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The Leader’s Floor Lookout: Tuesday, January 13, 2026

Washington, January 13, 2026
Here’s what to watch for on the House Floor today:
 
Increasing Access to Employer-Provided Child and Elder Care Assistance for Workers

Hardworking families deserve access to affordable care for their children and elderly loved ones who rely on them. But current law discourages employers from providing assistance such as dependent care payments or on-site child care because of confusing pay calculations that increase costs and burdensome regulations.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) mandates that the value of child and dependent care benefits, such as on-site child care or child or dependent care payments, must be included in employees’ regular pay calculations.The value of these benefits is added in before calculating overtime, increasing the overtime pay owed by the employer.

Child and dependent care assistance benefits are as critical to families as other employer-provided benefits – it makes no sense to limit accessibility to these crucial benefits with overly burdensome regulations.

Americans shouldn’t have to choose between meeting work obligations and caring for loved ones. House Republicans are bringing forward legislation to cut this burdensome bureaucracy and make it easier for employers to provide child and dependent care assistance to their workers, supporting both working families and American businesses while improving workforce participation. 

Rep. Mark Messmer’s legislation, H.R. 2270, the Empowering Child and Elder Care Solutions Act, lowers the cost and cuts the red tape for employers to offer child or dependent care assistance, treats these pro-family benefits similarly to other employer-provided benefits, and increases access to care for hardworking American families.

House Republicans are ensuring employee access to child and dependent care assistance to provide peace of mind and bolster workforce retention and productivity.


Clarifying the “Tipped Worker” Definition and Ending Regulatory Whiplash

Across the United States, there are around 6 million tipped workers nationwide.

The law regulating these workers – the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) – has been in place since 1938 and has not been significantly updated, using an outdated and unclear definition to describe a “tipped worker.” This has resulted in regulatory whiplash, with confusing reporting requirements and inconsistent regulations changing with every administration.

Both tipped workers and business owners need stability and the certainty that the definition of a tipped worker and the regulations surrounding their work won’t change with every presidential election.

Today, House Republicans are bringing forward legislation to decrease burdens and compliance costs on small businesses, reduce regulatory confusion, and safeguard tipped workers’ ability to earn a living by updating the outdated FLSA “tipped worker” definition.

H.R. 2312, the Tipped Employee Protection Act, introduced by Rep. Steve Womack, amends the FLSA to clarify the tipped worker definition, preserves the tipped wage system, and limits bureaucrats from implementing arbitrary restrictions or requirements on tipped employees’ hours or duties that hurt workers and industries like the restaurant industry that rely on tipped workers.

House Republicans are fighting to make sure businesses have the ability to thrive and American workers bring home higher paychecks. 


Expanding Access to Upskilling and Educational Opportunities for Workers
 
Currently, federal law discourages employers from offering employees educational training opportunities because they are frequently counted toward employees’ hours worked or overtime hours, even when these opportunities are provided outside regular work hours, without performing work for the employer, and at no cost to the employee.

Instead of making it more costly and burdensome for employers to offer additional training or skill-developing opportunities outside of regular work for employees to grow in their careers, we should be encouraging employers to offer these opportunities and promoting upskilling for all workers, giving employees control of their professional development.

House Republicans are bringing forward legislation to get rid of restrictions in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) that stifle upward mobility for workers by allowing employers to offer outside-of-work educational and training opportunities, skills development tools, and career growth without counting this off-hour voluntary training as hours worked or as part of the overtime calculation.

Rep. Ashley Hinson’s legislation, H.R. 2262, the Flexibility for Workers Education Act, amends the FLSA to exclude time spent on voluntary growth and professional development opportunities by an employee outside of regular work hours from counting towards hours worked for the purposes of minimum wage and overtime compensation, as long as participation is voluntary and no work is performed for the employer during the activities.

House Republicans are working to increase educational opportunities and upward mobility for American workers that wish to grow in their career by simplifying and modernizing the FLSA for workers and employers.

Codifying President Trump’s EO to End the War on Water Pressure

Bureaucrats under the Obama and Biden Administrations targeted basic appliances Americans use every day with ridiculous regulations, even going so far as to redefine the term "showerhead." 

Under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA), a showerhead is defined broadly and is allowed a maximum water flow of 2.5 gallons per minute (GPM) when measured at a flowing water pressure of 80 pounds per square inch.

Both the Obama and Biden Administrations imposed a stricter interpretation of this law with overly burdensome regulation of showerheads, limiting the entire shower system to the 2.5 GPM standard instead of the individual nozzles. The result? Decreased water flow and pressure in shower systems with more than one nozzle.

This absurd change has led to confusion and uncertainty for manufacturers, unnecessary regulation on Americans, and fewer choices for consumers. Americans should be able to choose their shower system – not the government. 

House Republicans are bringing forward legislation to codify President Trump’s executive action to end Democrats' war on water pressure, restore the regulatory definitions to the EPCA’s original intent, and clearly define a “showerhead” as consistent with the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) standard, allowing each nozzle in a multi-head shower system to rightfully be treated as a separate showerhead with each allowed a flow at up to 2.5 GPM.

H.R. 4593, the SHOWER Act, introduced by Rep. Russell Fry, defines “showerhead” using the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) standard, clarifies that each nozzle in a multi-head shower system is an individual showerhead that may operate at up to 2.5 GPM, and prevents future reinterpretations of the definition of a showerhead that would limit water flow and take away consumer choice, providing regulatory clarity and improving water flow for Americans by restoring Congress’ original intent.

House Republicans will continue working to reduce government overreach and protect consumer choice.