Political Quotes

“here we are again debating overtime in the Labor, Health and Human Services bill. I feel like it was just last year when we had this same debate, because we did. Last year I supported a Democratic overtime pay amendment which proposed to prohibit the Department of Labor from using funds to enforce any regulation that would cut overtime pay. When the amendment was voted on in the House, the Republican majority blocked its passage. However, the Senate approved an amendment offered by Senator Harkin to block the Bush administration from issuing the overtime changes, protecting people's overtime. The House then reversed course, against leadership's advice, and bipartisanly voted to instruct the negotiators to instruct the Harkin language, therefore preserving workers' overtime. Even though both the House and Senate voted to protect overtime, a few hand-picked Republicans on the conference committee, all doing the bidding of President Bush and the Republican leadership, removed those protections from the bill. The Economic Policy Institute study calculates that under the revised Bush overtime rules, kindergarten and nursery school teachers, firefighters, police, nurses and hundreds of thousands of other workers would lose an average of $250 a week in overtime pay. Millions more lose future eligibility for it.”