WASHINGTON, DC – While President Obama visits Lawrence to promote the new taxes and new spending he outlined in his State of the Union address, U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) suggested the President support the repeal of his own 30 hour work week rule in Obamacare that has hurt student employees at The University of Kansas (KU), the location of today’s speech.
“The American people sent a clear message on election day,” Roberts said. “Folks want us to get things done. They want us to do our work. They want real solutions to the nation’s problems, not tired ideological proposals.
While the President delivered a speech Thursday at the University of Kansas, Senator Roberts participated in a Health, Education, Labor, and Pension (HELP) Committee Hearing working to fix the 30-hour work week rule in Obamacare. Kansas press recently reported that the rule has forced KU to cut hours of student employees of the school.
“In the Obama economy, Kansas students are struggling to pay their tuition and even their grocery bills,” Senator Roberts continued. “Obamacare made that burden even more challenging by forcing employers like KU to cap the work hours of many part time student employees.”
When KU announced their new plan, KSHB NBC 41 in Kansas City reported that many KU students were deeply concerned by the forced cuts in work hours.
“I don’t think that I’ve had a semester at KU when I’ve worked less than 25 [hours],” Rachel Prather a KU student with an on-campus job at the tutoring center told KSHB at the time. “I can’t really imagine how I’m going to buy groceries on twenty hours or less a week.”
“Rather than working with the new Congress to fix this devastating Obamacare regulation, President Obama has threatened to veto our bi-partisan bill,” Roberts said. “That’s very disappointing. Perhaps the President’s trip today will allow him to hear firsthand about the effects his policy is having on Kansans.”
Below are Senator Roberts’ remarks on the 30 Hour work week in the HELP Committee as prepared for delivery:
Thursday, President Obama is speaking at the University of Kansas. He will likely be expanding upon many of the proposals that he outlined earlier this week in his State of the Union address.
I am a strong supporter of free speech and it’s certainly an honor for KU to host the President of the United States. KU is a great Kansas institution and I know he will get a warm Jayhawk reception.
I’m glad the President has chosen to visit my state because I believe we offer a good dose of Kansas commonsense. That said, in the case of the Obamacare 30 hour work week, we might also offer a cautionary tale.
The University of Kansas announced late last summer that they have reduced undergraduate student employment hours from 30 hours a week to 20 hours a week and capped graduate student hours at no more than 29 hours per week – all as a result of this new 30 hour rule. That is 5000 students. These are not statistics, these are people.
Regardless of this fact, the President has already announced that he would veto legislation to help restore hours, and therefore wages, for these hardworking students.
The 30 hour rule is clearly one of the more harmful provisions of Obamacare for many of our workers and I hope the President will revisit his refusal to at least address it.