Tom Harkin: “Yes, to protect them and their right to overtime. The House of Representatives earlier passed a bill and it lost by…”

“Yes, to protect them and their right to overtime. The House of Representatives earlier passed a bill and it lost by about four votes. After we passed it, it went back to the House and they had a big vote to instruct conferees. In other words, telling their conferees to go along with the Senate provision on this. So we had that. We went to conference and before the conference came to this issue, the gavel was banged and we were never invited back. Guess what. What we voted on here and what the House agreed to disappeared, because the administration came in and said they didn't want it in the big appropriations bill we passed a couple weeks ago. So they thwarted the will of Congress, and of the conferees who never got to vote on the issue. Most important, they thwarted the will of the American people. But I have an amendment in my desk drawer and every appropriate opportunity this Senator gets, I am going to offer it here on the Senate floor because American workers deserve to have their overtime protected--nurses, firefighters, police officers, ordinary working people all over America. If they are going to be asked to give up their premium time with their families, they deserve time and a half.”