It would also require the Labor Department to compile a list of companies ineligible for federal contracts based on "serious, repeated, or pervasive violations of child labor laws." The Labor Department said earlier this month that in the 2023 fiscal year, which ended on Sept. 30, 2023, investigations had found close to 5,800 kids illegally employed in the U.S., an 88% increase from 2019. Another bipartisan Senate bill introduced on Thursday by Republican Marco Rubio from Florida, with Democrats Alex Padilla from California and John Hickenlooper from Colorado, and Republican Roger Marshall from Kansas, would require the Labor Department to report more details to lawmakers about the perpetrators and victims involved in child labor cases. A February 2022 Reuters story exposed child labor at Alabama chicken plants, revealing how unaccompanied Central American migrants in debt to human smugglers were working grueling factory shifts. Later, in November, the Labor Department filed a complaint against cleaning company Packers Sanitation Services Inc. (PSSI) for employing dozens of kids cleaning meatpacking plants around the country, some of whom suffered chemical burns and other injuries.

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Persons: Cory Booker, Kevin Lamarque, Josh Hawley, Republican Marco Rubio, Alex Padilla, John Hickenlooper, Republican Roger Marshall, Rubio, Dick Durbin, Mica Rosenberg, Joshua Schneyer, Kristina Cooke, Aurora Ellis, Jonathan Oatis Organizations: Capitol, REUTERS, Democratic, Labor Department, U.S . Department of Agriculture, The Labor Department, Republican, Central, Packers Sanitation Services Inc, Hyundai, Kia, Reuters, Democratic Senators, Senate, Thomson Locations: Washington , U.S, United States, U.S, New Jersey, Missouri, Florida, California, Colorado, Kansas, Alabama, Korean, Mexico, Illinois, New York