I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1454 
To exempt certain 16- and 17-year-old individuals employed in logging or 
mechanized operations from child labor laws. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 9, 2017 
Mr. LABRADOR (for himself and Mr. POLIQUIN) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce 
A BILL 
To exempt certain 16- and 17-year-old individuals employed 
in logging or mechanized operations from child labor laws. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Future Logging Ca-
reers Act’’. 
SEC. 2. CHILD LABOR LAW EXEMPTIONS FOR LOGGING AND 
MECHANIZED OPERATIONS. 
The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 
201 et seq.) is amended— 
(1) in section 3 (29 U.S.C. 203)— 
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(A) in subsection (l), by adding at the end 
the following: ‘‘, and that employment of em-
ployees ages sixteen or seventeen years in a log-
ging or mechanized operation in an occupation 
that the Secretary of Labor finds and declares 
to be particularly hazardous for the employment 
of individuals of such ages shall not be deemed 
to constitute oppressive child labor if such em-
ployee is employed by his parent or by a person 
standing in the place of his parent in a logging 
or mechanized operation owned or operated by 
such parent or person’’; and 
(B) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(z)(1) ‘Logging’— 
‘‘(A) means— 
‘‘(i) the felling, skidding, yarding, loading 
and processing of timber by equipment other 
than manually operated chainsaws and cable 
skidders; 
‘‘(ii) the felling of timber in mechanized 
operations; 
‘‘(iii) the bucking or converting of timber 
into logs, poles, ties, bolts, pulpwood, chemical 
wood, excelsior wood, cordwood, fence posts, or 
similar products; 
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‘‘(iv) the collecting, skidding, yarding, 
loading, transporting and unloading of such 
products in connection with logging; 
‘‘(v) the constructing, repairing and main-
taining of roads or camps used in connection 
with logging; the constructing, repairing, and 
maintenance of machinery or equipment used in 
logging; and 
‘‘(vi) other work performed in connection 
with logging; and 
‘‘(B) does not include the manual use of chain 
saws to fell and process timber and the use of cable 
skidders to bring the timber to the landing. 
‘‘(2) ‘Mechanized operation’— 
‘‘(A) means the felling, skidding, yarding, load-
ing and processing of timber by equipment other 
than manually operated chainsaws and cable skid-
ders; and 
‘‘(B) includes whole tree processors, cut-to- 
length processors, stroke boom delimbers, wheeled 
and track feller-bunchers, pull thru delimbers, 
wheeled and track forwarders, chippers, grinders, 
mechanical debarkers, wheeled and track grapple 
skidders, yarders, bulldozers, excavators, and log 
loaders.’’; and 
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(2) in section 13(c) (29 U.S.C. 211(c)), by add-
ing at the end the following: 
‘‘(8) The provisions of section 12 relating to 
child labor shall apply to an employee who is 16 or 
17 years old employed in a logging or mechanized 
operation in an occupation that the Secretary of 
Labor finds and declares to be particularly haz-
ardous for the employment of children ages 16 or 
17, except where such employee is employed by his 
parent or by a person standing in the place of his 
parent in a logging or mechanized operation owned 
or operated by such parent or person.’’. 
Æ 
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