WH/Davis Bacon
Josh Marshall has a one-sentence tease on his blog: "White House to fold on Davis-Bacon?"
Yes. On 11/8.
According to several sources, including an administration official, a group of GOP lawmakers has conveyed to the White House their concern about the ongoing suspension of Davis-Bacon "prevailing wage" rules in the gulf coast region.
Those lawmakers hinted to the White House that they would sign on to Democratic efforts to overturn the suspension unless the White House agreed to reinstate the rule by the end of the year. Lawmakers met this morning at the White House with Chief of Staff Andrew Card. Today, the White House capitulated.
Many of the lawmakers have ties to labor; others say that there's no evidence that the suspension has helped to lower costs.
An official announcement is forthcoming from the Department of Labor.[MARC AMBINDER]
So how does this jive with Rep. Miller's parliamentary procedure which is supposed to force a vote by 11/04?
Never mind. I ran into Miller over at TPM Cafe. He explains it here.
Ouch. Halliburton's gonna be pissed.
Glad to see the WH reverse course on this. Congressman George Miller worked very hard to force the admins hand.
Funnything is, the Republican's who were scared of loosing a floor vote on this are trying to take all the credit . Not one Republican co-sponsored Miller's bill to overturn the WH policy.
But why should that stop then from taking credit?