ABC continues to fight the expansion of the Davis Bacon Act in Congress by opposing two bills that would expand prevailing wage requirements into more areas of the law. The “Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008” (H.R. 6003), introduced in the House, would expand Davis-Bacon to new grants created within the program and the “Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008” (H.R. 6049), which is seeing action in the Senate, would expand Davis-Bacon to the construction and repair of renewable energy facilities financed with tax credit bonds.
ABC June 9 sent a letter to members of the House of Representatives opposing H.R. 6003 “due to the egregious expansion of the Davis-Bacon Act found within the legislation.”
In addition, ABC in conjunction with the Independent Electrical Contractors sent a letter to members of the Senate opposing H.R. 6049. “Inclusion of this expansion of the Davis-Bacon Act would adversely affect small business access to construction performed under the program and inflate the costs of repairs and construction of renewable energy facilities at the expense of the taxpayer,” the letter stated.
Both letters also pointed out that Davis-Bacon prevailing wage requirements are vulnerable to fraud and notes that the use of prevailing wages has been shown to inflate public construction costs between 5 percent and 38 percent compared to private sector projects.