[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 130 (Friday, October 7, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2083]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          DAVIS-BACON SUSPENSION LEAVES LOCALS JOBLESS IN GULF

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. MAJOR R. OWENS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 7, 2005

  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, the indefinite suspension of Davis-Bacon by 
President Bush has destroyed the hopes of local residents in the Gulf 
region--many of whom had already lost everything in the wake of 
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Now Gulf residents who work in 
construction have to contend with wages even lower than those normally 
prevailing in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and several counties in 
Florida. As documented by an article which appeared in today's 
Washington Post, the President's suspension of Davis-Bacon and clear 
preference for political cronies also appears to make Gulf residents 
last on the list for Katrina reconstruction jobs. Despite rhetoric to 
the contrary, the President's actions will prove just as devastating to 
workers in the Gulf region as the destruction wrought by the 
hurricanes. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that this Post article 
be printed in the Record in its entirety.

                [From the Washington Post, Oct. 7, 2005]

     Small Businesses Lose Katrina Cleanup Contracts to Large Firms

                         (By Jonathan Weisman)

       When Al Knight received notice Friday that his small 
     company's contract to help wire Louisiana's storm-damaged 
     Alvin Callendar Naval Air Station had been abruptly canceled, 
     he could not have known the reverberations would reach 
     Washington within days.
       But the plight of little Knight Enterprises LLP has several 
     compelling factors: a minority owned small business in New 
     Orleans losing out to a big, national firm; local workers, 
     mainly African American, first devastated by Hurricane 
     Katrina and then supplanted by out-of-state, low-wage 
     replacements; questions over White House wage policies; and a 
     name that has haunted the Bush administration since the 
     invasion of Iraq--Halliburton. Little wonder that Sen. Carl 
     M. Levin (D-Mich.) highlighted it yesterday as he grilled the 
     Federal Emergency Management Agency's acting director, R. 
     David Paulison, on the Bush administration's hurricane 
     recovery contracts.
       After Katrina hit, most of Knight's electricians found 
     themselves with nothing: homeless, jobless and broke. But 
     when Alabama-based BE&K landed a subcontract to help rebuild 
     the naval air station, it turned to Knight for electricians--
     he says 75, BE&K says 59 at the peak of work.
       BE&K was working for Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of 
     Halliburton Co., Vice President Cheney's former company.
       When BE&K came to him, Knight said he was told his work 
     would run well into the millions of dollars and stretch out 
     as long as 20 months. His men would be paid the prevailing 
     union wage of $22.09 an hour, plus health benefits.
       After three weeks, the initial work was 60 percent 
     completed. Then, on Friday, Knight received a letter 
     informing him that BE&K workers--largely from out of state 
     and, according to Knight, earning $14 to $15 an hour without 
     benefits--could take over from there.
       Susan Wasley, a BE&K spokeswoman, said Knight's crew was 
     always there merely to augment the company's own staff of 45 
     electricians. Knight Enterprises was let go because its work 
     was done.
       Knight did not blame BE&K for his disappointment. Instead, 
     he pointed to President Bush's decision last month to suspend 
     the so-called Davis-Bacon federal law that mandates that 
     workers on federal projects be paid the average wage of an 
     area, often the union wage. Once BE&K was forced to compete 
     with nonunion companies for KBR contracts, they could not 
     afford the union electricians that dominate Louisiana, he 
     said. ``I can tell you this for sure,'' Knight said. ``If 
     Davis-Bacon wage rates were left alone, then you'd have local 
     Louisiana people working on local projects, and we would be 
     working today.''