Austin Scott: “let it be noted that the gentleman from Iowa, my good friend, is the one who brought up the race card, not I. But I will…”

“let it be noted that the gentleman from Iowa, my good friend, is the one who brought up the race card, not I. But I will be the one who quickly puts it back into the middle of the deck, where it should stay and belong forever. The fact of the matter is this: For 77 years, Mr. Chairman, this country has had the prevailing wage. Not a union wage. The prevailing wage standards are set by scientific surveys of actual wages paid in the local communities, and anyone awarded a government contract pays at least those prevailing wages. It is not a union scale. If you had union scale, that is it no matter where you go. Prevailing wages are what is established based upon that local economy, that local situation. You talk about New York. When Hoover put this in in 1931, he didn't put it in for New York. It was for the entire Nation, because we were at the throes of the depression, at the beginning of the depression. And now in a similar situation, while we are not in the beginning of a depression, but certainly in a recession, you misguidedly, my good friend, want to remove it. How ironic. Mr. Chairman, this is a terrible amendment. It certainly is not the right time to even think about in any fashion any measure that would constrict the economic sector in this country rather than at a much greater need when we need to expand it, and we need to stand and protect the wage earner and working America on this amendment.”