Congresswoman Davis: "Talk about hitting someone when they're down,"

[understandinglife]

Congresswoman Susan Davis Moves to
Protect Wages of Hurricane Katrina Victims

Davis Endorses Legislation to Block the Bush Administration from Cutting Wages

Washington, DC — With the total financial and human devastation of Hurricane Katrina still yet to be completely realized, Congresswoman Susan Davis moved to protect the wages of the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Davis cosponsored legislation to rescind an order by President Bush that suspended the Davis-Bacon Act, which requires federal contractors to pay employees the local prevailing wage for their job, for counties in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and even Florida.

"Talk about hitting someone when they're down," said Davis, a member of the House Education and Workforce Committee. "While millions of Americans are opening their hearts and their wallets to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina, the Administration acts to undermine the ability for these victims to rebuild their lives. With criticism of racial and class insensitivity regarding the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, it's mind-boggling that the Administration would want to prevent workers from earning the prevailing wage."

The prevailing wage is the amount workers in a certain job classification, such as carpenters, union or non-union, typically make in that geographical area. The foundation behind the Davis-Bacon Act is that when the federal government spends billions of dollars of taxpayer money, that money should not be used to drive down workers’ wages.

A $29.8 million contract has already been awarded to the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root for clean-up and repair work in the region. Suspension of Davis-Bacon will allow the company to avoid paying the prevailing wage for that work.

The prevailing wages in the Gulf Coast region are already low. In counties like Orleans, the prevailing wage for a mason tender working in heavy construction is only $7.00 per hour.

The Fair Wages for Hurricane Victims Act will reverse the order of the Bush Administration and reinstate Davis-Bacon for the counties affected by the hurricane.

Link:

http://www.house.gov/susandavis/press/pr091405katrinawages.html

If this is a dupe, I'll delete. But, I have not seen her important legislative action and leadership posted.


Peace.

[KittyWampus]

1. who says Democrats don't do anything or stand up to the thugs?

[benfranklin1776]

2. Trumpet it to the heavens and, importantly, blast the media with this.

Get them to cover it and give the proponents of the bill a much needed voice and national platform. The problem is important legislation like this and things like the effort to repeal the Bankruptcy bill are ignored by the mainstream media which leads to the erroneous impression Democrats aren't doing anything to oppose the Rethug agenda.

[KittyWampus]

7. And there's this from Dorgon/Levy Investigation This Morning:

Democrats warn of potential Katrina contract abuse


WASHINGTON, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina could be ripe for fraud if government whistle-blowers are not better protected than those who lost their jobs after disclosing abuses in Iraq's reconstruction, a leading Senate Democrat said on Friday.

Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota said all necessary resources should be deployed to rebuild New Orleans and the U.S. Gulf Coast, but the billions of dollars in expected government spending must be must be carefully monitored.

"We simply must ensure accountability for these massive expenditures -- so that these dollars don't just wind up lining the pockets of unscrupulous contractors, as we've seen all too often in Iraq," Dorgan said at an unofficial hearing held by the Democratic Policy Committee, a congressional group.

"One of the keys to ensuring accountability is to have civil servants who witness fraud, waste and abuse to blow the whistle," Dorgan said.

[benfranklin1776]

9. More good stuff yes. Stop the ripoff of the taxpayers.

The days of free ride no bid Halliburton contracts should be over. Nine billion gone in Iraq never to be seen or heard from again.http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/01/30/iraq.audit/

This cannot happen again. Every dollar ripped off by unscrupulous coroporations is one less dollar to feed clothe and educate the victims of this disaster. Such a monstrous crime cannot be allowed to happen.

[understandinglife]

12. Let's give CBS's "Public Eye" a good test run and all send them ...

... email about what Congresswoman Davis is doing, what Senator Dorgan and Congressman Ryan are doing and see if and how they respond:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4797729&mesg_id=4797729


Peace.

[annabanana]

14. here's the link

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/publiceye/main500486.shtml

[TwilightZone]

19. The ones who say that have an agenda.

And, acknowledging that Democrats do fight back would destroy that agenda, so they simply choose to ignore it when it happens.

[maveric]

3. Susan Davis is a great San Diego Dem.

And she gets my vote every time.

[ninkasi]

4. Good for her!

The work should be done by local people whenever possible. Isn't there any way to keep Halliburton and the other Bush cronies out? Why can't there be competitive bidding? Chimp makes a speech, and talks about po very and acts like he cares, then turns around and dumps more misery on the ones who've suffered.

[mod mom]

5. Last night on CNN they had African American contractors from NO saying

they have no idea how to tap into the re-building money for jobs. Rove handling this massive project, which will be thrown to their cronies is like salt to a wound.

This is another NATIONAL DISGRACE!

[liveoaktx]

6. Vid Clip-Tim Ryan (OH) talks about Davis-Bacon

Tim Ryan on Davis-Bacon

[mod mom]

8. Tim Ryan is a hard fighting Dem from Youngstown. It's just too bad he is

anti-choice. :(

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Synnical]

11. You mean there really are checks and balances within our system?

I'm shocked, I tell you, shocked. Thanks to the Gentle Lady from California.

:loveya:

[Lindsay]

13. Kudos to Congresswoman Davis!

There really are a lot of good Dems. Too bad the corporate media doesn't bother to mention anything but the Repug talking points most of the time.

[bleever]

15. UL: You da man. Thank you for being on this disgraceful ploy.

Lately, the BFEE has me wondering about what kind of creature (or set of creatures, or subset of creatures) in nature has developed and adapted to capitalize on catastrophe.

They're like buzzards who can kill. Or a toxic mold that can create flooding so that it will have expanded opportunities for propagation.

They are set up to create Chaos, and then to sweep into the void in order to best capitalize on the disorder.

[understandinglife]

16. "They are set up to create Chaos ...." Yes, they have perfected the ...

... art of perpetual disruption, distrust, destruction only to ensure that their pals are ready to reap the benefits, be it Blackwater mercs patrolling our city streets or Bechtel restoring sewage treatment facilities .....

They are makers of evil and benefactors of the evil they perpetuate - a cycle we must break.


Peace.

[Karenina]

17. And QUICKLY!

[MADem]

18. This bill has a number of cosponsors, and they are all pissed

But wait, there's MORE!!!!!

http://www.ombwatch.org/article/blogs/entry/1069/38

But what many might not know is that Bush's decision to waive the protections could be illegal. The Congressional Research Service reported yesterday the president may have acted illegally in waiving those wage protections. CRS states that the September 8 presidential declaration was "an anomaly," and it did not follow "the historical pattern of declaring a national emergency to activate the suspension authority."

[Nothing Without Hope]

20. The Dems are going to have to exert themselves a lot more than they

did watching out for corruption in the Iraq "reconstruction."

[understandinglife]

21. "The President suspended wage standards for workers on the Gulf Coast ...

.... before he declared a national emergency. That means he was so focused on cutting the wages of people who'd be returning to the Gulf Coast to rebuild their lives and their communities that, in order to hasten the suspension, he failed to follow the law. And at the same time the White House was cutting workers' wages, it was busy awarding no-bid contracts. The President has proven once again that he's more interested in governing for the few than in governing for all of us.

The President's pay cut affects tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of Americans who desperately need a decent income to rebuild their lives.

<clip>

What the President has done is immoral.<[b>

by Congressman George Miller at TPM Cafe

http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/9/16/20551/6136

At least some Democratic Members of Congress are paying attention and calling it what it is.


Peace.