Revised overtime rules narrowly clear House

WASHINGTON – The House voted Thursday to let the Bush administration move ahead with proposed rules that could stop at least 644,000 white-collar workers from receiving overtime pay, heeding a White House veto threat and taking the side of business in its battle against unions.

Lawmakers voted 213-210 to reject a Democratic provision that would have derailed the regulations. Unless Congress prevents it, the proposed rules could take effect later this year.

Reps. Mike Michaud and Tom Allen of Maine voted for the unsuccessful Democratic provision.

Senate Democrats had been planning a similar effort to block the regulations. But with the outcome in the House vote, a Senate attempt would seem to be little more than a political statement.

The House vote was a victory for President Bush and Congress’ Republican leaders. With the ranks of jobless Americans growing, Democrats are hoping to use Bush’s stewardship of the still-weak economy in next year’s presidential and congressional elections by arguing that the GOP has inadequately protected workers.

“Today’s action is a victory for workers and employers alike,” Labor Secretary Elaine Chao said in a statement, thanking supporters for a “very courageous and principled vote.”

The proposed rules would require overtime – pay equal to one-and-a-half times the hourly rate – for as many as 1.3 million additional low-income workers when they work more than 40 hours per week, the department said. Democrats did not oppose that expansion of the number of workers who would get the extra money.

But the department estimates at least 644,000 white-collar workers now required to get overtime would lose it as a result of new definitions of jobs that would be exempt from the extra pay. Unions say that figure would actually exceed 8 million.

The Democratic provision would have blocked any Labor Department regulations that would deprive workers of overtime pay they already receive. They offered it as an amendment to a bill providing $138 billion for labor, education and health programs next year.

“Overtime is not a luxury; it is a necessity for millions of American families,” said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., one of the amendment’s sponsors.

Republicans said the new Labor Department rules would clarify confusing regulations and reduce the growing number of lawsuits by workers seeking overtime. “The only winners under this amendment are the trial lawyers,” said Rep. Charles Norwood, R-Ga.

In a statement, the White House said the proposal would help 1.3 million low-wage workers by changing “outdated overtime laws” and threatened a Bush veto of the spending bill if the House voted to block the rules. Chao was among administration officials calling lawmakers in search of votes. “I listened to her as a courtesy, but my mind was made up,” said Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., a moderate who said he would vote to block the regulations.