Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I hope all of my colleagues heard the short debate over the intent of this regulation. The fact of the matter is if the Obey amendment passes, no American worker who makes over $23,600 will be entitled to overtime pay. This will be no enforcement of the regulations that the gentleman seeks to try to protect. Under the Obey amendment, the Secretary of Labor is prohibited from protecting workers' overtime as required by her current regulations, and she will be forced to start the regulatory process over in order to develop new regulations to ensure those protections. Under the Obey amendment, by the gentleman's own admission, the Department would have no test to administer the rules except for the salary level at $23,600. This means the Department would be prevented from looking at workers' duties to determine whether they were eligible for overtime pay. His amendment would prevent the Department from enforcing the rule with respect to any worker, even blue collar workers, who earn less than $23,600 a year. That means firefighters, teachers and nurses who make over $23,600 would have no ability to have the Department protect their overtime pay. And the enforcement for anyone earning more than $23,600 would have to be done in private lawsuits and be the biggest gift to trial lawyers that the House has considered in some time.”