The House Education and Labor Committee voted April 30 to pass H.R. 3021, “The 21st Century High-Performing Public School Facilities Act,” a bill that, if signed into law, would expand Davis-Bacon prevailing wage requirements to construction, modernization or repairs to public schools paid for with funds authorized within the legislation.
ABC and three other organizations sent a letter to committee members before the vote urging them to address the flaws in the existing Davis-Bacon requirements before expanding them to other areas of the law. The letter refers to a series of audits conducted by several agencies, including the Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), that show Davis-Bacon wage rates are vulnerable to fraud. The letter specifically cites a 2004 OIG report that found errors in nearly 100 percent of the wage surveys reviewed.
“Expanding a wage determination process that has been proven to be flawed is unfair to the American taxpayer and American businesses, as well as parents and students who see scarce resources used inefficiently. Davis-Bacon’s wage determination flaws harm the very employees the law was intended to protect. It prevents many qualified small and minority-owned businesses from even bidding on public projects, because the complexities and inefficiencies in the Act make it nearly impossible for small businesses to compete,” the letter stated.
In addition, ABC points out 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.
“Davis-Bacon’s flaws will cost taxpayers more to provide students with less. Any Davis-Bacon costs from legislation your committee considers will be directly passed on to the American taxpayers in these school districts, coming at the direct expense of education dollars for children in classrooms,” ABC wrote.
In addition to ABC, other organizations who signed the letter were the Independent Electrical Contractors, the National Federation of Independent Business and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. For more information, contact Brewster Bevis at ABC, bevis@abc.org.