Paul D. Ryan, the new speaker of the House of Representatives, has another potential issue on his hands. For the first time since Brooke Shields donned her Calvins in the ’80s, spurring a national conversation, the question of underage models has reached the white dome of the Capitol.

Just months after the start of yet another fashion trend for using models age 16 and under, Representative Grace Meng of New York introduced the Child Performers Protection Act of 2015, a bill intended to extend federal workplace safety regulations to young professionals, including models.

“Working as a child model or actor can be an incredible opportunity and lead to success for a lifetime,” Ms. Meng said during a telephone call. “However, the work can come with much risk. Although there are a patchwork of disparate state laws, these regulations offer inconsistent protections. That’s why we need a national standard.”

Though the Fair Labor Standards Act set employment criteria for children in the United States, child performers and models are often exempted, and the regulation of performers younger than 16 is handled on a state-by-state basis. Though some states, such as New York and California, have passed legislation specifically intended to protect child performers (not surprisingly, given both are centers of the entertainment industry), policy is not uniform. Indeed, New York extended its protections specifically to models only in 2013.