Mark Hatfield: “the Simpson amendment to the pending legislation, the National Competitiveness Act, includes important reforms to the…”

“the Simpson amendment to the pending legislation, the National Competitiveness Act, includes important reforms to the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931. While I strongly support the continuation of the Davis-Bacon law, I do believe changes need to be made. It is my understanding that legislation has been pending before the Labor Committee that would make extensive changes to the Davis-Bacon Act for the last two Congresses. In fact, many of the reforms have been marked up in subcommittee by the House. Several of the provisions of the bill are meritorious and it is my hope that we will be able to enact some of these reforms in the near future. By supporting these carved out reform provisions now, I believe that it will serve notice to the Labor Committee that I am ready to reform the Davis-Bacon Act sooner rather than latter. I have my own ideas of reform that should take place regarding the applicability of the Davis-Bacon Act on volunteers. Volunteers should be allowed to work on certain types of community projects in rural areas if they choose to do so by their own volition and if they are not being supervised by paid contractors or subcontractors. Volunteers should not be allowed to work on the construction of nuclear power plants or highway projects. However, many rural communities cannot afford to improve their communities because of fiscal constraints.”