THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 17, 1995 TAG: 9506170352
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short : 43 lines
The Senate put off debate Friday on a dispute over federal wage rules for construction workers, clearing a political tangle that had threatened to hold up billions of dollars for 160,000 miles of road.
The money, $6.5 billion a year for work on roads to be designated the National Highway System, is on hand and no senator wants to deny his state the dollars. But Democrats had balked at a proposal to end a requirement that contractors working on federally financed road jobs pay prevailing wages in the area where the work is being done.
Sen. John Warner, R-Va., announced that the provision would be dropped from the bill after Democrats spent much of the day attacking it. A separate labor bill will deal with the issue later, he said.
Aides to Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., characterized the move as a victory for their side - an indication that Republicans would have been unable to gain the 60 votes needed to cut off debate on the issue Monday.
Now the Senate will take up the overall highway bill after the weekend, though some other controversies are ahead, including eliminating the national speed limit and ending requirements for the use of seat belts and motorcycle helmets.
Kennedy had called the effort to end the prevailing-wage rules, part of the Depression-era Davis-Bacon Act, an ``attempt to deny American families income to put bread on the table.''
Warner said the prevailing-wage requirement would raise the cost of highway construction by $1.3 billion over the next five years, money that he said could be better used on actual road-building. ILLUSTRATION: Sen. John Warner, R-Va.
by CNB