U.S. House Again Overwhelmingly Rejects Attack on Davis-Bacon Act
July 14, 2017
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Tom Owens
202-756-4623
U.S. House Again Overwhelmingly Rejects Attack on Davis-Bacon Act
Strong, Bi-Partisan Majority Expresses Support for Protecting Community Wage and Benefit Standards for U.S. Construction Workers
WASHINGTON, DC (July 14, 2017) — The following statement was released today by North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU), in reaction to the defeat of an amendment to H.R.2810, the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2018, that would have severely weakened the Davis-Bacon Act:
“Once again, an overwhelming bi-partisan majority in the United States House of Representatives, comprised of the unanimous support of the Democratic Caucus along with 51 Republican members, heeded the common-sense calls from our unions and our contractor/employer partners and rejected an attempt to weaken the Davis-Bacon Act, which ensures the protection of local community wage and benefit standards on federally-funded construction projects. The amendment, sponsored by Representative Paul Gosar (R-AZ) was defeated by a decisive vote of 183-242.
The significance of this vote lies in the fact that, on a consistent basis, a large bi-partisan majority of House members intuitively recognize that the Davis-Bacon Act provides value by ensuring that federally-funded construction work is performed safely and efficiently, while preserving pathways to the middle class for America’s construction workforce through formal apprenticeship education and training.
To be sure, a strong bi-partisan majority in Congress has consistently demonstrated its support for a statute that ensures that federal construction investments should not become a vehicle through which local community wage and benefit standards are undermined by ‘low road’ contractors that seek competitive advantage through the deployment of a low-wage, low skill, easily exploited workforce.
We applaud the United States House of Representatives for once again rejecting such a politically-motivated attack.”
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ABOUT NORTH AMERICA’S BUILDING TRADES UNIONS
North America’s Building Trades Unions is an alliance of 14 national and international unions in the building and construction industry that collectively represent over 3 million skilled craft professionals in the United States and Canada. Each year, our unions and our signatory contractor partners invest over $1 billion in private sector money to fund and operate over 1,900 apprenticeship training and education facilities across North America that produce the safest, most highly trained and productive skilled craft workers found anywhere in the world.
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