The Beltway Buzz® is a weekly update summarizing labor and employment news from inside the Beltway and clarifying how what’s happening in Washington, D.C., could impact your business.
Chavez-DeRemer Out as Secretary of Labor, Sonderling In. Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned her position as secretary of labor this week amid an ongoing investigation into her travel and spending practices. Chavez-DeRemer was a controversial appointment from the start of the administration due to her support, while serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, for the union-backed Protecting the Right to Organize Act.
Deputy Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling is now serving as the acting secretary of labor. Sonderling previously served as a commissioner of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) from 2020 to 2024. He also served as acting and deputy administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) during President Donald Trump’s first administration. Given his background and understanding of the labor and employment policy landscape, many in the business community applauded the administration’s appointment of Sonderling to the deputy secretary role. These feelings are likely to continue now that Sonderling is the acting secretary.
DOL Proposes Joint-Employer Rule for FLSA, FMLA, and MSPA. Acting Secretary Sonderling hit the ground running this week, as the WHD published a notice of proposed rulemaking, “Joint Employer Status Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, Family and Medical Leave Act, and Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act,” on April 23, 2026.
During the first Trump administration, the DOL published a similar joint-employer rule (though limited in applicability to the Fair Labor Standards Act) that went into effect on March 16, 2020. The Trump 1.0 rule was largely invalidated by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and was subsequently rescinded by the Biden administration.
The current proposal is very similar to the 2020 rule, as it sets forth the same four-factor test for determining joint-employer status. This test examines whether the putative joint employer
- “hires or fires the employee”;
- “supervises and controls the employee’s work schedule or conditions of employment to a substantial degree”;
- “determines the employee’s rate and method of payment”; and
- “maintains the employee’s employment records.”
Notably, the current proposal differs from the 2020 final rule in some respects, as it takes into consideration some of the conclusions in the federal district court’s September 2020 decision. For example:
- Like the DOL’s new independent contractor proposal, the current joint employer proposal also covers joint employer status under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA), in addition to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
- The proposal takes a more nuanced approach to one particular element of the “control” factor (“reserved control”) by “not requiring actual exercise of control for there to be joint employment, but recognizing that exercised control is more relevant than reserved control which is rarely or never exercised.” (Emphasis added.) The proposal states that this approach “is more consistent with the FLSA and longstanding caselaw, which focuses both on the ‘degree’ of control and on ‘the economic reality’ of the situation.” (Emphasis in the original.)
- In comparison to the 2020 rule, the proposal also allows more leeway when considering additional factors beyond the four identified factors, such as whether the employee in question has a “continuous or repeated relationship with the potential joint employer” or is economically dependent on the potential joint employer.
Finally, the proposal makes it clear that franchise relationships, on their own, do not make joint-employer status more or less likely. Similarly, “contractual provisions addressing and requiring compliance with general legal obligations or health and safety standards” do not tip the joint-employer scales one way or the other. Public comments on the proposal are due by June 22, 2026. Keith E. Kopplin and Zachary V. Zagger have additional details.
Democratic Senators Seek to Investigate the Administration’s Immigration Processing Practices. This week, Democratic members of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary sent two letters to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), regarding the administration’s handling of legal immigration processing.
- The first letter concerns U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) pauses of benefit requests for certain individuals and the U.S. Department of State’s suspension of visa processing for nationals of seventy-five countries. The senators write that these process changes “have left immigrants, their families, and employers at a loss for how to obtain or maintain lawful status or presence” and “are an attempt to circumvent the statutory scheme for lawful immigration to the United States, rather than a legitimate exercise in improving the integrity of our immigration system.” Accordingly, the letter requests that the GAO examine what evidence USCIS and the State Department relied upon to determine that the processing holds were necessary, whether applications continue to be processed during these holds, how much money USCIS has collected in processing fees, and what USCIS’s and the State Department’s plans are for resuming normal adjudication processes.
- The second letter addresses USCIS’s “re-reviews” of refugees admitted into the United States, as well as “re-reviews” of benefit requests granted to certain foreign nationals, during the Biden administration. The letter asks the GAO to examine the evidence used to determine that the re-reviews were necessary, data on the characteristics of individuals selected for re-reviews, how and when these policies were developed, the cost of these re-reviews, and the results of these re-reviews (e.g., were they different from the initial approvals), among other issue areas.
House Republicans Introduce Anti-H-1B Visa Bill. Eight Republican members of the House of Representatives have introduced H.R. 8443, the “End H-1B Visa Abuse Act of 2026.” The legislation would impose a three-year moratorium on the issuance of H-1B visas while enacting the following changes to the H-1B program:
- Eliminating “dual intent,” which allows H-1B visa holders to maintain their status while simultaneously taking steps towards permanent residency in the United States
- Setting the H-1B numerical cap at 25,000 per year, instead of the current 65,000
- Limiting H-1B stays to a maximum of three years
- Codifying President Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee
- Requiring employers filing H-1B petitions to assert that there are no qualified workers for the job and that they have not conducted layoffs in the past year
- Prohibiting H-1B visa holders from working multiple jobs
- Prohibiting third-party or staffing agencies from employing H-1B visa holders
- Prohibiting H-1B visa holders from bringing dependents to the United States
- Eliminating the Optional Practical Training program
The bill is unlikely to become law in this Congress, but it reflects certain lawmakers’ skepticism toward the H-1B program.
Happy Birthday, President Buchanan. The fifteenth president of the United States, James Buchanan, was born on April 23, 1791. An attorney, Buchanan served ten years in the U.S. House of Representatives, followed by eleven years as a U.S. senator, all representing the state of Pennsylvania. Buchanan then served four years as President James K. Polk’s secretary of state. Widely criticized for his failure to forestall the Civil War, Buchanan is also known for the following:
- Buchanan suffered from esotropia, making one eye turn inward. He was also nearsighted in one eye and farsighted in the other eye. These conditions forced Buchanan to tilt his head to one side.
- Buchanan is the only president to never marry. His niece, Harriet Lane, served as First Lady.
- Buchanan is the last secretary of state to later serve as president. Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, John Quincy Adams, and Van Buren all served in the role before ascending to the White House. John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and Marco Rubio should all take note.
