Bush Hits a New Low: Suspends Minimum Wage Requirements After Katrina
Perhaps the single most morally reprehensible thing about the Bush Administration is the way it has used legitimate human and national tragedies as an excuse to pursue policies that the American public would not accept but for that tragedy. This has been the case with everything from using wild fires to justify increased logging to trying to link 9/11 with a war he wanted to wage (whatever the real facts) in Iraq. The pattern continues; in the wake of the human tragedy in the Gulf States, environmental regulations on reformulated gas were immediately suspended, and now there is today's report that Bush has suspended the minimum wage (in this case, under Federal law the minimum that can be paid is the prevailing wage paid in the community, about 10 to 12 dollars per hr for laborers) requirements for Katrina clean-up contractors. This is truly despicable and should provoke mass demonstrations by labor and its supporters in the streets. It is particularly cruel to do so after Americans have become aware of just how poor the millions of Americans who earn the minimum (or minimum prevailing) wages are. I guess Barbara Bush and her son don't want poor people to have it too good--ha, ha, ha--despite their losses and the appalling way America treats low-wage workers. CNN Money Reports c/o Raw Story:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush issued an executive order Thursday allowing federal contractors rebuilding in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to pay below the prevailing wage.
In a notice to Congress, Bush said the hurricane had caused "a national emergency" that permits him to take such action under the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act in ravaged areas of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.
Bush's action came as the federal government moved to provide billions of dollars in aid, and drew rebukes from two of organized labor's biggest friends in Congress, Rep. George Miller of California and Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, both Democrats.
"The administration is using the devastation of Hurricane Katrina to cut the wages of people desperately trying to rebuild their lives and their communities," Miller said.
"President Bush should immediately realize the colossal mistake he has made in signing this order and rescind it and ensure that America puts its people back to work in the wake of Katrina at wages that will get them and their families back on their feet," Miller said.
"I regret the president's decision," said Kennedy.
"One of the things the American people are very concerned about is shabby work and that certainly is true about the families whose houses are going to be rebuilt and buildings that are going to be restored," Kennedy said.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush issued an executive order Thursday allowing federal contractors rebuilding in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to pay below the prevailing wage.
In a notice to Congress, Bush said the hurricane had caused "a national emergency" that permits him to take such action under the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act in ravaged areas of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.
Bush's action came as the federal government moved to provide billions of dollars in aid, and drew rebukes from two of organized labor's biggest friends in Congress, Rep. George Miller of California and Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, both Democrats.
"The administration is using the devastation of Hurricane Katrina to cut the wages of people desperately trying to rebuild their lives and their communities," Miller said.
"President Bush should immediately realize the colossal mistake he has made in signing this order and rescind it and ensure that America puts its people back to work in the wake of Katrina at wages that will get them and their families back on their feet," Miller said.
"I regret the president's decision," said Kennedy.
"One of the things the American people are very concerned about is shabby work and that certainly is true about the families whose houses are going to be rebuilt and buildings that are going to be restored," Kennedy said.
posted by Faithful Progressive at 6:07 AM
25 Comments:
There is a difference between the prevailing wage required by the Davis Bacon act, which the president suspended according to the Reuters article, and the minimum wage. It does not appear to me that he has suspended the minimum wage.
Fair point, I'll revise text but not title since this post has already been widely linked-notably by Salon/Daou Report.
FP
Yes, there is a huge difference. I've worked in federal contracting from both sides (as a federal employee overseeing contracts and as a contractor) and this has nothing to do with the minimum wage.
Normally when an agency does federal contracting the contractor needs to have the department of labor issue a wage determination that determines what the prevailing wage needs to be under the Davis Bacon act for construction, or under the Service Contract Act for other types of contracted services. This is a bureaucratic process that takes time.
Although I don't know the details behind this action, I would expect it to have two effects:
First, it should speed up the federal cleanup and reconstruction process because FEMA and other agencies will be able to get contracts approved and working faster. Second, it will probably save the government money to the extent that contractors pay below the prevailing wage.
On the flip side, I'm not exactly sure how this will affect bidding because I suspect most of the contracts will be sole-source no bid contracts. In other words the government will just be hiring the contractors that it wants to get the job done fast rather than going through the normal competitive bidding process where the government publishes requests for proposals and then evaluates the bids that come in from contractors and awards the contract to the winning bidder. If you take away Davis Bacon and still do normal competive bidding then the incentives will be for contractors to drive wages downward in order to win the contracts. But if the government is not doing competitive bidding but sole source contracting, its more likely that any substandard wages will just result in windfall profits for the contractor.
