U.S. Senate Votes to Block Parts of Bush's Overtime Pay Rules

May 4 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Senate today rebuffed the Bush administration's attempt to change overtime-pay standards, voting to block any regulations that would limit extra pay for the nation's workers.

Senators voted 52-47 to bar regulations that limit overtime. Minutes earlier, they voted 99-0 for a provision that guarantees overtime for workers in about 55 professions, including computer programmers, teachers and journalists. Both provisions are attached to a tax bill that is still being debated and must pass.

The votes marks the second time in a year senators moved to stop the Labor Department from issuing rules that take away overtime. Republican leaders stripped that provision at the behest of the White House. Democrats including Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy have been arguing that millions of workers are at risk of losing extra wages under the overhauled rules.

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aOMbKnGA8t4c&refer=home

I guess Republicans Senators actually vote for their constituents during election years.

:hi:

Why should they have a right to prevent workers from earning overtime, in the first place?

:P

THANK GOODNESS, AND THE DEMS WHO STOOD UP TO SHRUBBERY!

I guess he's worried about his re-election in November. I hope Hoeffel would have really hit him with this. Of course, Santorum voted against the Harkin Amendment. Lisa Murkowski and Nighthorse Campbell also voted with the Dems.

I almost puked at the beginning of the Senate Session today. The first up for Morning Business was Liddy Dole. She paid a tribute to Elaine Chao for her excellent work in reforming the overtime regulations. :puke:

"The votes marks the second time in a year senators moved to stop the Labor Department from issuing rules that take away overtime. Republican leaders stripped that provision at the behest of the White House. Democrats including Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy have been arguing that millions of workers are at risk of losing extra wages under the overhauled rules."

"In this troubled economy, it makes no sense to ask any workers in America to give up their overtime protections,'' Kennedy said. ``This was a blatant and flagrant effort by the administration to increase the bottom line of corporate America."

The Gregg Amendment, which all the Repukes voted for, only guaranteed overtime for 55 categories of employees, leaving out four hundred-and-some categories. I'm so happy that the Harkin Amendment passed.

Chao is a blockhead, she doesn't seem to understand either her old or new regulations and how screwed up they both are. In the hearing she gave the same wrong answer over and over when asked about union employees who's contract does not specifically negotiate overtime, even though the question was rephrased 3 times and seemed perfectly clear to her assistant and everyone else in the room.

I hope the senators actually fix it and strip out the 75% of those rules that seem to be exceptions for specific groups. If the regulations need to mention any job specifically then the reg is worded too fuzzy. Why should it distinguish union employees from non-union or treat professional mechanics different from professional bookkeepers?