Subject: RELEASE: Clinton, Andrews Introduce Legislation to Improve Enforcement of the Davis Bacon Act
From: "Clinton, Press Office (Clinton)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 15:30:40 -0500

For Immediate Release

December 21, 2007

Contact:  Press Office

202-224-2243

 

Clinton, Andrews Introduce Legislation to Improve Enforcement of the
Davis Bacon Act

Washington, DC - Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and Congressman
Rob Andrews (D-NJ) announced today that they have introduced legislation
to improve the enforcement of the Davis Bacon Act.  The legislation
would allow workers to monitor compliance with the Act by giving them
access under the Freedom of Information Act to the payroll records that
contractors file with the federal government.  The legislation would
also make more consistent the treatment of similar offenses under the
law by increasing penalties under the Davis Bacon Related Acts to the
same level as under the Davis Bacon Act.

"We should all be committed to the vigorous enforcement of the wage and
hour laws," said Senator Clinton.  "This legislation will improve the
enforcement of the Davis Bacon Act by requiring the disclosure of
information needed to monitor compliance with the Act, and imposing
equitable penalties on companies that violate the Act.  Working families
deserve and depend on the fair and full enforcement of the labor laws,
and this legislation would go a long way towards achieving that goal."

"Clear and consistent penalties are critical to the proper enforcement
of Davis Bacon wage laws," said Representative Andrews.  "In order to
maintain oversight and full disclosure, it is essential to provide
access to the necessary information to make sure companies are paying
fair wages." 

"Senator Clinton and Congressman Andrews are to be applauded for
introducing this much-needed legislation to improve the enforcement of
the federal Davis-Bacon Act," said Mark H. Ayers, President of the
Building & Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO.  "For too long,
unscrupulous contractors have managed to evade the payment of prevailing
wages on federally-financed construction projects due, in large part, to
lax enforcement.  By providing workers with the ability to access
payroll records through the Freedom of Information Act, and by
increasing the penalties associated with Davis-Bacon violations, Senator
Clinton's bill will help put an end to worker exploitation and wage
rip-offs in the U.S. construction industry."

The Davis Bacon Act requires contractors for federal projects to pay
their workers no less than the wage rates prevailing in the local area.
The Bush administration has slashed the number of employees working on
enforcing wage and hour laws like the Davis Bacon Act.  One recent
report by the Brennan Center for Justice found pervasive violations of
the wage and hour laws in New York City.  "Unscrupulous employers
understand that there is a minimal risk of being caught for these
violations," the report explained, "and even if they are caught, that
they will likely pay no more than a portion of the wages they owe."  

The legislation introduced by Senator Clinton and Congressman Andrews,
the "Davis Bacon Enforcement Act," would improve the enforcement of the
Davis Bacon Act in two ways.  First, the bill would require the
disclosure of all information contained in contractor payroll records
except workers' social security numbers.  Under current law, the public
is allowed access to the contractor payroll records, but information
that is needed to adequately monitor both contractor compliance and
agency enforcement efforts is routinely deleted, often making the
remaining information useless in efforts to determine whether
contractors are complying with the Davis Bacon Act.  The courts once
held that this information could be disclosed to members of the public
in order to monitor enforcement of the Act, but a Supreme Court decision
narrowed the scope of FOIA in a way that led lower courts to deny
disclosure of this information.  This legislation would make clear that
this information can once again be disclosed under FOIA.

Second, the bill would fix a discrepancy in the law that permits a
contractor who is found to have violate the Davis Bacon Act to be
debarred from being awarded federal contracts for three years, but a
contractor who is found to have violated one of the Davis Bacon Related
Acts, which are a number of later acts incorporating the Davis Bacon
wage provisions, to be debarred for as little as six (6) months.  This
disparity in punishment for similar violations depending entirely on
which federal project offending contractors happen to be working on
makes no sense.  This legislation would remedy this inconsistency and
ensure that all violations of the Davis Bacon are treated in an
even-handed manner.

Senator Clinton is a member of the Senate Committee on Health,
Education, Labor and Pensions and has been a leader in fighting for
labor protections in the Senate.  She has introduced and fought for a
wide range of measures on issues relating to wage, hour and benefit
protections.  Earlier this week, Senator Clinton reintroduced
legislation that she first introduced in 2006 to tie increases in the
minimum wage to congressional pay increases.  Earlier this month, a bill
that she introduced with Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) and a bipartisan
coalition of Senators to expand the Family and Medical Leave Act for the
family members of wounded soldiers passed the Congress as a part of the
2008 Department of Defense Authorization bill, and is awaiting the
President's signature.  

Congressman Andrews is Chairman of the Education and Labor Subcommittee
on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions (HELP).  Under the
Subcommittee's jurisdiction, Rep. Andrews has responsibility for the
health insurance, pension and labor laws of the nation.  Congressman
Andrews has been instrumental in passing legislation such as the
Employee Free Choice Act to ensure employee have the choice to unionize;
the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act to protect workers from
having the premiums of their health plans adjusted based on genetic
information; the Mental Health Parity Act, which expands health care
coverage of mental health and substance-related disorders;  and the
Re-Empowerment of Skilled and Professional Employees and Construction
Tradesworkers (RESPECT) Act, which restores the supervisor definition to
what Congress originally intended for the National Labor Relations Act's
NLRA's coverage of employees and exclusion of true supervisors.

###