Either way it smells. It would have probably been simpler to keep the Davis Bacon requirements in place but just waive some of the bureaucratic review process. I suspect this is probably being driven by ideology in that the folks in charge don't like these laws to begin with and look for any excuse to set them aside.
Here is the minimum level of wages that is being suspended for laborers in Lousiana--11 and 10 per hour. Per a recent LA Davis Bacon law determination as of May, 2005. This does not in any way change my basic point, but rather reinforces it.
FP
LABO0207-003 06/01/2004
ALLEN, BEAUREGARD, CALCASIEU, CAMERON, JEFFERSON DAVIS, AND
VERNON PARISHES:
Rates Fringes
Laborer........................$ 11.02 2.45
----------------------------------------------------------------
LABO0689-001 07/01/2004
LAFOURCHE, PLAQUEMINES, ST. JAMES, TERREBONNE, AND WASHINGTON
PARISHES:
Rates Fringes
Laborer........................$ 12.05 1.42
----------------------------------------------------------------
LABO0692-002 05/01/2004
BIENVILLE, BOSSIER, CADDO, CLAIBORNE, DE SOTO, RED RIVER,
SABINE, AND WEBSTER PARISHES:
Rates Fringes
Laborer........................$ 10.00 1.65
----------------------------------------------------------------
* LABO0762-002 11/01/2003
ACADIA, AVOYELLES, CALDWELL, CATAHOULA, CONCORDIA, EAST
CARROLL, EVANGELINE, GRANT, IBERIA, JACKSON, LA SALLE,
LAFAYETTE, LINCOLN, MADISON, MOREHOUSE, NATCHITOCHES, OUACHITA,
RAPIDES, RICHLAND, ST. LANDRY, ST. MARTIN, ST. MARY, TENSAS,
UNION, VERMILION, WEST CARROLL, AND WINN PARISHES:
Rates Fringes
Laborer........................$ 11.00 2.40
----------------------------------------------------------------
LABO1177-002 05/01/2004
ASCENSION, EAST BATON ROUGE, EAST FELICIANA, IBERVILLE,
LIVINGSTON, POINTE COUPEE, ST. HELENA, WEST BATON ROUGE & WEST
FELICIANA PARISHES; ASSUMPTION PARISH (North of a line drawn
from the southern limits of the town of St. James in St. James
Parish to the northern limits of the town of Napoleonville in
Assumption Parish and then directly west to the parish line);
ST. JAMES PARISH (Excluding portion on the west bank to and
including the town of Vacherie); TANGIPAHOA PARISH (South and
west of a line running from the western parish line to a point
directly east, which touches the northern limits of the town of
Independence, then directly south to Lake Pontchartrain):
Rates Fringes
Laborer........................$ 10.00 1.65
----------------------------------------------------------------
* PAIN1244-007 04/01/2005
http://frwebgate3.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate.cgi?WAISdocID=2774134500+0+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve
Perhap even more outrageous. . . .
Yesterday Bush announced that the Gov--via FEMA was supplying $2,000 debit cards to hurricane victims
This was played over and over again by all the media yesterday.
By the afternoon, the mayor of Houston began notifying the media that these reports were false.--there were no cards—though hundreds of people were standing in lines waiting for them.
As he (the mayor) put it, people should not believe what they hear in Washington (Bush?) press conferences unless it is confirmed by local officals.
The debit cards provision was announced by Bush and by FEMA head (heck-of-a -job) Brownie who said:
"The concept is to get them some cash in hand which allows them, empowers them, to make their own decisions about what do they need to have to start rebuilding," Brown said.
Late in the day FEMA spokesman David Passey announced that only people in the Astrodome would get them via the Red Cross.
"At this time, we believe our better delivery mechanism will be checks or electronic funds transfer," Passey said.
So much for empowering the people.
How callous and absurd can they be--to run this PR sham all day-- get up of the hopes of needy victims and then tell them--oops we didn't mean it.
If I understand this correctly, it soundslike those who will be directly exposed to working in hazardous conditions are the ones who will be directly (and negatively) impacted by these cuts.
