Editorial writer says Labor Department shouldn't have backed down on child farm labor

"The Obama administration made a terrible mistake last week by dropping proposed rules designed to protect young children ... hired as farm hands," writs Susan Hogan of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. She contends that "caving" to big agriculture and Republicans puts children's lives at risk because farming remains one of the most dangerous jobs for adults, and even more so for children.

Hogan said the Labor Department was "on the right track" last year when it proposed 15 new rules to keep young workers safe. "Many of the suggested safety measures were practical, such as seat belts for tractors and rollover bars on farm vehicles in which children often are hurt," she wrote, adding that the agency was right to ban children from jobs including handling pesticides, working in manure pits or grain bins, and that several studies backed them up.

Some of the rules "overreached and needed to be abandoned," she added. "But to abandon the entire safety reform effort because of public outcry from special-interest groups put political gain above children's well-being, and that should never be the case," and lawmakers "who denounced the changes as an attack on family farms are also guilty of jeopardizing child workers." (Read more)