Overtime Bill Has Been Defeated!!!!

[Milehighnurse]

WASHINGTON (Sept. 10) - The Senate voted Wednesday to halt the administration's effort to rewrite decades-old rules on overtime pay, risking a veto showdown with President Bush and heeding labor's claims that the changes would harm millions of workers at a time of economic uncertainty.

The 54-45 vote marked a rare defeat for business interests in the GOP-controlled Congress and left the fate of the emerging Labor Department regulations unclear. The House backed the new rules this summer, and congressional negotiators will have to resolve the issue.

``The Bush administration proposal is not only anti-worker and anti-family, it is bad economic policy,'' said Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, who led the assault on the regulations. ``It will take money out of the pockets of hardworking Americans and will not create one new job.''

Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, in a statement, defended the effort as a bid to ``strengthen overtime protections for workers'' by extending overtime eligibility to 1.3 million low earners who now lack it. ``The regulatory process should move forward to benefit workers,'' she said.

Democratic opponents said their plan would not interfere with parts of the rules extending overtime protection. They took aim at sections that would strip other workers of eligibility they have long enjoyed. The precise number was a matter of dispute - an estimated 800,000 by administration allies, and as high as 8 million by Harkin's estimate.

The regulations became the focus of heavy lobbying in which the AFL-CIO joined the battle against business organizations. In turn, that made the showdown a command performance of sorts for the Senate's four Democratic presidential contenders, all of whom broke off campaigning to vote.

Six Republicans split with the administration on the vote, including three - Sens. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska - who are on the ballot in 2004.

The vote came as the Senate labored to complete work on a $137.6 billion spending bill for health, education and labor programs for the fiscal year beginning on Oct. 1.

While the administration has a generally favorable view of the measure, it issued a statement saying the president's top advisers would recommend a veto if the overtime rules were blocked in the bill that reaches Bush's desk.

Democrats succeeded on one other attempt during the day to change the bill. The Senate voted 51-44 to reverse Education Department rules that would cut off Pell Grant eligibility for some lower-income students and reduce it for others.

In a time-tested congressional ritual used by both parties, Democrats spent much of the day advocating funding increases for a variety of politically popular programs, eager to put Republicans senators on record in opposition.

Thus, an effort to add $300 million in low-income heating assistance fell on a vote of 49-46, 11 short of the 60 needed. As drafted, the measure includes $2 billion for the program.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney hailed the overtime vote, saying that current protections ``help ensure that workers will mot be forced to work excessive hours, and that they will receive fair pay.

''

The head of the National Retail Federation, Tracy Mullin, said that the existing regulations ``are vague, confusing and totally outdated. It is extremely difficult for an employer to determine whether a worker should receiver overtime and the result has been an explosion of litigation from disputed decisions.''

Republican aides, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said that business concern over lawsuits from overtime disputes were a factor in the push for new regulations.

Congress has not been kind to organized labor in recent years. Legislation in 2001 junked Clinton-era standards designed to curtail repetitive stress injuries in the workplace and labor objected to the worker protection provisions in last year's bill creating the Homeland Security Department.

Federal law generally grants workers overtime pay equal to the rate of time-and-a-half for labor in excess of 40 hours a week. The proposed regulations rewrite technical provisions, some dating to 1949, to define which ``white collar'' workers would be exempted.

One, for example, says that ``creative professional employees'' who perform work ``requiring invention, imagination, originality or talent in a recognized field of artistic or creative endeavor'' will be exempt from overtime. The current standard requires them to ``consistently exercise discretion and judgment'' to be denied overtime coverage.

Workers who devote more than one-fifth of their time to activities unrelated to their main job are eligible for overtime coverage under current regulations, a provision that would be dropped.

The proposed rules would not apply to workers covered by union contracts. But labor officials said the proposed changes could prompt businesses to attempt to weaken overtime protections in future contract negotiations.

The proposed rules would make overtime available to an estimated 1.3 million low-income Americans now denied it, by raising the annual pay below which overtime must be paid to $22,100. That figure is currently $8,060, where it was set in 1975.

[Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN]

Thank God for the democrats!

[lee1]

Just WHAT WAS the incentive for BUSH to do something so stupid and I consider myself Republican??

[SnowieRN]

Im just glad that Bush is about to be replaced.. I really think hes getting dumber with everything he does. No overtime?

Canada lookin better and better

[Banginplates]

I am extremely happy the bill was not passed. All I could think of was about the patients. What kind of care would they receive from nurses who were being treated worst than how they are now. Less money, more work. I don't know about anyone else,but with the current shortage of nurses why would Bush do such a dumb thing??? Not saying that nurses wouldn't care for their patients, but I am saying who would want to be a slave for a little bit of money? We all enter nursing for one reason or another,but we all need to live. You can't live without money. That darn Bush!!!! I hope he isn't reelected.

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

YEEEESSSSS!! (pumps fist in triumph as she leaps into the air) :balloons:

[Want2bRN]

Thank you GOD for all that is being done to stop it..... ladiessssssssssss wish it stay that way they not try this again......

[RN~in~CT]

yessssssss!! :biggringi

....and i am a republican.

[ktwlpn, LPN]

:roll to borrow a quote ( I would give credit by I can't remember where I read it) Bush----------Out the door in 2004!

[pickledpepperRN]

Sept. 10, 2003

Working families win! President Bush's overtime pay

cuts suffered a major setback today when the U.S. Senate

voted to block the overtime pay takeaway. We won this

first step because the Senate Democrats and a handful

of Republicans stood up to President Bush. They acted

because they heard your voice. Your activism made a

big difference--people like you sent hundreds of thousands

of letters, faxes and e-mails and made tens of thousands

of phone calls over the past few months. This victory

is ONLY ONE STEP forward. More action is needed now.

You can act now or keep reading to learn more.

Now, the fight to block President Bush's overtime pay

cuts turns to the U.S. House of Representatives. Representatives

will be asked to vote on a similar measure--preventing

the Bush administration from taking away workers' hard-earned

overtime pay protections. Please take one minute right

now to send a fax to your representative, Representative

Jane Harman, from

the AFL-CIO website.

After you send your fax please click on the link below

to spread the word to your friends, family and co-workers.

Also, these links may be of interest.

Overtime Pay News from the AFL-CIO

U.S. Senate Vote Tally by State from Sept. 10

Thanks for all you do.

[asil]

PsykoRn- thanks for the update. All I can say is thank God!!!

By the way I am a republican.

[casper1]

Hooray for the Democrats, they really care about the working man in this country. Incidently I sent several E-mails to my Senator Hillary Clinton regarding this issue. I received prompt

informative replys. I also sent several E-mails to George Bush

and recieved not even an ackknowledgement that my e-mail was recieved.