The ‘L’ Word Is Back in Key House Committee: Labor

by Mike Hall, Jan 8, 2007

A dozen years after Newt Gingrich and his gang of “Gingristas” pettily stripped the word “Labor” out of the name of the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) says the era of Republican “newspeak” is over.

Miller, who chairs the House committee that deals with labor issues—wages, workers’ rights, job safety and more—says it will once again be known as the Committee on Education and Labor.

In 1995, when Republicans took control of the House, the panel was renamed the Committee on Education and Economic Opportunities—a change in name most considered a deliberate slap at unions. Two years later it was renamed again, the Committee on Education and the Workforce.

For you history buffs, the Committee on Education and Labor was established in 1867. In 1883 the panel was split into two committees, Education and Labor. In 1947, the two were rejoined as the Education and Labor Committee and the Republicans who were the majority in the House didn’t have a problem with the dreaded “L” word then.

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