John, stop me if this starts sounding familiar:

A global pandemic wreaks havoc on the United States, with little help or leadership from a grossly unprepared and disastrously organized Republican administration.

Senate Republicans block desperately needed economic relief, leading to higher rates of food insecurity, child hunger, and child poverty.

Republican governors push to restart everything too soon, increase COVID-19 transmission and accelerate the pandemic beyond our control.

The “essential workers” — who are paid lip service, but not a $15 per hour federal minimum wage or adequate unemployment insurance — have to go back to work, exposing themselves to COVID-19.

Hundreds of thousands die, leading to a shortage of workers in high-mortality professions like cooks, bakers, package workers, and agricultural workers.

And the same kids forced back into poverty and hunger when Republicans let the expanded Child Tax Credit expire, and who may have lost a parent or guardian due to this pandemic — are now the ones Republicans are pushing to enter the labor force.

It’s one of the most cynical, disgusting manipulations of an economic and health care crisis to exploit the labor market that I have seen in over 20 years in Congress.

John, the Senate must pass federal labor law legislation that addresses child labor law violations. Add your name if you agree:

Here’s how bad things are getting:

Former Trump White House press secretary and current Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders just signed a law allowing kids as young as 14 to work with no work permit required. The kids don’t look too happy.

The New York Times interviewed over 100 migrant child workers in 20 states working in violation of federal labor law — children as young as 12 that have dropped out of school to work full-time, overnight, in factories, on construction sites, or on assembly lines.

And GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley is saying we need to raise the retirement age for Medicare and Social Security for people in their 20s, “so that it matches life expectancy.”

Start ‘em early, and don’t stop until you drop. That seems to be the Republican mantra. No childhood, no retirement — just a lifetime of working to pad their corporate donors’ bottom lines.

While Republicans attempt to ban books, erase the LGBTQ+ community, and crusade against Democrats in an attempt to “protect children,” they are exploiting those very children in ways this country hasn’t seen since the era of the robber barons over a century ago.

We have to act.

Add your name to my petition calling on Senate Democrats to take the lead on fighting back against Republicans exploiting child labor. When we make it to the United States Senate, we are going to protect our kids — once and for all.

Thanks for taking the time to read this message and stay updated on this emerging crisis. Together, we have the power to create an economy that is more just, where kids can be kids, and workers have the power to determine their own destiny.

— Adam