Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, the Davis-Bacon Act hinders economic growth and increases the Federal deficit. It imposes enormous burdens, stifles contractor productivity, ignores skill differences for different jobs, and imposes rigid craftwork rules. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the Davis-Bacon Act will raise Federal construction costs by $13 billion between 2015 and 2023. Now, wages are often set at or above the union scale, despite the fact that only 13 percent of the private construction workforce is even unionized nationwide, Mr. Chairman. {time} 0010 The Davis-Bacon wage determinations have also been known to be lower than the current market rate, which is equally problematic and especially detrimental for local contractors. It is just erratic. The GAO, the Government Accountability Office, has repeatedly criticized DOL's Davis-Bacon wage determination process for its lack of transparency in the published wage rates and its tendency to gather erroneous data through unscientific wage surveys. Repealing the DBA would allow the government to build more infrastructure and create 155,000 new construction-related jobs at the very same cost to the taxpayers. In fact, repealing Davis-Bacon would have saved the Federal Government $10.9 billion, and that was back in 2011.…”