FreedomWorks Key Vote YES on the King Amendment to Stop Davis-Bacon Wage Requirements for Transportation Projects

On behalf of our over 6.9 million activists nationwide, I urge you to call your representative and ask him or her to vote YES on the King/Duncan/Foxx/Amash/Franks Amendment #1 to the DRIVE Act, H.R. 22. This Amendment would save taxpayers a great deal of money on the projects funded by the highway bill by preventing the Davis-Bacon Act’s onerous wage requirements from applying to those projects.

The Davis-Bacon Act is a 1931 law that was designed to crowd out non-union competitors for federal contracts. It accomplishes this by requiring federal projects pay workers according to the “prevailing wage”, which unions have an undue impact in setting in many areas. Since this means that the unions and their inflated wages cannot be underbid, these projects end up costing far more than should be necessary, harming both the taxpayers and the non-union companies who may not be able to afford to compete because of this federal restriction.

The shortfalls in funding for the Highway Trust Fund, make the cost-saving reforms like this amendment even more essential.

For these reasons, FreedomWorks supports the King amendment to rein in Davis-Bacon with regard to federal highway funding, and will include it as a Key Vote when calculating our Congressional Scorecard for 2015. Our scorecard is used to determine eligibility for the FreedomFighter Award, which recognizes Members of Congress who consistently vote to support economic freedom and individual liberty.

Sincerely,

Adam Brandon

President & CEO, FreedomWorks