[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 45 (Friday, March 10, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3800-S3801]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS AND RESCISSIONS ACT OF 1995

  The Senate continued with the consideration of the bill.


                           amendment no. 331

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I rise today in strong opposition to the 
amendment proposed by my colleague from Kansas.
  I am most concerned with those that question the administration's 
authority to issue this Executive order. As the Federal Government's 
chief executive officer, the President has the responsibility by law to 
assure that taxpayers receive the goods and services they require from 
Federal contractors. These contractors must maintain stable and 
productive labor-management relationships if they are going to produce 
the products our Nation must depend upon.
  The Executive order advances cooperative and stable labor-management 
relations, a central component of this administration's workplace 
agenda. The use of--or the threat to use--permanent replacement workers 
destroys the cooperative environment that this relationship must 
maintain.
  The Executive order represents a lawful exercise of Presidential 
authority. The Federal Procurement Act, enacted by Congress in 1949, 
expressly authorizes the President to prescribe such policies and 
directives, not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, as he 
shall deem necessary to effectuate the provisions of said act.
  Presidents since Franklin Roosevelt have issued Executive orders 
addressing the conduct of firms with which the Federal Government does 
business. Those orders to be challenged have been upheld.
  In 1941, President Roosevelt issued an Executive order requiring 
defense contractors to refrain from racial discrimination. In 1951, 
after enactment of the Procurement Act, President Truman issued an 
Executive order extending the requirement to all Federal contractors. 
When both orders were issued, such discrimination was not unlawful 
[[Page S3801]] and, indeed, Congress had declined to enact an 
antidiscrimination law proposed by President Truman.
  In 1964, President Johnson issued an Executive order prohibiting 
Federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of age. At the 
time, Federal law permitted such age discrimination. The Civil Rights 
Act of 1964 merely directed the President to study the issue.
  In 1969, the Nixon administration expanded the antidiscrimination 
Executive order to encompass a requirement that all Federal contractors
 adopt affirmative action programs. This Executive order was upheld by 
the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

  In 1978, President Carter issued an Executive order requiring all 
federal contractors to comply with certain guidelines limiting the 
amount of wage increases. The D.C. Circuit Court upheld President 
Carter's Executive order.
  Finally, in 1992 President Bush issued an Executive order requiring 
unionized Federal contractors to notify their unionized employees of 
their right to refuse to pay union dues. The National Labor Relations 
Act contains no such requirement and legislation proposing this in the 
101st Congress was not passed.
  The economical and efficient administration and completion of Federal 
Government contracts requires a stable and productive labor-management 
environment. Strikes involving permanent replacements last seven times 
longer than strikes that do not involve permanent replacements.
  Mr. President, my personal interest in this amendment is its impact 
on the most vulnerable and fastest growing segment of our work force--
American women.
  Over the last decade, women have assumed ever greater economic and 
family caretaking responsibilities. Everyone in this country should be 
unsettled by the fact that women and children are most likely to fall 
deeper into poverty and homelessness. One of three families headed by a 
women lives to or below the poverty line: Nearly 70 percent of all 
working women earned less than $20,000 a year, and 40 percent earned 
less than $10,000 annually. These workers need the ability to raise 
their standard of living in order to break the cycle of poverty and 
welfare dependence which many of them endure.
  These women understand that they cannot bargain effectively unless 
they are assured that they do not risk losing their jobs permanently. 
They understand the serious implications of a strike. They understand, 
as I do, the fear of being one paycheck away from economic disaster.
  Most of us have home mortgages, car payments, educational and medical 
needs for ourselves and our families. America's workers know striking 
is the option of last resort. This action is never taken lightly.
  I urge my colleagues to maintain the delicate balance of collective 
bargaining. This Executive order shows that this great society values 
the individual, that it cares about women, and it recognizes those that 
built this Nation. Let us defeat this amendment and prove to America 
that Government does respect the needs of ordinary working people.
  I thank the President. I yield the floor.
  

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