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By Suspending Davis-Bacon Act, Bush Allows Feds To Underpay Relief Workers
Yesterday, George Bush added insult to injury. The president's suspension of Davis Bacon Act protections in areas affected by Hurricane Katrina means that workers on federally funded projects will be paid less than they were before the storm.
The prevailing wages on the Gulf Coast are among the lowest in the country -- under $10 per hour in most job categories. For the president to drive down wages further at a time when so many are in need of a paycheck is both exploitative and cruel. Workers in the disaster area are hurting, with many families having lost everything. They do not need another financial setback.
The federal government should be providing help, not a hindrance, to those who have suffered. Let's help Gulf Coast workers rebuild their lives by guaranteeing a fair wage on federal projects. It's not too late for the president to reverse his executive order. It's the right thing to do.
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=53049
On Thursday, President Bush issued a proclamation suspending the law that requires employers to pay the locally prevailing wage to construction workers on federally financed projects. The suspension applies to parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
By any standard of human decency, condemning many already poor and now bereft people to subpar wages - thus perpetuating their poverty - is unacceptable. It is also bad for the economy. Without the law, called the Davis-Bacon Act, contractors will be able to pay less, but they'll also get less, as lower wages invariably mean lower productivity.
The ostensible rationale for suspending the law is to reduce taxpayers' costs. Does Mr. Bush really believe it is the will of the American people to deny the prevailing wage to construction workers in New Orleans, Biloxi and other hard-hit areas? Besides, the proclamation doesn't require contractors to pass on the savings they will get by cutting wages from current low levels. Around New Orleans, the prevailing hourly wage for a truck driver working on a levee is $9.04; for an electrician, it's $14.30.
Republicans have long been trying to repeal the prevailing wage law on the grounds that the regulations are expensive and bureaucratic; weakening it was even part of the Republican Party platform in 1996 and 2000. Now, in a time of searing need, the party wants to achieve by fiat what it couldn't achieve through the normal democratic process.
In a letter this week to Mr. Bush urging him to suspend the law, 35 Republican representatives noted approvingly that Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Richard Nixon and the elder George Bush had all suspended the law during "emergencies." For the record, Mr. Roosevelt suspended it for two weeks in 1934, to make time to clear up contradictions between it and another law. Mr. Nixon suspended it for six weeks in 1971 as part of his misbegotten attempt to control spiraling inflation. And Mr. Bush did so after Hurricane Andrew in 1992, two weeks before he was defeated by Bill Clinton, who quickly reinstated it after assuming the presidency.
If Mr. Bush does not rescind his proclamation voluntarily, Congress should pass a law forcing him to do so.
http://nytimes.com/2005/09/10/opinion/10sat2.html
President signs executive order suspending minimum wage law in Katrina wake
Sara R. Parsowith at 9:59 AM ET
[JURIST] President George W. Bush has issued an executive order [White House press release] allowing federal contractors working to rebuild areas damaged by Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive] to pay lower than the minimum wage, effectively suspending regulations under the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act [US Department of Labor text; DOL backgrounder]. The Act requires contractors to pay workers the minimum of prevailing wages for federally-funded construction projects that are in excess of $2,000. The President is authorized to suspend the Act's provisions "[i]n the event of a national emergency." The order, signed Thursday, has drawn praise from conservative quarters [Heritage Foundation research memo] for speeding reconstruction, but has at the same time been castigated by Democrats and labor leaders. Rep. George Miller (D-CA) [official profile] called the move a "colossal mistake" and urged the President to rescind the order, accusing him of cutting the wages of those that are "desperately trying to rebuild their lives and their communities." Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy (MA-Dem) [official profile] was also critical and flagged the potential for "shabby" workmanship. The head of the AFL-CIO [advocacy website] called the order "short-sighted" and said Congress must not "allow the destruction of Hurricane Katrina to depress living standards even further." Read the full AFL-CIO press release. The minimum wage provisions of the Davis-Bacon Act have been suspended three other times: once by President Franklin Roosevelt, once by President Nixon, and most recently by President George H.W. Bush after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Reuters has more.
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2005/09/president-signs-executive-order.php
The federal government should be providing help, not a hindrance, to those who have suffered. Let's help Gulf Coast workers rebuild their lives by guaranteeing a fair wage on federal projects. It's not too late for the president to reverse his executive order. It's the right thing to do.
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=53049
On Thursday, President Bush issued a proclamation suspending the law that requires employers to pay the locally prevailing wage to construction workers on federally financed projects. The suspension applies to parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
By any standard of human decency, condemning many already poor and now bereft people to subpar wages - thus perpetuating their poverty - is unacceptable. It is also bad for the economy. Without the law, called the Davis-Bacon Act, contractors will be able to pay less, but they'll also get less, as lower wages invariably mean lower productivity.
