FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 14, 2006
CONTACT: Steve Forde
Telephone: (202) 225-4527

Witnesses Take Aim at Controversial

Wage Mandate in Senate Immigration Bill

Senate Would Require Firms to Pay Federally-Determined Prevailing Wages to Guest Workers

 

GAINESVILLE, GA – Testifying today before the U.S. House Workforce Protections Subcommittee, witnesses expressed concerns about a proposal in the U.S. Senate immigration bill to expand a federal construction program mandate to private sector projects – including those led by small businesses – as part of a new guest worker program.  The hearing focused on the impact of illegal immigration on the wages of American workers and highlighted key wage-related aspects of both the House and Senate immigration bills.

 

“It’s not news to anyone that illegal immigration is the nation’s number one domestic policy concern,” stated subcommittee chairman Charlie Norwood (R-GA).  “Of particular importance to this subcommittee is the impact of illegal aliens on the American workforce – and the wages of U.S. workers, more specifically.  As part of an ongoing series of hearings conducted by the House Education & the Workforce Committee, this important hearing examined this bottom line issue in much greater depth.”

 

While calling into question wage-related elements of the Senate immigration proposal, subcommittee Member Tom Price (R-GA) underscored the importance of illegal immigration as a domestic policy concern, particularly in his home state of Georgia. 

 

“There is an oversupply of cheap foreign labor depressing domestic wages; ample first-hand evidence of Georgians losing their jobs to illegal aliens; a history of Administrations neglecting their responsibilities; and a record of certain businesses that flout the law by hiring illegal workers,” Price explained.  “This crisis will just be made worse if Congress adopts the U.S. Senate’s version of immigration reform.  Under the Senate’s plan, illegal aliens will become guest workers, gain a clear path to automatic citizenship, and be guaranteed wages greater than what Americans receive for the same work.  The Reid-Kennedy (Senate) bill is a formula to exacerbate the situation – further depressing domestic wages and welcoming illegal aliens to cross our borders.”

 

In addition to Norwood and Price, witnesses at the hearing drew attention to a Senate immigration proposal to expand to guest workers prevailing wage rights commonly associated with the Depression-era Davis-Bacon Act.  Under this 1931 law, a federally-determined prevailing wage must be paid to workers in all federal construction projects.  The Senate immigration bill would expand that mandate even further, requiring employers to pay federally-determined prevailing wages to guest construction workers, even if they are not participating in a federal project.  As a result, the Senate proposal would force some employers to pay guest workers more than Americans doing the same job in the same city and would have the effect of expanding what was solely a requirement for federal construction programs to apply also to private sector projects.

Phil Kent, national spokesman for Americans for Immigration Control, a grassroots organization focused on the reform of U.S. immigration laws, described the proposed mandate as “outrageous.”

 

“Perhaps one of the most outrageous features of S. 2611 (the Senate immigration bill) – aside from rewarding lawbreakers with services like college tuition breaks and eventual citizenship – is requiring employers to pay foreign workers higher wages at construction jobs,” said Kent.  “We need to get the message out to the public – and to Senators who may not have even realized they voted for this provision – that aliens in construction jobs as part of the guest worker program created by S. 2611 would receive higher wages than American workers at the same job site.”

 

Kent continued, “The Davis Bacon Act requires that the local prevailing wage be paid to all workers employed in federally-contracted construction projects, or in work done for the District of Columbia.  Those wages, which are up to four or five times higher in some construction fields than the federal minimum wage of $5.15 per hour, are set by the U.S. Labor Department.  The Senate bill incredibly requires that the higher wage must be paid to temporary foreign workers in all construction occupations, even if the project isn’t federally funded or otherwise under the jurisdiction of the Davis-Bacon Act.”

 

D.A. King, President of the Dustin Inman Society, a Georgia-based organization founded to educate the public on the impact of illegal immigration, echoed Kent’s concerns about the Senate prevailing wage mandate.

 

Time constraints prohibit even a brief outline of the many flaws in the Senate bill,” King told the subcommittee.  “Among those mistakes, one of the most brilliant examples of the Senate’s failure to protect the American worker is the provision that would effectively expand the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931 to allow foreign workers to be paid a different – and higher – prevailing wage than Americans who work at the same job.  While most Americans – including myself – are not experts on Davis-Bacon, we find it easy to understand the injustice involved if the effect of the Senate bill would be to ‘legalize’ illegal labor and then provide an avenue whereby that labor then be rewarded with pay and benefits not available to all American workers.”

 

Last month, in an Education & the Workforce Committee hearing on the administration and impact of guest worker programs, employer representatives expressed similar concerns about the Senate prevailing wage mandate.  At that hearing, Committee Chairman Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA) promised a closer look at the provision, which led to the Workforce Protections Subcommittee hearing this morning.

 

Today’s hearing marked the fourth in an Education & the Workforce series of hearings on immigration issues impacting American workers and students.  For more information on the Committee’s border security and enforcement activities, please visit http://edworkforce.house.gov/issues/109th/workforce/immigration/immigration.htm.

Press Releases