AWF Opposes Prevailing Wage School Construction Mandates
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|
The Honorable Howard P. McKeon |
The Honorable George Miller |
| The Honorable John Boehner Republican Leader U.S. House of Representatives Washington, DC 20510 |
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi Speaker of the House U.S. House of Representatives Washington, DC 20510 |
Dear Representative:
On behalf of the Alliance for Worker Freedom, and millions of hardworking rank-and-file Americans and their families, I am urging you to oppose costly prevailing wage mandates such as those contained in H.R. 3021 which increase the cost of school construction projects at the expense of the taxpayer.
Today, April 30th, members of the Education and Labor Committee are going to consider this type of dangerous legislation in H.R. 3021. Care must be taken to ensure that out-dated wage mandates are removed from this legislation before it leaves the Committee.
Applying Davis-Bacon prevailing wage mandates, construction wages are inflated nationally by 22 percent. However in some areas, such as Maine and South Carolina, construction wages are 15-55 percent below market wages due to prevailing wage laws. Also, forced compliance with these outdated mandates increase the cost of construction projects nationally by $8.6 billion – a cost that is passed on to the taxpayers. The difference between having a prevailing wage or not, is the difference between building three schools or four.
I am urging you to remove all forced prevailing wage requirements from this bill allowing school construction to not be hindered by compliance with an outdated wage mandate.
Sincerely,
Brian M Johnson MPA,
Director of Policy
cc: All US House Members