"No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level - I mean the wages of a decent living."
~~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
If 10 or 11 dollars is too much for workers let's make it the same for Halliburton execs.
Joe Hill
I don't see how to e-mail you, so:
"...that the American public would not except but for that tragedy."
Accept, not except.
If you like, though, you can say 'not accept except for that tragedy'.
AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney Statement on Executive Order Waiving Davis Bacon on Federally Funded Hurricane Reconstruction
September 08, 2005
At a time when Hurricane Katrina exposed the gaping hole of economic inequality and the shortcomings of our nation’s infrastructure, it is unbelievable and outrageous that the White House would lift the time-tested standard for insuring quality work and decent living standards for taxpayer-financed reconstruction.
Employers are all too eager to exploit workers. This is no time to make that easier. What a double tragedy it would be to allow the destruction of Hurricane Katrina to depress living standards even further.
Taking advantage of a national tragedy to get rid of a protection for workers the corporate backers of the White House have long wanted to remove is nothing less than profiteering.
Congress must reverse this short-sighted action.
Joni Hill
Nice post--others are saying it's even less than 10 per hour...
WASH POST:
Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, accused Bush of "using the devastation of Hurricane Katrina to cut the wages of people desperately trying to rebuild their lives and their communities."
Miller said: "In New Orleans, where a quarter of the city was poor, the prevailing wage for construction labor is about $9 per hour, according to the Department of Labor. In effect, President Bush is saying that people should be paid less than $9 an hour to rebuild their communities."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/08/AR2005090802037.html
Craig-
Lighten up dude.
Blogs are no place to get anal
You clearly understood what was meant.
As someone who has been in the publishing business for many years, I know that BOOKS from MAJOR houses typically have some TYPOS—never mind the typos in NEWSPAPER articles.
Newspapers and publishing houses have editors and copy editors.
Blogs have immediacy.
If you want copy that has been proofed and edited, wait for the history books. In meantime, relax with a cup of tea and a bran muffin and enjoy the blog.
It's a forum for ideas--not a spelling bee.
He-hee
Today's NYT editoral underlines the point I have been making all week: Bush and his cronies at FEM A seem more interested in "catapulting the propaganda" than in helping the hurricane victims.
Advance Men in Charge
Published: September 9, 2005
The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced this week that it didn't want the news media taking photographs of the dead in New Orleans. A FEMA spokeswoman talked unconvincingly about the dignity of the dead. But the bizarre demand, a creepy echo of the ban on news media coverage of the coffins returning from Iraq, is simply the latest spasm of a gutted federal agency.
It's not really all that surprising that the officials who run FEMA are stressing that all-important emergency response function: the public relations campaign. As it turns out, that's all they really have experience at doing.
Michael Brown was made the director after he was asked to resign from the International Arabian Horse Association, and the other top officials at FEMA don't exactly have impressive résumés in emergency management either. The Chicago Tribune reported on Wednesday that neither the acting deputy director, Patrick Rhode, nor the acting deputy chief of staff, Brooks Altshuler, came to FEMA with any previous experience in disaster management. Ditto for Scott Morris, the third in command until May.
Mr. Altshuler and Mr. Rhode had worked in the White House's Office of National Advance Operations. Those are the people who decide where the president will stand on stage and which loyal supporters will be permitted into the audience - and how many firefighters will be diverted from rescue duty to surround the president as he patrols the New Orleans airport trying to look busy. Mr. Morris was a press handler with the Bush presidential campaign. Previously, he worked for the company that produced Bush campaign commercials.
So when Mr. Brown finally got around to asking Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff for extra people for Katrina, it wasn't much of a departure for Mr. Brown to say that one of the things he wanted them to do was to "convey a positive image of disaster operations to government officials, community organizations and the general public." We'd like them to stay focused on conveying food, water and medical help to victims.
Political patronage has always been a hallmark of Washington life. But President Bill Clinton appointed political pals at FEMA who actually knew something about disaster management. The former FEMA director James Lee Witt, whose tenure is widely considered a major success, was a friend of Mr. Clinton's when he took office in 1993, but he had run the Arkansas Office of Emergency Services. His top staff came from regional FEMA offices.
