(Washington, D.C.) – At a press conference this morning, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) expressed its opposition to a proposed amendment to S. 1637, the FSC-ETI JOBS bill, by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).  The amendment would prevent the Department of Labor from implementing new overtime regulations that would reduce government bureaucracy and eliminate wasteful lawsuits.

“The Department of Labor’s proposed rules will guarantee overtime protection to additional 6.7 million workers,” CCAGW President Tom Schatz said.  “Not only does this benefit hard-working families across America by providing them with a higher paycheck for their increased workloads, but it also helps them save money as taxpayers.  With less bureaucracy and government regulation, modernizing the rules will save the economy between $870 million and $1.5 billion.”

The Department of Labor is seeking to update 50-year old regulations that define exemptions from the Federal Labor Standards Act for white-collar employees.  The new rules would raise the minimum salary of white-collar workers from $155 per week to $425 per week, the largest increase since 1938.  It explicitly guarantees overtime pay for blue-collar workers, hourly-wage earners, and emergency first responders.  The rights of workers will also be better clarified.  The Department of Labor considered almost 80,000 comments and spent nine months writing the final regulations.

“Sen. Harkin is attempting to block new rules that will benefit millions of Americans because several, powerful special interest groups have his ear,” Schatz concluded.  “Trial lawyers and labor unions have successfully exploited the confusion of the old regulations for their benefit.  The number of lawsuits doubled in the 1990s and class actions have tripled since 1997, resulting in wasteful litigation.  Now that the Department of Labor wants to clarify the rules, the special interests are more interested in their own welfare than helping their constituencies.  We strongly urge the Senate to turn down Sen. Harkin’s amendment and support the Department of Labor’s efforts.  That would be a victory for taxpayers across the country.”

CCAGW plans to consider the vote on the Harkin amendment for the group’s 2004 Congressional Ratings.  Similar votes in the House and Senate were included in CCAGW’s 2003 Ratings. 

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.