Steve Scalise: “I bring the amendment because what we are trying to do is prevent the Department from implementing or using taxpayer…”

“I bring the amendment because what we are trying to do is prevent the Department from implementing or using taxpayer money to implement Executive Order No. 13502. And the effect of that executive order has been to mandate project labor agreements on projects that are worth $25 million or more. What we are talking about here is a requirement that is increasing the cost dramatically of projects similar to the debate we had a little earlier. If you look at--there have been a number of studies done. There was a 2009 Beacon Hill study that looked at the impact that if this type of policy was in effect in 2008, which fortunately it wasn't, but if this executive order was being implemented in 2008, all of the projects that were done that had a value of $25 million or more, it would have increased the cost to the Federal taxpayer by between $1.6 billion and $2.6 billion. That's billions more that would be spent to carry out a project rather than having a just pure and open competition. We should be allowing free and open competition on projects and not artificially increasing the cost to taxpayers to carry out public projects. If you look at The Wall Street Journal, they specifically address the executive order that we are trying to prevent funds from being spent to carry out.…”