Wednesday, November 02, 2005 - Posts
After intense lobbying by pro-labor House Republicans, President Bush's Administration has decided to reinstate the prevailing wage provisions of the Davis-Bacon Act to the Gulf Coast Region. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao said late last week that the rule mandating local prevailing wages on projects over $2000 would come back into force effective November 8th. President Bush had suspended the rule in wake of Hurricane Katrina, based on a provision that allows the President to do so in the event of "national emergency." The suspension turned into a political hot button, often "confused" by the media as a suspension of minimum wage, which did not occur. Construction groups oppose the move to bring back the rule, saying it will impede the rebuilding process at a time when so much needs to be done to get the region back on its feet. Labor groups praised the move, countering that the people who got hurt when the rule went away were the workers actually doing the rebuilding. One thing is for sure: the move preempted what would have been a derisive fight in Congress over proposed resolution to bring prevailing wages back. And maybe one less derisive fight maybe isn't such a bad consequence. I seem to recall something about choosing battles wisely . . . .