[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 38 (Wednesday, March 1, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E475]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


  REMARKS OF THE HONORABLE RONALD V. DELLUMS IN SUPPORT OF THE DAVIS 
                               BACON ACT

                                 ______


                         HON. RONALD V. DELLUMS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 1, 1995
  Mr. DELLUMS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to respond to a February 5, 
1995, Washington Post column by George Will, which calls for the repeal 
of the Davis-Bacon act, because it supposedly discriminates against 
minorities and women seeking employment in the construction industry.
  Mr. Will's contentions about the history and application of the 
Davis-Bacon Act as racist are totally wrong. His column is clearly 
based on a thoroughly discredited so-called study by the extreme right 
wing CATO Institute, that contends that Davis-Bacon is a Jim Crow law 
enacted to exclude black workers from Federal construction projects--
and that it's repeal will improve the economic opportunities of 
minorities.
  Both of Mr. Will's contentions are utterly without merit.
  Mr. Will's column calls for the repeal of a law which protects the 
wages of all construction workers, including minorities and women. The 
Will column attempts to justify repeal of Davis-Bacon by asserting that 
reducing the wages of minority and female workers is somehow in their 
interests. The column proceeds to claim that the costs of Davis-Bacon 
hurt inner cities the most because they prohibit contractors from 
employing local workers who still need to learn job skills.
  The truth is that minority and female workers have entered the 
construction industry in increasing numbers over the past 15 years. 
Because they are often the newest members of the industry, they are 
particularly vulnerable to wage cutting practices the Davis-Bacon Act 
is designed to prohibit. Norman Hill, president of the A. Philip 
Randolph Institute, has characterized women and minority workers as 
``particularly vulnerable to exploitation such as the Davis-Bacon Act 
of 1931 is designed to prohibit.''
  Congressman Bacon and Senator Davis were both Republican's. It was 
signed into law by Herbert Hoover--not widely known as a friend of 
unions. The law guarantees that all workers on a construction project 
paid for by the Federal Government get the same money for doing the 
same work. Because of this crucial labor protection, a Government 
construction contractor can't pay some workers less than others for 
doing the same job.
  This member opposes the repeal of the Davis-Bacon Act, which I would 
remind Mr. Will is exactly the same position as his hero, President 
Ronald Reagan.


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