Department of Labor: All your little farm children are belong to us!

from protein wisdom by Jeff G.:

Department of Labor: All your little farm children are belong to us!:

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CNS:

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis faced congressional opposition Wednesday over the Obama administration’s proposed regulations that would curtail what chores children are allowed to do on their own family’s farm.

Among other things, the Labor Department wants to bar children under age 16 from participating in the cultivation, harvest and curing of tobacco; operating almost all “power-driven” equipment; and working with animals in feed lots, grain silos, stockyards, or livestock auctions.

...

Sen. Moran called the regulations “overly broad,” giving a few examples:
“Regulations prohibiting a young person from working six feet off the ground mean that no child, no young person, is going to be in the cab of a tractor or a combine. And in fact, your rules suggest that a young person could not even use a power-driven screwdriver.”

Moran said in his view, “If the federal government can regulate the kind of relationship between parents and their children on their own family’s farm, there is almost nothing off-limit” when it comes to government intrusion.
[my emphasis]

Senator Moran, [...]