File #: Res 1167-2005    Version: * Name: Urging President Bush to rescind his recent executive order suspending the Davis-Bacon Act in the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina.
Type: Resolution Status: Filed
Committee: Committee on Civil Service and Labor
On agenda: 9/28/2005
Enactment date: Law number:
Title: Resolution urging President George W. Bush to rescind his suspension of the Davis-Bacon Act in the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina so that contractors will not be allowed to pay poverty wages to workers in the rebuilding effort, and calling upon Congress to take appropriate action if he fails to do so.
Sponsors: Robert Jackson, Charles Barron, Gale A. Brewer, Yvette D. Clarke, Leroy G. Comrie, Jr., Lewis A. Fidler, Helen D. Foster, Alan J. Gerson, Letitia James, G. Oliver Koppell, John C. Liu, Michael C. Nelson, Joel Rivera, James Sanders, Jr., Larry B. Seabrook, Helen Sears, Kendall Stewart, David I. Weprin, Betsy Gotbaum
Council Member Sponsors: 19

Res. No. 1167

 

Resolution urging President George W. Bush to rescind his suspension of the Davis-Bacon Act in the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina so that contractors will not be allowed to pay poverty wages to workers in the rebuilding effort, and calling upon Congress to take appropriate action if he fails to do so. 

 

By Council Members Jackson, Barron, Brewer, Clarke, Comrie, Fidler, Foster, Gerson, James, Koppell, Liu, Nelson, Rivera, Sanders Jr., Seabrook, Sears, Stewart, Weprin and The Public Advocate (Ms. Gotbaum)

 

Whereas, On September 8, 2005, President George W. Bush suspended the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931; and

Whereas, The Davis-Bacon Act requires federal contractors to pay their workers at least the prevailing wage on construction projects, including highways, buildings and bridges, for the area in which they are built; and

Whereas, The Davis-Bacon Act was intended to stop employers from exploiting workers and has been a critical force in stabilizing wage rates on federal construction jobs throughout the country; and

Whereas, Many of the areas affected by the suspension are impoverished and the prevailing wage rates on construction jobs in these areas are therefore already dangerously low; and

Whereas, Suspending Davis-Bacon in these areas would simply allow contractors to push wages even lower; and

Whereas, The country is well aware of the havoc that Hurricane Katrina has caused in human terms; and

Whereas, Many of the region’s poorest lost everything in the flood and are only now beginning to rebuild their lives; and

Whereas, Indeed, before the storm, roughly one of four residents and fully half of all the children of New Orleans lived in poverty; and

Whereas, While, as President Bush has stated, suspending Davis-Bacon will save money for the federal government, paying poverty wages for the critical infrastructure work required as a result of Hurricane Katrina will not only undermine the victims’ ability to rebuild their lives but also the quality of the work that needs to be done; and

Whereas, As America seeks to rebuild the area devastated by Hurricane Katrina, the federal government should not recreate the poverty in the area but should try to eliminate it, and it should not take advantage of the vulnerable even desperate states of its residents; now, therefore, be it

 Resolved, That the City Council urges President George W. Bush to rescind his suspension of the Davis-Bacon Act in the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina so that contractors will not be allowed to pay poverty wages to workers in the rebuilding effort, and calling upon Congress to take appropriate action if he fails to do so.

 

 

RJN

9/23/05

LS # 3477