Congress, Here We Come
I'm among the witnesses who will testify on Capitol Hill tomorrow in support of independent contractors.
Tomorrow, May 20, the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Workforce Protections will hold a hearing on Capitol Hill titled “Empowering the Modern Worker.”
I am grateful to the committee for inviting me to be one of the witnesses asked to testify in support of independent contractors. This will be my second time testifying before Congress about independent-contractor policy, after my first appearance in April 2023.
My testimony will strongly focus on the urgent need for Congress to protect every American’s freedom to earn a living. With regard to the federal level, I will call for the urgent passage of the Modern Worker Empowerment Act, or H.R. 1319.
With regard to the state level, I will make clear that California’s Assembly Bill 5 remains a problem, and that my own home state of New Jersey is now poised to make even more of a mess of independent contractors’ incomes and careers. I will urge Congress to do everything in its power to help those of us whose livelihoods are being threatened in the states, too.
My Fellow Witnesses
Two more witnesses scheduled to testify in support of independent contractors are economist Liya Palagashvili of the Mercatus Center, and Nathan Mehrens, vice president of workforce policy at American Trucking Associations. Mehrens is also former associate deputy secretary at the U.S. Department of Labor.
I’m honored and excited to be the “real person” who will testify alongside these heavy-hitters from the fields of economics and policy-making. I believe we will be a formidable trio in support of independent contractors.
Palagashvili also testified in April 2023. Her research on the effects of freelance-busting ABC Test laws, in particular, has been groundbreaking. In January 2024, Palagashvili and her team found that after California’s ABC Test law went into effect in January 2020:
Self-employment decreased by 10.5% on average for affected occupations.
Overall employment decreased by 4.4% on average for affected occupations.
Palagashvili and her team then expanded their research to other states that use the ABC Test in a first-of-its-kind analysis that she previewed in January 2025. It found:
The introduction of an ABC Test caused significant declines in traditional W-2 employment, self-employment and overall employment.
The ABC test reduced traditional W-2 employment by 4.73%.
Self-employment fell by 6.43%.
Overall employment fell by 4.79%.
Occupations with high shares of independent contractors experienced the largest reductions in employment.
I’m also eager to hear Mehrens testify, since American Trucking Associations has been such a longtime champion for independent contractors. ATA not only opposed the Biden-Harris administration’s Department of Labor independent contractor rule, but it also joined a broad coalition of organizations that filed one of the lawsuits against it. ATA then backed a legislative effort led by Congressman Kevin Kiley, R-California, and Senator Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, to overturn the rule.
And, ATA’s Women In Motion Council compiled a booklet of testimonials by women independent contractors. Representative Kiley used that booklet at a hearing as the foundation for a powerful line of questioning of then-Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su.
You’ll be able to watch tomorrow’s hearing live online. This subcommittee page has a live link that will let you tune in at 10:15 a.m.