U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), co-chair of the Congressional Labor Caucus and a member of Culinary Workers Union Local 226, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the intersection of his personal story, his labor roots and his legislative agenda for working people.
Horsford described his immigrant mother's journey from Trinidad, his decade-plus leading the Culinary Training Academy and his first experience with the labor movement, which was responding to the economic devastation of Sept. 11 in Las Vegas. He also addressed the legislation he is pushing in Congress, including: TIP Improvement Act of 2026, Raise the Wage Act, Faster Labor Contracts Act, Double the Wage for Overtime Act and Protecting America's Workforce Act.
Horsford also spoke directly to union members considering running for office, saying the problems workers face are not personal failures and that when workers fight, they win.
- The One Big Beautiful Bill Act's provision on tax relief for tipped workers is temporary, capped at $25,000 and set to sunset in two years, which Horsford described as a betrayal of tip workers; his TIP Improvement Act of 2026 would make tax relief for tipped workers permanent and without a cap; approximately 70 percent of tipped workers in the hospitality industry are women and women of color, and in many states the subminimum tipped wage is still $2.13 an hour, a figure Horsford said makes closing the wealth gap functionally impossible.
- The Congressional Labor Caucus has more than 120 members. Co-founded by Horsford and other Democrats, it aims to ensure union members and their affiliates have a seat at the table on every piece of legislation that moves through Congress. Horsford said the caucus is in the minority now, but is positioned to restore the connection between work and economic security when Democrats win the majority in November, with an agenda that includes the PRO Act, the Faster Labor Contracts Act, the Raise the Wage Act and the Protecting America's Workforce Act.
- On AI, Horsford said he is approaching the issue by asking who benefits: if AI makes a company more productive, workers should share in that gain through better wages, conditions and hours rather than absorbing the risk of displacement. He was recently appointed chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's brain trust on tech and innovation and AI, and introduced legislation requiring transparency on AI-related layoffs and hiring, arguing that the problem cannot be fixed without data on who is affected and in what sectors.
A Son of an Immigrant Mother Who Learned What Work Should Mean
Steven Horsford was born and raised in Las Vegas. His mother came to the United States from Trinidad at the age of 12 with his grandmother, in search of better opportunities and a better life for their family. As a child, Horsford said he did not fully understand what that meant, but as he grew up, he started to see the lesson his mother was living: work should pay for itself, and one job should be enough to build a good life. Her grit and resilience shaped how he thinks about work, wages and what the economy owes the people who show up every day.
His father was shot and killed when Horsford was 19 years old, a freshman in college. He grew up in Las Vegas with a tale of two cities beneath its entertainment-capital image: one life for the very wealthy and another for everyone else. Prior to being elected to office, Horsford became involved in community work, and that path led him to the Culinary Training Academy, where he spent more than 10 years running the largest job-training program in Nevada. The jobs the Academy trained workers for were union jobs with the Culinary Workers Union Local 226. These jobs provided good wages, healthcare benefits, a pension, down payment assistance for homeownership and the ability to come back and retrain. He said those jobs make the Vegas dream possible, and says it should be the American dream.
The September 11 Connection
Horsford's first real experience with the labor movement came in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001. While not a target of the terrorist attacks, Las Vegas was affected economically due to the shutdown of airports, which cut off tourism, the city's economic lifeblood. Within days, tens of thousands of hospitality workers were laid off. The Culinary Union set up a Helping Hands rapid response effort and brought Horsford in to help organize it, connecting workers to unemployment benefits, food assistance and rental help, services many of them had never needed before.
What he saw in that response shaped his view of unions. They take care of their Brothers and Sisters when things fall apart. The community and the union moved together to make sure no one was left behind. That experience directly led to his decade at the Culinary Training Academy and eventually to becoming a member of Congress.
The TIP Improvement Act and the Betrayal of Tipped Workers
Horsford addressed the no-tax-on-tips promise that was a centerpiece of the 2024 presidential campaign. He is not against tipped workers keeping more of their money. What he objects to is what actually happened to that promise in the Big Beautiful Bill: a cap of $25,000, a two-year sunset and a bill that simultaneously delivered permanent tax breaks to corporations and the very wealthy while giving tipped workers something temporary.
His TIP Improvement Act would make the tax relief permanent and remove the cap. The stakes are real. In many parts of the country, tipped workers in the hospitality industry still earn a base wage of $2.13 an hour. Approximately 70 percent of those workers are women and women of color. Horsford said you cannot close the wealth gap in this country when workers are making $2.13 an hour, and the federal minimum wage has not increased since the year he graduated from high school.
