Few issues are of greater significance to the trucking industry than the rights of independent contractors. The opportunities and flexibility of this arrangement give truckers the ability to control their own schedules, set their own routes, and run their own small businesses.
Independent truckers are an integral part of our supply chain, and the industry has relied upon them since the inception of interstate trucking. Recently, however, their status has come under unprecedented attack, first by California’s notorious AB5, and then again this year through a U.S. Department of Labor regulation that seeks to expand onerous and odious policies nationwide. Consequently, the livelihoods of 350,000 independent truckers are in jeopardy.
Enter Congressman Kevin Kiley (R-California). He has emerged as the most outspoken and effective champion of independent contractors in the nation’s capital. For this reason, the American Trucking Associations is proud to name Congressman Kiley a Trucking Champion, an elite group of Members of Congress who have gone above and beyond for the 8.5 million men and women employed in the trucking industry.
From the very beginning of his first term, Congressman Kiley has proven himself to be a steadfast supporter of California’s truckers, who play an outsized role in the Golden State’s economy and account for 1 out of every 17 jobs. In total, California’s nearly 225,000 primarily small, locally owned trucking businesses provide over 920,000 good-paying, family-sustaining jobs.
Among other pro-trucking policies, Congressman Kiley has co-sponsored and backed legislation that would implement pro-growth tax reform to benefit trucking businesses, roll back unrealistic EV mandates, promote efficiency at ports, and strengthen workforce development. But it is his advocacy for independent truckers where Congressman Kiley has distinguished himself in particular.
Congressman Kiley solidified his leadership of this issue by co-authoring a resolution in March that would have overturned the Department of Labor’s independent contractor rule. Additionally, at a congressional hearing earlier this year, Congressman Kiley grilled Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su on why she crafted this rule to reclassify independent truckers against their will and run them out of business.
“I’m asking [for] this particular profession—truck drivers, independent owner-operators, hundreds of thousands of them that are vital to our supply chain—can you give us an answer right now as to how they will be treated under [the U.S. Department of Labor’s independent contractor] rule?”
This question posed by Congressman Kiley was the third time over the course of four minutes that he attempted to extract a response from Su. With the skill and tenacity of an expert debater, Congressman Kiley pressed for a straightforward answer. Over and over again, Su refused to give one. Worse still, she would not even commit to shielding independent truckers from being targeted by her department over how they choose to run their businesses. Her repeated dodges and deflections spoke volumes.
In her role as California’s Secretary of Labor and now in her current non-confirmed role at the U.S. Department of Labor, Su has egregiously failed to recognize the importance of this pathway to entrepreneurship and has ignored the concerns expressed by independent truckers. By contrast, Congressman Kiley has taken every opportunity to amplify their voices, and he has used his influence to apply constant pressure on the Administration to reverse course.
A few weeks before the House Committee on Education & the Workforce hearing, Congressman Kiley took the time to host a roundtable with ATA’s Women In Motion Council. He listened intently to why this group of women truckers chose to work as independent contractors and heard them express their trepidation that the Department of Labor’s rule would snatch away everything they worked so hard to build.
This in-depth conversation set the stage for Congressman Kiley’s powerful line of questioning at the hearing with Acting Secretary Su. He shared the personal stories of independent truckers that Women In Motion had compiled into a booklet and called on Su to respect their choice and protect their way of life.
Most Members of Congress would be content to spend their first terms in relative obscurity as they slowly grow into their roles. Not Congressman Kiley. Perhaps it is because public service is in his DNA. The son of a special education teacher, Congressman Kiley has dedicated his career to serving his community. He has also accumulated a vast amount of experience as a teacher, as a deputy attorney general, and as a state assemblymember prior to serving in Congress, which have enabled him to be far more effective than most. As a member of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee and the Education and the Workforce Committee, as well as the chairman of the Workforce Protections Subcommittee, he is uniquely positioned to assist truckers on almost any issues that arise.
ATA looks forward to continuing to work alongside Congressman Kiley to support truckers from the West Coast to the East Coast and preserve Americans’ right to earn a living in the manner that they choose. We congratulate him on earning the title of “Trucking Champion.”