Republicans have decided to excise the word “labor” from the name of the House committee handling education and, yes, labor issues.
It’s time to say so long to the Education and Labor Committee and hello to the Education and the Workforce Committee, the Wall Street Journal‘s Washington Wire reports.
This isn’t the first time the name has changed, but the Labor Committee has been named that since Democrats took over the House in 2006. Reports the WSJ:
Republicans are planning the name change, and it isn’t the first. For years, the committee was called Education and Labor. But when Newt Gingrich and the Republicans took over the House in 1994, they wanted to show that there was a new sheriff in town–and he was not a pro-labor sheriff.
So they changed the name to the Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities. Unfortunately, no one knew what that meant, nor could anyone remember the name. So it was soon changed to Education and the Workforce.
“Education and the Workforce was the name selected by Republicans more than a decade ago to reflect the committee’s broad jurisdiction over polices that affect American students, workers, and retirees,” Alexa Marrero, a spokeswoman for committee Republicans, told the paper. Rep. John Kline (R-MN) is the incoming chair of the newly-renamed committee.
Two other committees will see their names change as well: The Committee on Science and Technology will become the Committee on Science, Space and Technology; and the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct will become the Ethics Committee.
