The House of Representatives March 12 struck down an amendment introduced by Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fla.) that would have stripped Davis-Bacon Act prevailing wage requirements from the Water Quality Investment Act of 2009 (H.R. 1262), which passed by a 317-101 vote on the same day. The bill reauthorizes the Clean Water State Revolving Fund that provides low-interest loans and grants to local communities for the construction of wastewater treatment facilities.
Before the vote, ABC sent a letter to members of the House expressing support for the elimination of Davis-Bacon from the bill. In the letter, ABC noted “inclusion of the Davis-Bacon Act prevailing wage requirements would adversely affect small business access to construction performed under the program and inflate the costs of projects funded under this piece of legislation at the expense of the taxpayers.
“Davis-Bacon has been shown to increase public construction costs by anywhere from 5 to 38 percent above what the project would have cost in the private sector,” ABC continued. “According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Davis-Bacon Act already costs taxpayers more than $9.5 billion over the 2002 to 2011 period relative to the 2001 appropriations and $10.5 billion relative to the 2001 appropriations adjusted for inflation. A more recent estimate, from the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University in January, suggests Davis-Bacon costs taxpayers $8.6 billion per year.”
The bill is now being considered in the Senate and ABC is continuing to fight the expansion of the Davis-Bacon Act.
To view ABC’s letter in PDF format, click
here.
For more information, contact Brewster Bevis at ABC,
bevis@abc.org.