In 1979, following decades of increasingly vigorous argument about the Davis-Bacon Act, the Carter Administration agreed to review and, ultimately, to revise the federal regulations governing administration of the statute. This set in motion a quarter-century of administrative rulemaking, litigation, legislative oversight and proposed amendment of the act. The process continued through the Reagan and Bush Administrations to the close of the Clinton Administration—and beyond. To a large degree the core issues from the 1970s and 1980s, associated with the Davis-Bacon Act, remain controversial. Among these is the question of the employment of helpers on Davis-Bacon covered federal and federally-assisted contract construction work. For example, how is the concept of helper to be defined for Davis-Bacon purposes? What distinguishes a helper from other construction workers? On Davis-Bacon work, should they be integrated into the regular construction crew? Should helpers receive training to enhance their skills and, if so, how should such training be structured? How should their wage rates compare with those of other project workers? These questions quickly became a source of contention. Through more than 2 decades, employment of helpers (as a separate category of worker on projects covered by the Davis-Bacon Act) remained a matter of dispute. Then, in April 1999, the Department of Labor published a proposed rule on the use of helpers that would, essentially, revert to the 1970s practice of the Department so far as the use of helpers was concerned. A comment period on the proposal closed on June 8, 1999. Meanwhile, legislation was introduced that would have provided a statutory definition of helper —but no legislative action was taken. Under date of November 17, 2000, the Department issued a final rule on the helper issue—to take effect on January 19, 2001, during the closing hours of the Clinton Administration. In effect, the final rule reaffirmed Departmental practice of the 1970s: the issue had come full circle. Although the new rule (and confirmation of ongoing practice) is now in place, some appear to be unhappy with the outcome. Thus, the issue may not yet be entirely resolved. Speaking broadly of the construction industry, a helper might be viewed as a general utility employee who assists a more skilled or specialized construction worker. Normally, the helper would be unskilled—though, in fact, he (or she) could have a wide range of skills but, not having gone through a formal training program, would not be recognized as skilled. A helper could also be a craftsman, a journeyman, down on his luck, and forced by economic necessity to accept general utility work below his level of training. Normally, the helper is unlikely to be a trade union member (or, if a member, not employed under a collectively bargained contract). He may usually be paid a wage lower than that of a skilled worker; though, for particular types of work, he may perform equally as well as a skilled craftsman. Because he is cheaper to employ and more flexible in the types of work he may be willing to accept (working outside of craft), he can be a useful addition to a work crew. Where a manager carefully supervises the work to be done, the less expensive helper can be assigned to perform narrow aspects of an otherwise complex task. (This process has been referred to as craft fragmentation.) At the worksite, one might expect to find, in the absence of workrules that would preclude it, a battery of helpers working under the guidance of a more highly paid journeyman. Whether such an arrangement is economical, in terms of productivity and quality of workmanship, is a subject of intense and on-going debate. An apprentice or a trainee (enrolled in a formal program) could be expected to rotate throughout the worksite, receiving on-the-job training and, in the case of the former, outside instruction as well. In contrast, the helper would normally receive the narrowest possible training, no more extensive than is absolutely required for the task at hand. And, in large measure, the helper is regarded as a temporary worker rather than a permanent member of his employer's crew. As the Davis-Bacon Act has been implemented by the Secretary of Labor, the Department has recognized apprentices and trainees in formal programs as a classification of workers for wage rate purposes. It has not, generally, recognized the category of helper, however, on the assumption that to do so would undercut the locally prevailing wage structure and skills system that the Davis-Bacon Act was designed to protect. The Davis-Bacon Act (1931, as amended) requires that the "advertised specifications" for construction contracts in excess of $2,000 to which the government of the United States or of the District of Columbia is a party: ... shall contain a provision stating the minimum wages to be paid various classes of laborers and mechanics which shall be based upon the wages that will be determined by the Secretary of Labor to be prevailing for the corresponding classes of laborers and mechanics employed on projects of a character similar to the contract work in the city, town, village, or other civil subdivision of the State in which the work is to be performed.... (Emphasis added.) Congress left to the Secretary the task of working out the precise manner in which the act should be applied. It also left up to the Secretary the responsibility for defining such concepts as "wages" and "prevailing" and "project of a character similar" and the scope of the locality in which the work was to be performed. Each of these concepts has been, intermittently, a focus of contention (and, often, of litigation), of rulemaking and of congressional debate through more than 60 years. Similarly contentious has been the concept of the term helper . And, further, whether the use of helpers has been a common practice in the area in which federal construction work was to take place. As with other aspects of the act, Congress had legislated in broad strokes. The original Act referred to "classes of laborers and mechanics" employed on public construction projects and to "the corresponding classes of laborers and mechanics" employed on comparable work in the non-federal sector. It made no reference to "helpers" nor, for that matter, to "trainees," "apprentices," or other skill groups. Further definition, if such were required, was left to the Secretary of Labor. Although the act has been amended through the years, it still refers only to "various classes of laborers and mechanics"—the phrase being repeated with slight modification throughout the statute. Through the years, the Secretary developed such definitions as seemed appropriate and necessary. The evolving regulations focused upon apprentices and trainees registered in formal training programs: for example, those under the supervision of the Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training within the DOL. The term "helper" did appear in the regulations but seems to have been used casually, without precise definition, and with no hint as to how it might be applied in wage rate determinations or at the worksite. This situation prevailed up through the late 1970s. Business economist Armand Thieblot, writing in 1975, observed that the Davis-Bacon regulations were "filled with words of art which must, in turn, be defined." By way of example, he pointed to the phrase, "classifications of laborers and mechanics," and added: Open-shop firms bidding on covered construction in predominantly union areas might find that some of their own classifications—notably helpers—would not be considered prevailing classifications as such; therefore, no prevailing wages would be determined for them. ... Under such circumstances, the helpers would have to be reclassified as journeymen or laborers (journeymen, if they use the tools of the trade). Thieblot noted that "many firms are using, or would like to use, semi-skilled labor for uncomplicated aspects of some tasks." But unless such workers were enrolled in a formal DOL-approved apprenticeship program, "they must be considered, for pay purposes, journeymen of the trade in which they are apprentices." Helpers, he explained, "will be recognized for Davis-Bacon rate purposes only in those geographic areas where the practice of employing them is prevalent enough that their classification becomes a prevailing one. This recognition," he adds, "will only apply in areas where open shop firms predominate, because unions rarely recognize the helper category." Recalling the origins of Davis-Bacon, trade unionists view DOL's restrictions upon employment of apprentices, trainees or helpers at sub-craft rates as central to congressional intent and preservation of labor standards in the building trades. "Otherwise," they note, "contractors seeking to undercut the prevailing wage would merely designate the workers by one of these titles and claim that, since they are not fully skilled, they are not entitled to the prevailing rate." Further, they say: "By working his employees out of classification, he [the employer] can undercut the prevailing wage rates that he committed himself to pay when he bid on the [Davis-Bacon covered] project." Apprentices and trainees recognized as such by DOL cause few problems in the view of the Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD), AFL-CIO. It is the informal and often imprecise titles of "helper" and "trainee," the BCTD notes, that have provoked conflict. There "is no evidence that most of these trainees and helpers are anything but temporary employees who are released when their work on the project is completed." DOL's restriction on the use of helpers "strikes at one of the wage-cutting devices by which non-union contractors can achieve the advantage they need to be able more frequently to underbid union contractors on federally funded work."