KING STANDS UP FOR SMALL CONTRACTORS
WASHINGTON - U.S. Congressman Steve King offered an amendment to H.R. 720 today with the Ranking Member of the Water Subcommittee, U.S. Congressman Richard Baker. The Baker-King amendment would stop federal Davis-Bacon language from being expanded to cover the Water Quality Financing Act of 2007, H.R. 720.
Davis-Bacon disproportionately impacts small companies and rural businesses. It requires all contractors to pay a federally mandated wage for federal projects. One hundred forty Members of Congress went on record supporting the elimination of Davis-Bacon from the legislation which failed.
"It is wrong for the federal government to impose a union wage scale on small communities and small contractors. A recent government study showed that ‘prevailing wages,’ as determined by the federal government, were in error 100 percent of the time," said King.
The Davis-Bacon Act, a Depression-era wage subsidy law, requires that each public works contract over $2,000 contain a clause that mandates "prevailing" wages be paid. Contractors and subcontractors are forced to pay a "prevailing wage" set by the federal government.
King stated, "Some communities decide to forgo federal dollars because a Davis-Bacon project would inflate the cost of their project by 8 to 35 percent -- often more than the federal dollars involved. Davis-Bacon means fewer projects will be built and fewer jobs created."