The ostensible rationale for suspending the law is to reduce taxpayers' costs. Does Mr. Bush really believe it is the will of the American people to deny the prevailing wage to construction workers in New Orleans, Biloxi and other hard-hit areas? Besides, the proclamation doesn't require contractors to pass on the savings they will get by cutting wages from current low levels. Around New Orleans, the prevailing hourly wage for a truck driver working on a levee is $9.04; for an electrician, it's $14.30.
Republicans have long been trying to repeal the prevailing wage law on the grounds that the regulations are expensive and bureaucratic; weakening it was even part of the Republican Party platform in 1996 and 2000. Now, in a time of searing need, the party wants to achieve by fiat what it couldn't achieve through the normal democratic process.
In a letter this week to Mr. Bush urging him to suspend the law, 35 Republican representatives noted approvingly that Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Richard Nixon and the elder George Bush had all suspended the law during "emergencies." For the record, Mr. Roosevelt suspended it for two weeks in 1934, to make time to clear up contradictions between it and another law. Mr. Nixon suspended it for six weeks in 1971 as part of his misbegotten attempt to control spiraling inflation. And Mr. Bush did so after Hurricane Andrew in 1992, two weeks before he was defeated by Bill Clinton, who quickly reinstated it after assuming the presidency.
If Mr. Bush does not rescind his proclamation voluntarily, Congress should pass a law forcing him to do so.
http://nytimes.com/2005/09/10/opinion/10sat2.html
President signs executive order suspending minimum wage law in Katrina wake
Sara R. Parsowith at 9:59 AM ET
[JURIST] President George W. Bush has issued an executive order [White House press release] allowing federal contractors working to rebuild areas damaged by Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive] to pay lower than the minimum wage, effectively suspending regulations under the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act [US Department of Labor text; DOL backgrounder]. The Act requires contractors to pay workers the minimum of prevailing wages for federally-funded construction projects that are in excess of $2,000. The President is authorized to suspend the Act's provisions "[i]n the event of a national emergency." The order, signed Thursday, has drawn praise from conservative quarters [Heritage Foundation research memo] for speeding reconstruction, but has at the same time been castigated by Democrats and labor leaders. Rep. George Miller (D-CA) [official profile] called the move a "colossal mistake" and urged the President to rescind the order, accusing him of cutting the wages of those that are "desperately trying to rebuild their lives and their communities." Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy (MA-Dem) [official profile] was also critical and flagged the potential for "shabby" workmanship. The head of the AFL-CIO [advocacy website] called the order "short-sighted" and said Congress must not "allow the destruction of Hurricane Katrina to depress living standards even further." Read the full AFL-CIO press release. The minimum wage provisions of the Davis-Bacon Act have been suspended three other times: once by President Franklin Roosevelt, once by President Nixon, and most recently by President George H.W. Bush after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Reuters has more.
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2005/09/president-signs-executive-order.php
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The Davis-Bacon Act, passed in 1931 during the Great Depression, sets a minimum pay scale for workers on federal contracts by requiring contractors to pay the prevailing or average pay in the region. Suspension of the act will allow contractors to pay lower wages. Many Republicans have opposed Davis-Bacon, charging that it amounts to a taxpayer subsidy to unions.
In a letter to Congress, Bush said he has the power to suspend the law because of the national emergency caused by the hurricane: "I have found that the conditions caused by Hurricane Katrina constitute a 'national emergency.' "
Bush wrote that his decision is justified because Davis-Bacon increases construction costs, and suspension "will result in greater assistance to these devastated communities and will permit the employment of thousands of additional individuals."
AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney denounced the Bush announcement as "outrageous."
"Employers are all too eager to exploit workers," he said. "This is no time to make that easier. What a double tragedy it would be to allow the destruction of Hurricane Katrina to depress living standards even further."
Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, accused Bush of "using the devastation of Hurricane Katrina to cut the wages of people desperately trying to rebuild their lives and their communities."
Miller said: "In New Orleans, where a quarter of the city was poor, the prevailing wage for construction labor is about $9 per hour, according to the Department of Labor. In effect, President Bush is saying that people should be paid less than $9 an hour to rebuild their communities."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/08/AR2005090802037.html
“The president's suspension of Davis Bacon Act protections in areas affected by Hurricane Katrina means that workers on federally funded projects will be paid less than they were before the storm
.
“The prevailing wages on the Gulf Coast are among the lowest in the country -- under $10 per hour in most job categories. For the president to drive down wages further at a time when so many are in need of a paycheck is both exploitative and cruel. Workers in the disaster area are hurting, with many families having lost everything.” (“By Suspending Davis-Bacon Act, Bus Allows Feds to Underpay Relief Workers”, by reposts Saturday, September 10, 2005)
Come on - the real message is that the Bushites finally get it – cut spending. I guess “we the people” should be seeing sizable reductions in government spending in the near future as Halliburton passes those shaved wages on to us. Right?