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Washington, D.C.- Defenders of overtime pay won a major victory yesterday when the U.S. House of Representatives approved a Democratic motion to stop the Bush Administration’s plan to take overtime pay away from more than eight million men and women. Congressman Dale E. Kildee (D-MI), a senior member of the Education and Workforce Committee, fought back the Administration’s effort by leading a bipartisan coalition to defeat this latest assault on hard-working Americans.
“This is an enormous victory for all hard-working Americans that depend on overtime pay to make ends meet,” said Kildee. “I am proud that we were able to defeat the Administration’s latest attack on the working class. The Bush Administration has continually tried to shift the burden of a bad economy on the backs of hard-working Americans. Finally, Congress demonstrated yesterday that it has had enough of the failed economic policies of this Administration.”
The Bush Administration proposed eliminating overtime pay in the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Bill for fiscal year 2004. The Administration’s proposal would have undermined the 40-hour workweek for millions of hard-working Americans. If this proposal succeeded, millions of workers would have been denied overtime protection and would no longer be paid anything for their overtime work. As a result, employers would ultimately demand longer hours from their employees if they were no longer required by federal law to pay overtime.
The motion protecting overtime pay passed the House yesterday by a vote of 221 to 203. The approved motion will instruct House negotiators to preserve language in the final Labor Appropriations bill that will prevent the Administration from enacting any regulation that would make any worker ineligible for overtime who is currently eligible for overtime pay. On September 10, 2003, the Senate also approved a similar amendment by a vote of 54 to 45. Regrettably, President Bush has threatened to veto the conference report if the language protecting overtime pay remains in the final version of the appropriations bill. |
