Date: 2004-05-19
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. for all of the reasons mentioned by the gentleman from Massachusetts and the gentleman from South Carolina . not only does this budget resolution graphically demonstrate the incompetency of the Republicans to deal with the budget of this country and the budget resolution in this House. but it does something much more sinister than that. Buried in this resolution is the prohibition against any votes to be taken in the House of Representatives against the provisions offered by the administration. the rules that they put forth to deny millions of working people in this country the right to overtime. When these rules go into effect. if we cannot vote against them as the Senate has voted against them. when these rules go into effect. millions of Americans will be required to work overtime in the future. they just will not get overtime pay. That means for millions of Americas families. families. that use overtime that is so important to them to qualify for the mortgages on their house. to qualify to -buy an automobile. to put their kids through school. they are not going to have that in their paycheck in the future because they are going to be excluded from being eligible for overtime. Now the Senate addressed this rule. and they voted against it. They voted to change it. We fought hard against the original rule because the original rule would have excluded maybe 11 million Americans from the right to have overtime pay when they work overtime. Americans understand why they get overtime pay. because when their employer comes and says they have to work late on Thursday night or Friday night. that means they have to rearrange their child care. that means they have to rearrange their ability to spend time with their family. that may mean they have to rearrange their doctors appointments. and you have to change your life around for the convenience of the employer. So you get overtime pay. Now when the employer comes to the worker and says he or she has to work overtime. there will be no overtime pay. That is why this House and the Senate defeated those rules on a bipartisan basis. and the administration now has come up with a new rule. And we find out that even the new rule excludes millions of hardworking Americans from overtime pay. people struggling to hold onto a middleclass lifestyle and standard of living for their families. That is about to evaporate. That is about to evaporate because this House will not allow us. the Republican leadership will not allow us to have an upordown vote. We are fighting so hard for democracy in Iraq. but we cannot have an upordown vote in the House of Representatives. We cannot have an upordown vote. We cannot have an upordown vote because the majority. on a bipartisan basis. will vote to overturn these rules. By a vote of 990. the Senate voted to change these rules and exclude from the impact of these rules. to try to save these middleclass families. computer programmers. licensed practical nurses. nurse midwives. oil and gas pipeline workers. oil and gas field workers. oil platform workers. refinery workers. Get the message here? Millions of hardworking Americans. the Senate voted 990 to exclude steelworkers. shipyard workers. teachers. technicians. journalists. chefs. cooks. police officers. firefighters. fire sergeants. police sergeants. emergency medical technicians. 99 to nothing the Senate voted. that means bipartisan. That means all of the Republicans and all of the.Democrats voted to protect these workers and their families. In the House of Representatives. the Republicans will not let Members have a vote on this. We tried twice in the last week to have a vote. and they voted on a partisan straight party line to subject these workers to these rules that will cut their pay this year. When workers are faced with" outsourcing. plant closings. no wage growth. higher health care premiums. now the Republicans have decided to cut their overtime pay. Not only do they show no concern for people who are unemployed. but if you have a job. the Republicans initiative is to cut your pay. But what are they going to do. they are going to continue the coverup because buried in this rule they have denied the ability of this House to vote on this rule.. Again. the Senate. 990. voted to protect construction employees. production line employees. carpenters. mechanics. plumbers. ironworkers. craftsmen. anybody earning an hourly wage because the rule does not protect hourly wage earners. It helps painters. cement masons. stationary engineers. longshoremen. utility workers. welders. Does this souncl like Members constituency? Does this sound like the people who work in our congressional districts every day? Yes. it does. Mr. Speaker. these are the people who built America. they built the middle class. and now the Republicans are taking away their overtime. But Members will not get to have a vote on that because the Republicans are afraid of the vote. They are afraid of democracy. They are afraid of the peoples House working its will so they have shut down the debate and shut down the ability to have a vote. The Senate had a vote. and they even voted on a bipartisan basis to exclude anybody who has overtime today.