USCIS Releases Proposal to Eliminate Sixty-Day Grace Period. Today, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a proposed rule, “Eliminating the Discretionary 60-day Grace Period,” in the Federal Register. As indicated by the title, the proposal would eliminate current regulations that allow certain nonimmigrant visa holders to remain in the United States for up to sixty days after separation from employment—a grace period generally used to pursue other immigration options or seek new employment opportunities. According to the proposal’s preamble, the current “60-day discretionary grace period disconnects the alien’s lawful status from the very basis of eligibility under these employment-based nonimmigrant classifications.” USCIS further maintains that eliminating the grace period eases its administrative burden. Comments are due on or before November 10, 2026.
DOL Issues New Wage-and-Hour Opinion Letters. The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) continues to release new opinion letters to provide insight into the application of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to real workplace situations. WHD released the following opinion letters this week:
- Meal Breaks. The first letter addresses compensability during a sixty-minute lunch break, during which employees use part of that time to walk to and from the designated break area. The letter concludes that even though employees may take up to fourteen minutes to walk to and from the break area, the remaining forty-six minutes, during which employees are relieved of all work responsibilities, are sufficient for a bona fide meal period and therefore not a compensable work break.
- Volunteering by Employees. The second letter concerns the wage-and-hour implications for employees who also freely volunteer for their nonprofit employer. In this case, the nonprofit employer breeds and trains service dogs, and the question is whether veterinarians, directors, and trainers can also serve as volunteer “puppy raisers” without additional compensation. The letter concludes that when the job duties are sufficiently different and distinct from the volunteer activities (e.g., a veterinarian providing medical care during the day and then raising and training a puppy at home at night), the volunteer time is not compensable. However, in the case of individuals employed as dog trainers, their compensable duties (e.g., training and socializing dogs) are so similar in nature to their volunteer time as puppy raisers that “the volunteer hours are part of the employment relationship and must be counted as hours worked for FLSA purposes as long as they qualify as compensable worktime under the FLSA.”
- Tip Pools and Supervisors. The situation involves a shift supervisor who sometimes takes shifts tending bar or assisting servers and waiters. The employer asks if the supervisor can share in the tip pool. The letter concludes that as long as the employee is a “supervisor” under the FLSA, “he or she is prohibited from receiving any portion of tips from other employees—even if he or she also works bartending shifts alongside other employees or assists other employees performing tipped work.” The letter notes, however, that the employee may retain tips for services that he or she “directly and solely” provided. When tips are consolidated and shared and “it is not possible to attribute the tip solely to the supervisor, the supervisor is not permitted to take any portion of those tips.”
NYC Mayor Establishes Office to Promote Union Organizing. On September 3, 2026, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed Executive Order No. 20, “Cracking Down on Worker Abuse and Establishing the Mayor’s Office of Worker Power.” The order instructs various city agencies to coordinate and share information to “ensure maximum impact in protecting workers’ rights.” These agencies are also instructed to “prioritize the investigation of employers and entities with a history of labor violations or other indicators of poor compliance with labor standards, with a particular focus on such employers that have large numbers of workers with low wages.” As part of these enforcement efforts, the order further directs agencies to “seek monetary relief for all workers who experience violations without regard to whether any such worker filed an individual complaint.” (Emphasis added.)
The order also establishes the Mayor’s Office of Worker Power. According to an accompanying press release, the Mayor’s Office of Worker Power will:
- “Convene rank-and-file workers, union leaders, worker centers, immigrant workers, gig workers and platform workers.
- Hold public hearings on significant worker issues.
- Provide referrals to organizations that support workers.
- Coordinate with City agencies to produce research on pressing issues facing workers.
- Develop policy proposals informed by workers’ experiences.
- Engage workers on emerging challenges, including new technologies, worker misclassification, immigration-based exploitation and climate risks to worker safety.
- Connect workers with information about their rights at everyday touchpoints, including workforce centers, libraries, IDNYC offices, schools and community events.”
The Mayor’s Office of Worker Power will be overseen by New York City’s Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice, Julie Su, who served as Acting Secretary of Labor in the Biden Administration. The Executive Director of the MOWP will be a former organizer for the United Auto Workers.
Teamsters Endorse Republican Senator—an FLCA Cosponsor—for Reelection. This week, a Teamsters union affiliate in Kansas endorsed Republican Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) in his reelection bid to the U.S. Senate. Marshall currently serves on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, and he is a cosponsor of union-friendly bills such as the Faster Labor Contracts Act (FLCA), the Warehouse Worker Protection Act, and the Railway Safety Act. Assuming Marshall wins reelection (the last Democrat elected to a Senate seat in Kansas was George McGill in 1932), he will be one of the highest-ranking Republicans serving on the committee in the next Congress—perhaps even in line to chair the committee—depending on what happens with Susan Collins’s reelection bid and committee membership reshuffling.
September 11, 2001. Twenty-five years ago today, the U.S. House of Representatives convened for what was to be a routine day of legislative business. As news of the now-infamous terrorist attacks developed, then–Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) (second in line to assume the presidency pursuant to the Presidential Succession Act of 1947) was quickly removed to a secure location. Shortly thereafter, when it became apparent that attacks were being directed at the Washington, D.C., area, the entire House recessed and evacuated. Members of the House returned to the Capitol on the morning of September 12, 2001, to deliver speeches condemning the attacks and mourning the loss of the 2,977 victims. At approximately 1:00 a.m. on the morning of September 13, the House passed Joint Resolution 61, which condemned the attacks, vowed a “war against international terrorism,” and declared September 12, 2001, a National Day of Unity and Mourning. Five days later, on September 18, 2001, President George W. Bush signed into law the Authorization for Use of Military Force “to take action to deter and prevent acts of international terrorism against the United States.”
