Workers labor on the scaffolding surrounding the clock tower at Albany City Hall on Jan. 15, 2025.

New York has some of the strongest labor laws in the nation, laws that set the benchmark for upholding workers’ rights. Among them is the Scaffold Law, which has been a beacon of construction site safety and contractor accountability for more than a century.

The creation and implementation of these strong worker protections in New York is made possible by the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which establishes the autonomy of state governments and their rights to establish statutes that are not delegated by federal law. This is commonly referred to as “states' rights.”

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This is why U.S. Rep. Nick Langworthy’s efforts to use his Infrastructure Expansion Act to preempt New York’s Scaffold Law for federally funded projects represent more than just an attack on........

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