CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight - Transcript
CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight - Transcript
Friday, September 30, 2005
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DOBBS: The White House under fire for its decision to deny prevailing wages for Americans working to rebuild the Gulf Coast.
My next guest is one of 114 Democrats who sent a letter to the president urging him to rescind his waiver of the Davis-Bacon Act -- the letter saying, quote, "Undermining the basic worker protection law serves to further economically depress a region that has been so devastated by natural destruction. This is a cost we simply cannot afford."
Congresswoman Linda Chavez joins us now from Washington.
Congresswoman, the White House has defended the waiver. They're saying it will actually save federal money, open opportunities for women and minority-owned businesses. What's your response?
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE LINDA SANCHEZ (D), CALIFORNIA: I think that's a euphemism.
The reality is that they've suspended the contracting requirements for women and minority-owned businesses. And what rescinding the Davis-Bacon wage guarantees does is it allows out of state and large contractors like the Halliburtons of the world to come in, import labor from other states and undercut the local wages and pay as little wage as possible.
DOBBS: First I guess, has there been any response to your letter?
SANCHEZ: We have not received thus far a response from the White House. And we're actually quite surprised that they haven't jumped on this a little bit sooner. DOBBS: Congressman George Miller from California has introduced a bill that would repeal Bush's order waiving the Davis-Bacon Act. What do you think the prospects are for passage?
SANCHEZ: Well, right now, we have -- I believe there are 205 members of the House of Representatives. Every Democrat in the House of Representatives has signed on to that piece of legislation. We are looking to hit the magic number of 218 in order to get a discharge petition going, which would allow that to be automatically voted for on the House of Representatives, bypassing the committee structure requirements.
DOBBS: Congresswoman, I was talking with a U.S. senator and I asked him about this. He expressed in response the simple statement, "He's a free trader."
This senator happened to be asking for $250 billion of taxpayer money, depending upon, in point of fact, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the very survival of a good part of the state of Louisiana.
How do you deal with that kind of reasoning?
SANCHEZ: Well, the notion that it has anything to do with free trade is ridiculous unless he's interested in trading in misery, because that's exactly what's happening here.
You are kicking people who have been devastated when they're down, workers who have lost their homes, even family members, obviously their jobs. And they should be the first ones put back to work once a reconstruction begins.
And what Davis-Bacon does is it allows, again, contractors to make a profit off of the misery of others.
So I have no tolerance for somebody who says that they're a free trader and that this is somehow going to be more efficient. What it basically does is it further victimizes people who have already been devastated.
DOBBS: Congresswoman Sanchez, thank you very much for being here.
SANCHEZ: My pleasure.
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