WASHINGTON
(AP) -- Under heavy pressure from farm groups, the Obama administration
said Thursday it would drop an unpopular plan to prevent children from
doing hazardous work on farms owned by anyone other than their parents.
The
Labor Department said it is withdrawing proposed rules that would ban
children younger than 16 from using most power-driven farm equipment,
including tractors. The rules also would prevent those younger than 18
from working in feed lots, grain bins and stockyards.
While
labor officials said their goal was to reduce the fatality rate for
child farm workers, the proposal had become a popular political target
for Republicans who called it an impractical, heavy-handed regulation
that ignored the reality of small farms.
"It's
good the Labor Department rethought the ridiculous regulations it was
going to stick on farmers and their families," said Sen. Chuck Grassley,
R-Iowa. "To even propose such regulations defies common sense, and
shows a real lack of understanding as to how the family farm works."
The
surprise move comes just two months after the Labor Department modified
the rule in a bid to satisfy opponents. The agency made it clear it
would exempt children who worked on farms owned or operated by their
parents, even if the ownership was part of a complex partnership or
corporate agreement.
That didn't appease farm
groups that complained it would upset traditions in which many children
work on farms owned by uncles, grandparents and other relatives to
reduce costs and learn how a farm operates. The Labor Department said
Thursday it was responding to thousands of comments that expressed
concern about the impact of the changes on small family-owned farms.
"The
Obama administration is firmly committed to promoting family farmers
and respecting the rural way of life, especially the role that parents
and other family members play in passing those traditions down through
the generations," the agency said in a statement.
Instead,
the agency said it would work with rural stakeholders, including the
American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Farmers Union and 4-H to
develop an educational program to reduce accidents to young workers.
Sen.
Jon Tester, D-Mont., a grain farmer known to till his fields on
weekends away from Washington, had come out strongly against the
proposed rule. The Democrat continued to criticize the Obama
administration rule even after it was tempered earlier this year, saying
the Labor Department "clearly didn't get the whole message" from
Montana's farmers and ranchers.
Tester, who is
in a tough race for re-election, on Thursday praised the decision to
withdraw the rule and said he would fight "any measure that threatens
that heritage and our rural way of life."
---
Associated Press writer Matt Gouras in Helena, Mont., contributed to this report.
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