Red state payback: So how does George Bush repay the loyal Repugs in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi who voted for him? He suspends the federal act that ensures they are paid a decent wage for rebuilding work in the region.
Senate Democrats and labor groups on Monday said President Bush’s decision to suspend a law that requires federal contractors to pay the prevailing union wage for reconstruction jobs is hurting workers and small businesses on the Gulf Coast.
On Sept. 8 Bush suspended the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act in areas of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi damaged by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The act sets a minimum pay scale and requires federal contractors to pay the prevailing or average rate in an affected region. It also requires financial reporting to the federal government. Without that reporting requirement, the potential for fraud is significant.
The Bush administration “is trying to take advantage of a natural disaster” to avoid paying a prevailing wage in federal contracts, said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., at a Democratic Policy Committee hearing Monday. “If this is allowed to stand, what you will see here are people being transferred under federal government contracts … in order to undermine prevailing wages,” he said.
“It is outrageous that the government of the United States would have policies that would take people who have lost their homes, lost their communities, and then as they begin to roll up their sleeves and begin to work to rebuild their communities, [allow them] to basically be kicked off the job,” said Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La.,. “This will not stand, Mr. Chairman.”
Other committee members said they would join Landrieu.
Contractors have been scrambling to import workers into the affected region for reconstruction jobs, said James Hale, vice president and regional manager of the Laborers’ International Union of North America. The union has established mobile training centers to teach hundreds of workers in the affected region jobs ranging from hazardous waste removal to temporary housing installation.
“The removal of Davis-Bacon not only removes a wage floor but it also removes the requirement that contractors report their payrolls to the contracting agencies,” Hale said. “Absent a wage floor and reporting, the door is open to fraud of various kinds.”
Contracting in the aftermath of the hurricanes has been marked by “waste, corruption and cronyism,” committee members said.
“America can and must do better,” said Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., Senate minority leader. “That’s why we will continue to call on the president to support an independent commission to find out what went wrong and to ensure that we’re fully prepared to respond to future disasters.”
“If this is the kind of leadership that the president is going to give us, we need new leadership,” Landrieu said. “And I know that’s a strong statement. But I am very serious about this, and so are the American people … I hope that this hearing will show that we need new direction, new leadership, or leadership that will get a new direction.”
