House passes Homeless Vets bill; Bush threatens veto

More breaking news from the Associated Press in Homeless vets bill sails through House despite veto threat; Obama has similar Senate bill:

The House approved a homeless veterans housing bill overwhelmingly Wednesday, even though White House advisers warned they'd urge President Bush to veto it.

The bill sponsored by Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, authorizes spending $200 million on housing and services for veterans, requires 20,000 rental vouchers a year for low-income housing for veterans and authorizes $1 million for grants to nonprofit groups to provide housing and services for veterans.

The bill, which passed 412-9, also creates a job in the Department of Housing and Urban Development for someone to coordinate with Veterans Affairs on homelessness and make regular reports to Congress on the issue.

So what's the objection? The article notes:

Bush's advisers said in a statement they oppose a wage provision in the bill that requires builders of veterans housing to pay employees prevailing wage. The advisers said that provision is the bill's major problem. Bush has long opposed any changes to the law that would either increase or decrease the number of employers subject to the prevailing wage requirements in the Davis-Bacon Act, the advisers said.

Oh really? We recall (and Wikipedia reconfirms) that during the Katrina clean up:

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, House Representatives Jeff Flake, Tom Feeney, Marilyn Musgrave, and other members of the House Republican Study Committee (RSC) urged President Bush to temporarily suspend the Davis-Bacon Act in order to expedite the reconstruction of the Gulf Coast.[11] [12] President George W. Bush then issued proclamation 7924 to indefinitely suspend the provisions of 40 U.S.C. 3141-3148 (the Davis–Bacon Act) in designated areas in the States of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi, the areas most heavily hit by the hurricane. [13] [14]. . . .

. . .On October 26, 2005, after pressure from both Democrats and Republicans, Bush rescinded his emergency order and restored the prevailing wage requirement [16].

The New York Times wrote at the times of the suspension:

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 2005, moderate Republicans called for the restoration of Bacon-Davis in the areas affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Today's AP article also notes that this isn't the first bill that Congress has passed during Bush's administration that includes Bacon-Davis provisions:

But Green said several bills have been passed by Congress with similar wage provisions. Among them is the farm bill which was vetoed by Bush, but Congress overrode the veto. Green asked whether Bush wants to "draw the line in the dirt when it comes to veterans."

We think that projects built with federal funds should be covered by federal wage laws.  Evidently, the National Republican Congressional Committee doesn't. The Hill reported that the NRCC had planned to attack Walz for supporting Bacon-Davis provisions in the Farm Bill:

Their efforts will focus on vulnerable Democrats who sit on the Agriculture Committee, including Reps. Jim Marshall (Ga.), Brad Ellsworth (Ind.), Tim Walz (Minn.) and Tim Mahoney (Fla.), but will also include other vulnerable members who vote for the provisions.

That effort never seemed to materialize. Maybe the NRCC looked around Southeastern Minnesota and learned how many construction workers live there.