[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 114 (Tuesday, July 29, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Page S10151]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. KENNEDY (for himself, Mr. Harkin, Mr. Schumer, Mr. Leahy, 
        Mr. Dayton, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Reid, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Sarbanes, Ms. 
        Stabenow, Ms. Mikulski, and Mrs. Clinton):
  S. 1485. A bill to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to 
protect the rights of employees to receive overtime compensation; to 
the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, it is a privilege to join Senator Harkin 
and other colleagues on this legislation to protect the right to 
overtime pay for millions of working men and women across America. The 
Bush administration has just announced new regulations that would deny 
overtime protections to more than 8 million hard-working men and women, 
including an estimated 200,000 workers in Massachusetts. Firefighters, 
police officers, military reservists, nurses, retail clerks, medical 
technicians, tech workers and many others would be harmed by the new 
rules.
  In the current failing economy, these workers depend more than ever 
on overtime pay to make ends meet and to pay their bills for housing, 
food, and health care. Overtime pay often constitutes as much as a 
quarter of their total pay, and the administration's proposal will mean 
an average pay cut of $161 a week for them.
  Our bill states clearly that no worker currently eligible for 
overtime protection can be denied overtime pay as a result of the new 
regulations.
  We know that overtime protections make an immense difference in 
preserving the 40-hour work week. For over half a century, the Fair 
Labor Standards Act has discouraged employers from requiring longer 
hours of work, by making overtime more expensive. Instead of relying on 
fewer workers forced to work longer hours, employers are likely to hire 
additional workers to meet the employer's needs. That result creates 
more jobs, and reduces the unfair exploitation of workers.
  The Bush administration is the first administration in 70 years in 
which the number of private sector jobs has declined. Not since 
President Hoover have we been hemorrhaging jobs like this. How could 
any fair administration possibly adopt regulations that will increase 
overtime working hours, and reduce the need to hire additional workers?

  According to the Congressional General Accounting Office, employees 
exempt from overtime pay are twice as likely to work overtime as those 
covered by the protection. Americans are working longer hours today 
than ever before--longer than in any other industrial nation. At least 
one in five employees now has a work week that exceeds 50 hours, let 
alone 40 hours.
  Clearly, workers are already struggling to balance their families' 
needs with their work responsibilities. Requiring them to work more 
hours for less pay will add an even greater burden to this daily 
struggle. Protecting the 40-hour work week is vital to protecting the 
work-family balance for millions of Americans in communities in all 
parts of the nation.
  Sixty-five years ago, President Roosevelt signed into law the Fair 
Labor Standards Act to establish a minimum wage and maximum work hours. 
It was the midst of the Great Depression and President Roosevelt told 
the country that ``if the hours of labor for the individual could be 
shortened . . . more people could be employed. If minimum wages could 
be established, each worker could get a living wage.''
  Those words are as true in 2003 as they were in 1938. The economy has 
lost more private sector jobs during this economic decline than in any 
recession since the Great Depression. What can the administration be 
thinking, to come up with this shameful proposal to weaken the overtime 
protections on which millions of workers rely? Is the administration so 
desperate to prop up business profits that it's willing to punish 
workers to do it?
  As Senator Harkin says, the President's policy is economic 
malpractice. Democrats will not sit idly by and watch Americans lose 
their jobs, their livelihoods, their homes, and their dignity. We will 
continue the fight to restore jobs to the economy, provide fair 
unemployment benefits, and raise the minimum wage. And we will do all 
we can to preserve the overtime protections on which so many Americans 
families depend. I urge my colleagues to support this essential 
legislation to keep the faith with the Nation's working families.
                                 ______