FAA Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2011

Floor Speech

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Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Chairman, it is just absolutely astonishing to me that my colleagues on the other side of this issue could stand up on the floor of this House and talk about jobs when the Davis-Bacon wages that they want to perpetuate, even though they've existed for lo these many years, take away so many jobs. I don't know the exact statistics; but Mr. Chairman, when you look at a jobs situation without Davis-Bacon rules, you're able to probably employ 1 1/2 to 2 times as many people with good-paying, decent-paying jobs than jobs that pay them for their skill levels and what they're doing in the workplace, in not being forced to pay these much higher wages despite the job that it happens to be involved in.

I think we ought to be paying for whatever the skill labor is for that particular job, and if we didn't have these rules and regulations like Davis-Bacon, there would be a heck of a lot more jobs in this country. We can't afford to leave 16 million people on the sidewalk.

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Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Mr. Chairman, I thank the chairman of T&I for yielding to me.

The language in the bill gets it exactly right, and I rise in strong opposition to this striking amendment. The National Mediation Board, three political appointees in a 2-1 decision a year ago, undid 75 years of law, Railway Labor Act, that simply says that to certify a union, 50 percent plus one of the group has to vote in favor of it.

And as the chairman said, the decertification part is a much higher bar. So it has to be a majority plus one to decertify. That is totally wrong. The bill has it right. Vote against this striking amendment, and vote for fairness and for the American people.

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