I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1377 
To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to better align certain 
provisions of such Act with Federal disability laws and policies intended 
to remove societal and institutional barriers to employment opportunities 
for people with disabilities. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 7, 2017 
Mr. HARPER introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Education and the Workforce 
A BILL 
To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to better 
align certain provisions of such Act with Federal dis-
ability laws and policies intended to remove societal and 
institutional barriers to employment opportunities for 
people with disabilities. 
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 ‘‘Transitioning to Inte-
grated and Meaningful Employment Act of 2017’’. 
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SEC. 2. DISCONTINUANCE OF SPECIAL CERTIFICATES FOR 
INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES. 
(a) NO
ISSUANCE
OF
NEW
SPECIAL
CERTIFI-
CATES.—Beginning on the date of enactment of this Act, 
the Secretary of Labor shall not issue any new special cer-
tificates under section 14(c)(1) of the Fair Labor Stand-
ards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 214(c)(1)). 
(b) CONDITIONS FOR RENEWAL OF CERTIFICATES.— 
Beginning on the date of enactment of this Act, the Sec-
retary of Labor shall not renew any special certificate to 
an employer previously provided such a certificate under 
section 14(c)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 
(29 U.S.C. 214(c)(1)) unless the employer provides, on an 
annual basis, to the Secretary the following information: 
(1) Individualized assessments of each employee 
paid subminimum wages under any such special cer-
tificate, including the wages earned, skills developed, 
and qualifications required for employment with 
such certificate holder at or above minimum wage 
for that year. 
(2) Individualized assessments of the employee 
that identify how obstacles related to the disability 
prevent each employee paid subminimum wages from 
transitioning into available job opportunities that 
pay at or above the minimum wage and the re-
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sources provided to each such employee in order to 
mitigate those disability-related obstacles. 
(3) A transition plan for each such employee 
that includes demonstrable benchmarks to facilitate 
the placement of each such employee into employ-
ment opportunities that compensate for work at or 
above the minimum wage. 
(c) PUBLICATION.—The Secretary of Labor shall 
make the information submitted under subsection (b) pub-
licly available and updated on the website of the Depart-
ment of Labor. Such publicly available information shall 
not include any personally identifiable information regard-
ing any employee who is the subject of the assessments 
and plans required under such subsection or who is paid 
a subminimum wage pursuant to a special certificate de-
scribed in such subsection. 
(d) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this Act— 
(1) the term ‘‘minimum wage’’ means the min-
imum wage in effect under section 6(a)(1) of the 
Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 
206(a)(1)); and 
(2) the term ‘‘subminimum wage’’ means any 
wage paid to any employee pursuant to a special cer-
tificate issued under section 14(c)(1) of the Fair 
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Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 214(c)(1)) 
that is less than the minimum wage. 
(e) ENFORCEMENT.—Any employer that continues to 
pay a subminimum wage to an employee without meeting 
the conditions set forth in subparagraph (b) shall be 
deemed to have violated a regulation or order of the Sec-
retary of Labor issued under section 14 of the Fair Labor 
Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 214). 
SEC. 3. REPEAL SPECIAL CERTIFICATE PROVISIONS. 
Effective on the date that is 6 years after the date 
of the enactment of this Act, subsection (c) of section 14 
of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 
214(c)) is repealed, and any outstanding special wage cer-
tificates issued under such subsection shall be revoked. 
Æ 
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