U.S. Senators Katie Britt, Mike Lee, Introduce Repeal of Inflated Government Spending Models

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-Ala.) joined Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) and several of their colleagues in introducing legislation to repeal the outdated Davis-Bacon Act to curb inflated government spending on construction projects.

"The Davis-Bacon Act is a nearly century-old, outdated law," said Senator Britt. "It drives up federal costs, hurts American workers, and unfairly advantages organized labor. Repealing this antiquated law would provide relief for taxpayers and improve government efficiency by instituting more accurate prevailing wage calculations on federal construction projects."

The Davis-Bacon Act is a 95-year-old wage subsidy law requiring all federally funded construction projects worth over $2,000 pay workers the "prevailing wage" rate from private construction projects in the same locality. In practice, the application of this law uses inaccurate wage estimates and flawed calculation mechanisms, inflating costs so much that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) revealed a repeal would save $17.8 billion over the next decade.

Rather than using average local pay rates for its estimations, the Department of Labor (DOL) adopted a rule under the Biden administration that if 30% of a local workforce is paid a particular rate, this is used as the prevailing wage. This method distorts the prevailing wage away from actual averages, elevates union influence over the calculations, and punishes urban workers.

"When big government offers to help, it usually creates more problems than it fixes. The Davis-Bacon Act is no exception," said Senator Lee. "It is an antiquated piece of legislation that hurts middle class workers and every American taxpayer. Repealing this single bill would save tens of billions of tax dollars. It is high-time that Congress passes the Davis-Bacon Repeal Act."

Furthermore, despite having access to accurate prevailing wage rates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Department of Labor has instead tasked an enforcement department with estimating prevailing wages - which reportedly made 832 errors across 49 contractors in an investigation by the DOL Inspector General. The repeal of the Davis-Bacon Act would eliminate this outdated, inefficient payment model to bring government spending down from its artificially inflated height. You can read the full text of the bill here.

Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Rick Scott (R-Fla), Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), and Ted Budd (R-N.C.) also cosponsor this legislation.

The legislation is endorsed by the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council, the Associated Builders and Contractors, and the National Federation of Independent Businesses.

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