bills to strengthen child labor protections.

Congressman Bobby Scott and Congresswoman Alma Adams have asked for more information about the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and school-based Work Experience and Career Explorations Programs (WECEPs).

Conservative and industry groups, such as the Foundation for Government Accountability, have heavily lobbied to roll back child labor protections, extending work times for minors, eliminating work permits for minors, and expanding the type of work that minors can do.

The US Department of Labor has reported an increase of 88% in child labor violations between 2019 to 2023 and several state labor departments have reported surges in violations as well.

Despite these increases, Democratic elected officials have faced resistance from Republicans in the House to hold a hearing on child labor to render solutions and strengthen protections.

The letter was sent as Congress is in the midst of reauthorizing the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). As part of the reauthorization, several business groups are pushing to remove language that would bar employers who violated child labor laws from receiving federal funds through the program.

“While the undersigned organizations support your efforts to reauthorize WIOA, the inclusion of this unsound policy will only tie up law-abiding employers in red tape, discouraging their participation. In sum, these provisions would make a system intended to develop workers’ skills less effective,” wrote business groups in a recent letter to the Senate committee on health, education, labor and pensions, including the US Chamber of Commerce, National Restaurant Association and the National Retail Federation.

The inquiry comes in the wake of two egregious cases uncovered earlier this year where employers receiving funding through these programs were found to be using them to subsidize violations of child labor laws.

In February 2024, the US Department of Labor fined Equus Workforce Solutions, a contractor providing minor workers to employers through federal programs, for employing 14- and 15-year-olds outside permitted work hours and assigned minors to perform hazardous work they are not permitted to do under federal child labor laws. One minor was injured after being assigned to operate a chainsaw and pole saw on the job.

In January 2024, the state of Washington announced a fine of the construction firm Rotschy LLC after a 16-year-old was injured on the job, losing both his legs, while working in a work-based learning program. The 16-year-old was using a walk-behind trencher to dig a channel for fence posts, an exemption that was not included in the program, when he was dragged under the blades. Three months later the same firm was fined again for assigning minors to hazardous work in violation of child labor laws.

“As we continue our inquiry into child labor, we view these cases as an opportunity to explore the interrelationship between youth workforce programs, unsafe work, and oppressive child labor and the extent to which legislation may be needed,” wrote Representatives Scott and Adams in the letter. “Our central question is whether DOL currently has sufficient tools at its disposal to ensure that children can participate in such programs free from oppressive child labor and unsafe working conditions.”

The House Democrats gave the US Department of Labor a deadline of 12 August to provide information, data and responses to questions on the extent of child labor violations at employers receiving federal funds in these programs, how oversight is conducted in these programs and what tools the department has to hold employers accountable, such as whether they have the ability to suspend or ban them from the programs for violations. Many of the learning work programs include exemptions from federal child labor laws.

Scott and Adams also inquired if the Congressional Review Act resolution signed by Trump in 2017 that nullified regulations to ensure that federal contractors comply with workplace standards such as safety and child labor rules, has constrained the department from making sure federal funds are not used to subsidize child labor violations.

House policy staff noted that Republicans leading the committee on education and the workforce have ignored requests from House Democrats to act on the issue of child labor violations and have refused to act on recommendations as well as research and data coordination. House Democrats have written letters to the Republican committee chair, Virginia Foxx, requesting a hearing on child labor, but their efforts have been ignored.

“We would have preferred to raise these issues during a committee hearing focused on child labor,” wrote Scott and Adams. “Unfortunately, although we have twice asked Rep Virginia Foxx, chair of the committee on education and the workforce, to hold such a hearing, she has yet to agree to our requests.”