House Lets Bush Proceed With Overtime Revisions

The Republican-led House on Thursday narrowly upheld proposed labor rules that the Bush administration acknowledged could bump more than 600,000 workers from the ranks of those eligible for overtime pay.

Democrats charged that the administration’s proposal, which would overhaul rules untouched for more than half a century, was even more sweeping. They said it would disqualify as many as 8 million workers from time-and-a-half pay they now earn for hours worked beyond a 40-hour workweek. Labor groups say that among types of non-union, white-color workers who could be affected are paralegals, chefs and dental hygienists.

After two days of intense lobbying by the administration and business groups, Republicans narrowly prevailed in a showdown in the House. The 213-210 vote defeated a Democratic measure to block the Labor Department from implementing new rules that would strip workers of overtime pay rights.

After thwarting that Democratic amendment, Republicans pushed through the House, 215 to 208, a $138-billion spending bill to fund labor, health and education programs in the fiscal year that begins in October. Most Democrats voted against the bill, saying that it would spend too little on education. The Republican-controlled Senate has not yet acted on its version of the bill.

Thursday’s House actions gave the administration a green light to proceed with new overtime regulations that have drawn heavy fire from labor unions and others.

Under the proposal, unveiled in March by Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao, rules governing who is exempt from paid overtime and who is not would be rewritten in what administration officials call an effort to modernize an antiquated system.

The proposed rules, which drew 75,000 responses during a three-month comment period that ended June 30, could take effect by the end of this year or early next year.

The regulations would add 1.3 million currently ineligible lower-income workers to the ranks of those who can receive overtime. That step, aiding salaried workers who earn as much as $22,100 per year, has bipartisan support. The current cap, set in 1975, is $8,060. Democrats said their amendment Thursday would have let that revision go forward.

Other parts of the administration proposal, which would change job classifications for overtime-exempt employees, are hotly contested. Fueling the debate is a lack of consensus on how many workers would lose overtime rights.

The Labor Department estimated that 640,000 white-collar workers could lose overtime pay if the regulations take effect -- none of them unionized workers.

But a study backed by labor unions and Democrats, from the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, found that 8-million workers could be adversely affected. While the proposal would not directly affect union workers, union officials said they feared it would encourage employers to deprive their members of overtime-paying assignments.

Labor Department officials said the critics’ study was riddled with errors. “We stand by our numbers,” said Ed Frank, a department spokesman.

And Democrats stood by theirs.

“It again is another assault on working families in America,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said. “Millions of families who depend on overtime would be deprived of it if these regulations go into effect.”

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said the pending changes show “a callous disregard for the millions of workers who depend on that extra income to make ends meet.”

But despite help from labor unions, Democrats persuaded only 14 Republicans to vote for their amendment. None of the GOP rebels came from California. Three Democrats voted for the administration’s position, including one Californian, Rep. Calvin M. Dooley of Hanford. Three California Democrats did not vote: Reps. Loretta Sanchez of Anaheim, Jane Harman of Venice and Juanita Millender-McDonald of Carson.

Republicans said the new regulations would clean up a murky area of labor law that invites lawsuits over overtime eligibility.

“The original overtime regulations were developed half a century ago when jobs like computer programming did not exist,” House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said.

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Associated Press contributed to this report.