Subcommittee Ranking Member Johnson’s Opening Statement at Hearing on Republicans’ Effort to Prevent Injured Workers from Seeking Justice in Court
Washington, D.C. (January 14, 2026)—Today, Rep. Hank Johnson, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet, delivered opening remarks at a hearing examining Republicans’ shameful effort to shield stone slab manufacturers—including a top Trump mega-donor—from liability as workers get sick and die from silicosis.
Below are Ranking Member Johnson’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, at today’s hearing.
WATCH Subcommittee Ranking Member Johnson’s opening statement.
Ranking Member Hank Johnson
Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet
Hearing on “Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Protecting the U.S. Stone Slab Industry from Lawfare”
January 14, 2026
Workers across the country are getting sick and dying of an entirely preventable disease. This disease is called silicosis. And it happens when silica dust and other toxic materials are inhaled into the lungs over and over again. Toxic particles are trapped deep inside workers’ lungs, leaving them struggling to breathe. Silicosis has no cure, and it is a death sentence.
Many of us from Georgia hear silicosis, and we think of the men and women who worked in the mines their whole lives. But this silicosis epidemic is caused by working with a material called artificial stone, and it makes workers sick faster and younger. Doctors are seeing patients in their 20s and 30s—men with families and young children—so sick that they require double lung transplants. So sick that they can no longer work and no longer provide for their families. So sick that they slowly suffocate to death.
Artificial stone produces dangerous toxins when cut, and there is no way to use an artificial stone slab without cutting it. Artificial stone has a higher concentration of silica and the particles it produces are smaller, which can evade safety standards on the books for handling products with silica.
So why are we having this hearing today? Surely we must be here to talk about how Congress can protect workers from artificial stone silicosis? No.
Maybe we’re here to talk about how the workplace safety standards currently in place aren’t doing enough to keep artificial stone workers healthy? Not that either.
Perhaps we’re here to discuss how we can make it easier for stone fabrication workers to unionize so that they can negotiate better health and safety protections for themselves? Still no.
So, if not to address the problem of workers being poisoned on the job, why did my colleagues across the aisle call this hearing? Apparently it’s to give a handout to a millionaire friend of Donald Trump.
The bill behind today’s hearing would give blanket immunity to artificial stone manufacturers and suppliers, preventing injured workers from seeking justice in court. It would dismiss the hundreds of cases pending against these manufacturers. And Congress would make a multi-millionaire CEO’s problems go away, while the workers who cut, grind, polish, and install his product struggle to make ends meet.
For those of you who are saying someone else is to blame—that employers are the real villains: Our courts determine liability all the time. People petition the court, have their grievances heard, a judge and jury consider the evidence, and a judgement is rendered. Manufacturers are asking for a different scenario. One where the deep pockets go to Congress, Congress makes a snap judgement, and the big businesses never have to go to court again.
That’s not how our justice system is supposed to work, and I condemn the blatant misuse of this Committee to shield corporations at the expense of the American worker.
I am not here to give artificial stone manufacturers a bailout today. I am here today for Mitchell Boulware, a Georgia resident who owned and worked at a stone fabrication shop for over two decades. Mitch and his son Jacob—who started working in the shop as a teenager—have both been diagnosed with silicosis. Because of shortness of breath and constant fatigue, Mitch is no longer able to work. Workers like Mitch and Jacob have every right to go to the courts and ask for justice from those who caused them harm. And it is unconscionable to propose that we take that right away from them.
So thank you, Mr. Chairman, for calling this hearing. Not because I support this bill. But because this hearing has provided the opportunity to tell the stories of workers like Mitch and Jacob. Workers who deserve our attention and our respect are dying. And they deserve the opportunity, like everyone else working in this country, to bring their case to court.
I yield back.