Capitol Hill

I am often asked what effect the change of congressional majority from Republicans to Democrats has had on NRCA's agenda, and my answer is, "Not much yet." Democrats are finding it is difficult to muster the 218 votes needed to pass legislation in the House, more difficult to generate the 60 votes needed in the Senate and extremely difficult to convince the president to sign legislation.

Perhaps no issue reflects the potential for such gridlock more than the Demo­crats' inability to raise the federal minimum wage. NRCA does not lobby on this issue because construction industry pay is substantially higher than the minimum wage. But NRCA is monitoring the tax package added to the wage hike because its provisions could affect NRCA members.

Small-business tax provisions

The House passed a clean minimum wage increase Jan. 10 and sent it to the Senate. On Jan. 31, the Senate added $8.3 billion in small-business tax provisions to the House's wage hike bill (see "Legislative compromise," April issue, page 22). On Feb. 16, the House adopted its own $1.3 billion small-business tax package to counter the Senate's package. On March 23, the House attached its combined wage hike and $1.3 billion tax package to HR 1591, the Iraq War supplemental spending bill. The Senate countered this on March 27 by beefing up its tax provisions from $8 billion to $12 billion and attaching them to HR 1591.

Several House and Senate members then conferred to work out differences, and on April 20, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) announced a $4.84 billion tax relief deal that cut out many of the tax breaks business groups preferred in the Senate package, including shorter tax depreciation schedules for restaurants and certain leased property changes.

President Bush vetoed HR 1591 because it contained troop withdrawal timelines. However, on April 26, the administration also expressed its opposition to the $4.84 billion tax measure accompanying the minimum wage increase in the war spending measure because the administration does not believe it is enough tax relief.

As we go to press, House Democrats are preparing another war spending bill that will fund operations in Iraq for a few more months. A minimum wage hike and $4.84 billion tax package are expected to be included in the bill, but the fate of this measure is yet to be determined.

Card-check legislation

In all likelihood, some version of HR 2, the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, will ultimately be cleared by Congress. But another legislative proposal being pushed by Democrats to make union organizing easier will hit a wall in the Senate.

The Employee Free Choice Act of 2007, HR 800/S 1041, would require the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to certify a union without requiring a secret-ballot election when a simple majority of bargaining unit employees have signed union authorization cards ("card checks") designating the union. Under current law, NLRB conducts a secret-ballot election for union representation when a union, employer or employees file a petition requesting a secret-ballot election based on at least 30 percent of employees signing a petition or union authorization cards. Therefore, the Employee Free Choice Act would replace federally supervised secret-ballot elections for deciding whether to organize a union with a process that would make workers' votes public.

This legislation is AFL-CIO's top legislative priority, and a Jan. 25 report from the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) suggests why. According to BLS, in 2006, 12 percent of employed wage and salary workers were union members, down from 12.5 percent in 2005. Excluding government workers, the union membership rate for private industry workers is 7.4 percent.

The House voted 241-185 in favor of HR 800 March 1. This vote is well short of the two-thirds majority needed to override an expected veto by President Bush. But a veto will not be necessary because Senate Republicans will filibuster S 1041 and Democrats will not have the 60 votes necessary to end debate.

A difficult task

Passing legislation and having it signed into law is more difficult than stopping legislation. This is especially true in divided governments where one party controls the legislative branch and the other the executive branch. If Democrats win the White House and pick up Senate seats in 2008, it will be easier for them to advance their agenda.

Craig S. Brightup is NRCA's vice president of government relations.