The Federal Minimum Wage: The Longest Freeze in History
The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour since 2009, the longest period without an increase since the minimum wage was established in 1938. It has lost approximately 30 percent of its purchasing power over that time. Horsford said the reason it has not moved is straightforward: big corporations have rigged the system to protect record profits and stock buybacks while blocking any requirement that workers share in that prosperity.
He pushed back against the standard argument that raising the minimum wage kills jobs, pointing out that 90 percent of Nevada businesses are small, and their owners want their workers to have money to spend. A workforce that is financially squeezed cannot be customers. The choice between economic prosperity and higher wages is false, he said. That is the American promise, and it is worth fighting for.
The Double the Wage Act and Overtime That Actually Pays
Horsford discussed the Double the Wage Act, legislation he co-sponsors that would require double-time pay after 40 hours of work rather than the current time-and-a-half standard. The overtime standard has not been fundamentally updated in nearly 90 years. His argument is that overtime is not free labor. It is time taken from workers' families, health and lives. Double pay for overtime would fairly compensate workers for that time and give employers a financial incentive to hire additional workers rather than build their business models around chronic overtime. Workers, he said, should have more money or more time. This legislation can help deliver both.
The Congressional Labor Caucus: Over 120 Members and Growing
Horsford is a co-founder and co-chair of the Congressional Labor Caucus, which now has more than 120 members throughout the House Democratic Caucus. Its mission is to ensure that union members and their affiliates have a seat at the table on any legislation that moves in Congress and to keep wages, strong unions, protected overtime, safe workplaces and reliable benefits on the agenda regardless of what else is being debated.
The caucus is currently in the minority. Horsford said when Democrats win back the majority in November, the caucus will be positioned to move a full legislative agenda: the PRO Act, Faster Labor Contracts Act, Raise the Wage Act and Protecting America's Workforce Act. He noted that the Culinary Union is currently involved in the longest contract negotiation in its history with a company that has already agreed to union representation but refuses to bargain toward a contract. That is precisely the situation the Faster Labor Contracts Act is designed to fix.
Listening to Workers in a 50,000-Square-Mile District
Horsford's Fourth Congressional District covers 50,000 square miles of Nevada, from Las Vegas and North Las Vegas to rural Nevada, as well as four military installations and several tribal nations. He described a practice he has built around that geography: back-of-house listening sessions with workers on jobsites, a series called Congressman on the Job where he shadows workers to hear directly about their conditions and regular visits to Union Halls, including the Nevada State AFL-CIO. He said the Labor Caucus needs more of that from more members of Congress. Not campaign events. Actual listening.
AI, Transparency and Who Benefits
Horsford is approaching artificial intelligence with what he described as neither fear nor blind optimism. His test is a single question: who benefits? If AI makes a company more productive, workers should share in that gain through better wages, better conditions and new opportunities. Workers and their unions need to be at the table before these systems are deployed, not after the layoffs have been announced.
He was recently appointed chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's brain trust on tech, innovation and AI, specifically to examine how to make technology work for workers, entrepreneurs and developers rather than concentrating its benefits at the top. He also introduced legislation requiring greater transparency on AI-related layoffs and hiring. His premise is practical: you cannot fix a problem without data on who is affected and in what sectors. Nevada's 50,000-square-mile district has workers in hospitality, military, tribal economies and rural industries, and all of them deserve to know what is coming.
Labor Day at 132: The Problems Are Not Personal Failures
Horsford's Labor Day message was pointed and personal. He said he wants every working person who listens to this show to understand that the problems they are experiencing are not personal failures. If you work full-time and still cannot afford rent, groceries, healthcare or retirement, the economy is failing to reward your work. That is a system problem, not a personal one.
He also spoke to union members who are considering running for public office. The path he took, from community work to the Culinary Training Academy to the Nevada State Legislature and then to Congress, was driven by a desire to effect change rather than accept things as they were. He said the country needs more people with union backgrounds and working-class lived experience at every level of elected office, from school boards and city councils to governors' offices and Congress. People who know what it means to live off a paycheck. People who know who they are fighting for because they have been there.
His closing thought came from Culinary 226: when we fight, we win. Winning is not just an election result. It is when workers have more money in their pockets, more power on the job and a real chance to build wealth and opportunity for their families.
More information on Representative Horsford is available at horsford.house.gov. More information on the Congressional Labor Caucus is available at laborcaucus.house.gov.
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