Surely there are loyal Republicans among the 50 directors of state emergency services. But President Bush chose to make FEMA a dumping ground for unqualified cronies - a sure sign that he wanted to hasten the degradation of an agency that conservative Republicans have long considered an evil of big government. Katrina has proved that federal disaster help is vital, and that Mr. Brown and his team of advance men can't do the job. What America needs are federal disaster relief people who actually know something about disaster relief.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/09/opinion/09fri1.html?hp
The victims need to be given checks, so they must go to the local check cashing centers and be preyed upon once again.
But President Bush chose to make FEMA a dumping ground for unqualified cronies
You think he's unqualified just because Brownie padded his CV a little?
Here you go
Brownie out
FEMA Chief Relieved of Katrina Duties
Sep 09 1:30 PM US/Eastern
By LARA JAKES JORDAN
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON
Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown is being removed from his role managing Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, The Associated Press has learned.
Brown is being sent back to Washington from Baton Rouge, where he was the primary official overseeing the federal government's response to the disaster, according to two federal officials who declined to be identified before the announcement.
Brown will be replaced by Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad w. Allen, who was overseeing New Orleans relief and rescue efforts.
Brown has been under fire because of the administration's slow response to the magnitude of the hurricane. On Thursday, questions were raised about whether he padded his resume to highlight his previous emergency management background.
Less than an hour before Brown's removal came to light, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Brown had not resigned and the president had not asked for his resignation.
McClellan did not directly answer a question about whether the president had full confidence in Brown.
Brownie out but systemic problems remain
"All of us were just shaking our heads and saying, 'This isn't going to be enough, and the director has to know this isn't going to be enough.' But nothing more seemed to be happening," said Leo Bosner, president of the FEMA Headquarters Employees Union.
Bosner has been with FEMA since it began 26 years ago. He says the agency has been systematically dismantled since it became part of the massive Department of Homeland Security.
"One of the big differences I see," said Bosner, "besides taking away our staff and our budget and our training, is that Homeland Security now, in my view, slows down the process."
The union warned Congress in a detailed letter about FEMA's decline a year ago. State emergency managers also warned Capitol Hill and Homeland Security just weeks ago that DHS was too focused on one thing — terrorism.
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/HurricaneKatrina/story?id=1108268&page=1
Kos points to another culprit in the Brownie affair:
Joe Lieberman, who controlled the committee first vetting Brown, gave the nominee high praise and pushed him through after less than an hour of questioning.
The wingers wanted this to be a bipartisan disaster. Good for Lieberman to oblige them.
http://www.dailykos.com/
Please, do revise the title of the post and tell the Salon/Daou Report that you've done so.
This is too important an issue for inaccuracy. I can just hear Bill O'Reilly sneering that bloggers don't know the difference between the prevailing wage and the minimum wage: "None of them work!"
To be completely honest, you know there is a big difference between a typo and a homonym error, which is what you committed.
Carol Anne:
I think this is quite clear, the prevailing wage IS the minimum wage that can be paid for a Federal contract. From the start the post made reference to Davis Bacon and not FLSA which governs the Federal Minimum Wage. I have apparently even overstated what the prevailing wage is accordingly to Rep Miller.
FP
Man, people are spell-checking and nit-picking (the post makes it clear he's not talking about the Minimum Wage but the minimum they can pay)-- and missing the point of this post!!
This is the MO of this administration--pull out old plans in every crisis and take advantage of people's pain and good intentions.
This post is spot on.
Ted
Let's not derail the thread about the word issue - the feedback is simply constructive for the write, since I saw no private contact method, and to help the credibility of the piece.
It's a very useful piece.
"To be completely honest, you know there is a big difference between a typo and a homonym error"
Yes, I meant to help the piece, not make an 'ad homonym' attack. :)
Craig:
I appreciated the note, and made the change. My e-mail is on the site-click my name and it will take you to the home page.
Thanks for your comments.
FP
Nicely enunciated concerns. Add you to the roundup at ROYAL PALACE PRONOUNCEMENTS.
Quick responses for some things, other for others. Oy.
I'm sure that the companies selected by the Federal Government will be as decent and honest as they can. I really do. The first selections have been made, btw, and you can read about it here: http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/10/katrina.contracts.reut/index.html
You might recognize one or two them . . . like Halliburton . . .
(decent as you *can* be doesn't mean *decent*.)
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