Free Republic

White House Wins Fight on OT Rule Changes WASHINGTON - Foes of the Bush administration's proposed rules changing which workers would qualify for overtime pay abandoned their fight Friday in the face of unrelenting pressure from the White House and the House. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the chief Republican opponent of the new rules, agreed to drop a provision killing the regulations from a massive spending bill, lawmakers, congressional aides and lobbyists said. Critics of the new rules said they could lead to 8 million Americans losing eligibility for overtime pay, largely white-collar workers earning more than $65,000 a...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration won a Capitol Hill battle on Friday over proposed changes to U.S. overtime work rules that are supported by business and opposed by labor, congressional aides said. They said Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, had lifted his objections to the proposal, clearing the way for passage of a huge year-end spending bill without a provision that would have blocked the new regulations. Specter made the about-face a day after he floated a possible compromise that was shot down, and just hours after he told a news conference he was still seeking a deal....

Specter sees compromise near on overtime rules Reuters, 11.20.03, 4:31 PM ET By Thomas Ferraro WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A key Republican senator voiced hope Thursday that a compromise would soon be reached on an embattled proposal by the Bush administration to redefine who in the American work force has the right to overtime pay. "I think we are on the verge of getting it done," said Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who has declined to publicly disclose his possible deal, in a statement. The U.S. Labor Department, which drafted the proposed work rules, had no immediate response. Backers contend the...

Arlen Specter may not be working overtime this time next year. In 2004, Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania's liberal Republican Senator, may find himself without a job. Pat Toomey, currently serving in the House, may run for the Senate next November, challenging Specter in the Republican primary. This is an important development, because the loss of the notoriously "bipartisan" Specter would visibly shore up the Republican majority in the Senate. However, Specter doesn't seem to realize what a nasty position he is in. Right now, Specter is encouraging a popular wartime President from his own party to withhold support for him in...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Organized labor scored a rare victory in the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday when lawmakers opposed a Bush administration proposal that foes say could cost millions of Americans overtime pay. On a nonbinding vote of 221-203, the House backed a U.S. Senate-passed provision to block the proposed expansion of overtime exemptions for white-collar workers under the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act. The vote instructs House negotiators to put the provision in the final version of a massive spending bill for health, labor and education programs that they are putting together with Senate conferees. But House...

Click the titles below to navigate this web site... IntroductionHome Page & Breaking News Join Our E-Mail List+ UnSubscribe Please Complete Our QuestionnaireHelp build Take Back Your Time Day in your community Engage Public OfficialsWe Need Your Help! - NEW! The Time Day Handbook+ PDF Flyer+ Order The HandbookHandbook Excerpts + Organizing TBYTD+ Teach-In's & Study Circles+ How To Pitch A StoryTime Day T-Shirts+ Adult Medium + Adult Large+ Adult Extra LargeTeach Ins - NEW! 50+ Things You Can DoPublicity MaterialsPosters You Can Print - NEW! Current NewsletterSeptember 2003Newsletter Archives+ Jul 2003 Newsletter+ May 2003 Newsletter + Mar 2003...

A new study released by the Employment Policy Foundation (EPF) found that proposed changes to the Part 541 regulations governing overtime would expand overtime protections to an estimated 3.4 millions workers. The analysis found that no one who currently has a right to overtime under the current regulations will lose that right under the proposed rule.

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. WASHINGTON – Some congressional Republicans skittish about the political fallout from an economy hemorrhaging jobs turned back administration proposals to rein in overtime pay, shift government work to the private sector and allow pension changes that cut benefits for older employees. The defections in the GOP-controlled Congress gave organized labor rare victories last week on pocketbook issues. "Given the state of the economy, people are very anxious about these issues, and some they consider very basic, like overtime pay," said Bill Samuel, the AFL-CIO's legislative director. "I think Republicans are sensing...

U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 108th Congress - 1st Session as compiled through Senate LIS by the Senate Bill Clerk under the direction of the Secretary of the SenateVote Summary Question: On the Amendment (Harkin Amdt. No. 1580 ) Vote Number: 334 Vote Date: September 10, 2003, 09:46 AM Required For Majority: 1/2 Vote Result: Amendment Agreed to Amendment Number: S.Amdt. 1580 to S.Amdt. 1542 to H.R. 2660 (Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2004 ) Statement of Purpose: To protect the rights of employees to receive overtime compensation. Vote Counts:...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate voted Wednesday to bar the Bush administration from issuing new overtime pay rules that Democrats and organized labor said would take money from the pockets of millions of workers. The vote was 54-45, and left the fate of the controversial new regulations uncertain. The House blessed the administration's proposed rule earlier this year, and congressional negotiators will have to untangle the disagreement.

