Date: 2003-10-02
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker. I wonder what it is that President Bush does not understand about the difficulty that the American family today is having trying to provide for their needs. Some 9 million people are unemployed in this country. actively looking for work. perhaps dropping out of the job market because they are so discouraged. There are some 3 million new unemployed in the last 2 years. 400.000 last month. Do they not understand what these families are going through. many of these families with two earners. many of these families single heads of household? Now they want to come along and suggest that for millions of Americans who now get overtime under the law that they would no longer get that. Do they understand what It means to provide for a family. the average working person in this country. how Important overtime is to those individuals? It could be up to a quarter of their wages. This is how they qualify for their home mortgage. This is how they qualify for their automobile payment. This is important to their family income on an annual basis. What is it that so angers the Republicans that they want to constantly attack average working people in this country? As mentioned before. they wanted to provide them comp time. As mentioned before. they will not raise the minimum wage to help them. Now they want to strip them of their overtime. Do they not understand that when somebody calls and says at the end of the day that someone has to work another 2 hours. 3 hours. or 4 hours that that individual has to scramble for child care. that they have to scramble for transportation. they have to find somebody to stay with the children at home? Do they not understand what those costs mean to families? Can they not identify with these families? Apparently. they cannot because they continue this assault on working families In this country. They continue this assault. Now. administratively. they want to decide that engineers and draftsmen. and engineering technicians without college degrees in the automotive and aerospace industry. because they did not have a 4year degree but now have work experience. they will not be eligible for overtime. Health care employees without a 4year degree. licensed practical nurses. dental hygienists. ultrasound technicians. physical therapists. respiratory therapists. laboratory technicians will no longer be allowed to have overtime. Cooks and chefs. if they got educated in tme Army on how to be a cook. on how to be a chef. they will not be eligible for overtime because they got educated in the Army. What is it this administration does not understand? What is it they do not understand when we have EMT teams. emergency medical technicians. one of whom supervises the other two in an ambulance for that night. that that person is not eligible for overtime but the other two are? How can that be just. how can that be failr if they have to work 50 hours or 60 hours a week? Why is it one of the people In the vehicle gets overtime and the other does not. simply because they may take command of that vehicle for that particular night? That is the unfairness of these regulations. These regulations. as was said the other day in the newspaper by the bigemployer consulting firms across this country. all of these changes are for the benefit of the employer. All of these changes enable the employer to take away overtime pay. It does not take away overtime. Workers still have to work the 50 hours. they still have to work the 60 hours. they still have to work that Saturday. they still have to work that Sunday. They just do not get paid for the extra time. the premium pay for the inconvenience to the worker. This is incredibly unfair. incredibly insensitive to how families are struggling in this Bush economy to not only hold on to their job. but now they find out if they go and get additional education to improve their skills. they may lose their overtime. If they simply try to improve their worth to their employer. to improve their employability. they find out under these regulations they will not have overtime. If an employer asks you. what do you think about Joe and they say I think Joe should be fired. and Joe Is fired. that employer will say that they gave particular weight to your comments and you are ineligible for overtime. What tile hell is going on here? These are people who go to work every day on behalf of Americas economy. on behalf of our society. They come home tired. They want to see their children. They need the overtime pay. and the Bush administration and the Republicans in this Congress are insisting that they take It away from them.