Democrats Preserve Wage Supports in Bill : Senate: Republicans are stymied in effort to exempt federal highway projects from workers’ pay rules in Davis-Bacon Act. It’s a victory for labor.

Senate Democrats gave a victory to organized labor Friday as they blocked Republican efforts to exempt federal highway projects from a law that requires federal contractors to pay “prevailing wages” to construction workers.

Sponsors of the provision agreed to its removal after conceding that they lacked the 60 votes needed to end a filibuster launched late Thursday by Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.).

The provision, included in legislation designating a National Highway System, would have exempted federal highway projects from the Davis-Bacon Act, a 1931 law requiring government contractors to pay workers the local prevailing wage on federal construction jobs--which often means paying union wages. The purpose was to keep out-of-town contractors from undercutting local wages.

“It was clear to me there would be an indefinite period of objection and impediment because of the Davis-Bacon legislation,” Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), author of the bill, said in explaining the decision to drop the provision. “I’m very anxious to move this bill.”

Democrats argued that removing the provision would not save the government money on federal highway contracts, as some Republicans contended. Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.) provided statistics from a union study that found that construction projects done by higher-paid workers cost less overall than projects using lower-paid workers.

Opponents also argued that cutthroat competition to get government contracts would unfairly drive down workers’ wages.

“This is part of a larger assault on working families--in this case families of highway construction workers who make $20,000 or $30,000 a year--that is central to the Republican agenda, all in the name of deficit reduction,” Wellstone said.

But Sen. John H. Chafee (R-R.I.) accused the Democrats of fixing wages at the union rate. “We’ve got a philosophical difference here,” Chafee said. “Republicans are saying let competition work, let the marketplace decide just like it does in 85% of highway construction,” he said. Most highway construction is done for state and local governments.

Warner also noted that the Senate plans to take up separate legislation later this summer that would repeal or revamp the entire Davis-Bacon Act.

The Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee voted along party lines in March to repeal the Davis-Bacon Act. The Senate is expected to make significant revisions in the law. The two versions of the legislation then would have to be reconciled and President Clinton’s signature is required before the changes could become law.

The statistics that Simon cited came from a 1992 study commissioned by the International Union of Operating Engineers. It compared the average cost per mile for highway and bridge construction in five high-wage states to the costs in five low-wage states.

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In high-wage states, project costs were near $1.12 million per mile. In low-wage states, they were $1.41 million per mile.

“If you pay people well, they are going to be more productive,” Simon said.

The legislation would remove the federal speed limit of 55 m.p.h. that prevails on most highways and allow the states to set their own caps. Congress has granted exceptions to the 55-m.p.h. limit in rural areas over the last decade and many states have allowed travel at 65 m.p.h.