(CNSNews.com) - As millions of Americans reflect on their careers during Labor Day, a debate is brewing in the Senate about proposed changes to labor regulations that could affect their paychecks and likely will have a profound impact on the 2004 presidential election. In what some analysts see as an unlikely role reversal, Republicans are calling for an overhaul of the outdated Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) that would force employers to pay time-and-a-half overtime to at least 1.3 million American workers who earn less than $22,100 a year. Democratic opponents, on the other hand, say the proposed changes could...

What's At Stake! Protect Overtime Pay: Tell your senators to block the Bush overtime take away. Overtime pay cuts being pushed by the Bush administration are slated to go into effect for millions of workers as soon as September of this year. These changes would erode the 40-hour workweek and mean that if you receive overtime pay now, you might not in the future. New analysis shows millions could lose overtime pay, possibly including firefighters, police officers, nurses, retail clerks, certain medical technicians, military reservists, tech workers and many, many more. Under the Bush plan, you still may be forced...

By Chris Andrews Lansing State Journal The Bush administration's plan to rewrite federal overtime rules is triggering fierce debate about who should be eligible for time-and-a-half. The changes would make about 1.3 million low-income managers eligible for overtime, but the war is over those who stand to lose it. White-collar workers earning more than $65,000 are most obviously affected - with most losing overtime eligibility - but there is disagreement about the impact on a variety of others, including nurses, police detectives, fire sergeants, chefs and dental hygienists. U.S. Department of Labor officials say the changes won't affect nurses, but...

New York Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton Friday praised the efforts of a fledgling liberal lawyers' group to counter the influence of the decades-old free market Federalist Society. During a luncheon address to the "American Constitution Society for Law and Policy," Clinton seized another opportunity to blast the "vast right-wing conspiracy," saying she only regretted implying it was a secretive effort. "It has been clear for a number of years that there really is a vast right-wing conspiracy," said Clinton. "My only regret was using the word 'conspiracy,' because there is absolutely nothing secret about it. "It is a network with...

<p>WASHINGTON — The House voted Thursday to let the Bush administration (search) 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.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON -- House Republicans, joined by three Democrats, narrowly killed a union-backed drive to block proposed Labor Department rules making it tougher for many white-collar workers to qualify for overtime pay.</p> <p>The 213-210 vote was an important victory for Republican business allies who were stung last month when unions forced the leadership to pull back from related "flextime" legislation that many employers sought.</p>

<p>Say you're a cook, or a nurse, or the assistant manager of a store. You've worked more than 40 hours this week, so you're entitled to overtime pay, right?</p> <p>It's hardly that simple, and the Bush administration's proposed new rules on overtime pay raise all kinds of uncertainty about just who should be entitled to extra wages for extra work.</p>

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration wants to change the federal rules that determine which of 138 million American workers get overtime pay. There's little disagreement that the rules, written for the most part in the 1940s, are out of date. The Labor Department's proposed revisions, however, have drawn more than 70,000 public comments from employers, unions and others who disagree sharply as to which rules need to be changed and how. Labor Department officials, led by Wage and Hour Administrator Tammy McCutchen, who did the drafting, say the revisions are an administrative matter and don't require a public hearing. Pro-labor...

<p>WASHINGTON — High-income white-collar workers of America are uniting to oppose any loss in wages that may result from changes coming to the Labor Department's rules on overtime worker earnings.</p> <p>The changes, expected to take place in December, foresee increasing overtime eligibility for low-income service sector workers — those who make between $8,000 and $22,000 per year — while reducing eligibility for high-income workers.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON -- More than 8 million professionals would lose their overtime pay under a Bush administration proposal to change the types of jobs that must receive more money for extra work, says a study by a union-supported think tank.</p> <p>The analysis being released today by the Economic Policy Institute is among the first to assess how many workers might be affected by the Labor Department's revisions to the overtime rules, which were proposed in March.</p>