Steve Lynch: “Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all, I would like to associate myself with the remarks of the gentleman from Georgia…”

“Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all, I would like to associate myself with the remarks of the gentleman from Georgia and the gentlelady from New York who spoke previously on this, and I rise in strong opposition to the gentleman from Iowa's amendment that would prevent Davis-Bacon from being enforced on projects under this act. It is a shame, I believe, that this funding bill--which provides needed facilities for our servicemembers and benefits to our veterans-- is being exploited to undermine hardworking Americans, but here we have it. Ironically, however, in contravention with some of the things that have been said here on the floor under this amendment, Davis-Bacon requires that workers of every color and every gender be paid based on their work, not on the color of their skin, not on their gender. That flies in the face of some of the accusations that have been put out for the original purpose of this. I do agree with the gentleman from Iowa that there were two Republicans who did originally sponsor this back in 1931, but I disagree that the danger, that the evil that it was trying to fight against back then, has gone away. As a matter of fact, it is just a race to the bottom that would ensue if we got rid of Davis-Bacon. Like the gentleman from Iowa, I have worked on Davis-Bacon jobs.…”