Demolish this old law

Repeal of Davis-Bacon would make building much cheaper

“You really ought to give Iowa a try. Provided you are contrary.”

— “Iowa Stubborn,” from Meredith Wilson’s “The Music Man”

Contrary”quiteSteveIowa WASHINGTONnative King’s does captureThe and notastringency. conservativewas Storm born, Lake, appropriately,and congressmancarries turbulence in carries experiencewith him. of He actual also life before politics, when he founded a construction company, which is one reason he has long advocated an excellent idea — repeal of the Davis-Bacon law. stubbornlyMr. legislationin King 2003 submittingcameand since hasto been Congress 2005.repeal He would even notif he have were succeededless of a prickly cactus and more of a shrinking violet. DavisBacon is just another piece of government that is as indefensible as it is indestructible. defendingIt a is the would, musculartoo costby secure because many however,of faction.newto requireit billionsinfrastructure benefitsRepeal reduce of social dollars.the hygienistspublicAnd today,are square cleansing when of namesby historicaland statues connections tainted with racism, Davis-Bacon’s durability is proof that a measure’s racist pedigree will be forgiven if the measure serves a progressive agenda. in Davis-Bacon1931 to require was constructionenacted contractors to pay “prevailing wages” on federal projects. Generally, this means paying union wage scales. It was enacted as domestic protectionism, largely to protect organized labor from competition by African-Americans who often were excluded from union membership but who were successfully competing for jobs by being willing

to work for lower wages. Bacon,the In low 1927,a was Long bidder miffedRep. Island for becauseRobertRepublican,a construction — a veterans’project in hospitalhis district — was an Alabama contractor who used black labor. That year, when Bacon first introduced his legislation, he showed that he was not a narrow-gauge bigot. He inserted into the Congressional Record the following statement by 34 professors concerning immigration legislation: the “We quotaof urge North systemthe extensionandto all Southcountries of America from which we have substantial immigration and in which the population is not predominantly of the white race. ... Only by this method can that large proportion of our population which is descended from the colonists ... have their proper racial representation.” had By made 1931, governmentthe Depressionconstruction money especially coveted and Davis-Bacon passed with the support of the American Federation of Labor. The congressional debate that preceded enactment was replete with references to “unattached migratory workmen,” “itinerant labor,” “cheap, imported labor,” “cheap bootleg labor” and “labor lured from distant places” for “competition with white labor throughout the country.” broughtRep. Passage Williamout of the Davis-BaconUpshaw,drollery in a Georgia Democrat. He said he hoped his Northern colleagues in Congress would permit a Southerner to smile about “your reaction to that real problem you are confronted with in any community with a superabundance or large aggregation of Negro labor.” In 1931, the unemployment rate of blacks was approximately the same as the rate for the general population. Davis-Bacon is one reason the rate for blacks began to deviate adversely. In 1932, generally there were about 3,500 workers building what became Hoover Dam. Never more than 30 were black.

In 1993, with Congress stoutly opposed to taking anything from something as powerful as organized labor, opponents of DavisBacon turned to the judiciary. A lawsuit on behalf of some minority contractors challenged the law’s constitutionality, arguing that it burdened the exercise of a fundamental civil right — the right to earn a living. And that it had a disparate impact on minority workers and small minority-owned construction businesses. The suit languished in court for almost a decade before the plaintiffs lost, victims of excessive judicial deference to the legislature.

In 1992, to expedite cleanup after Hurricanes Andrew and Iniki, President George H.W. Bush suspended portions of DavisBacon in South Florida, coastal Louisiana and Hawaii. Mr. Bush’s successor, Bill Clinton, promptly reversed Mr. Bush’s policy.

A 2011 Heritage Foundation study estimated that Davis-Bacon would add almost $11 billion to that year’s construction costs. That sum will be eclipsed when — if — bold talk about making America’s infrastructure great again is translated into spending. Then we build up the national debt while purchasing less infrastructure than the appropriated sums should purchase.

Davis-Bacon is rent-seeking, the use of political power to supplant the market as the allocator of opportunity and wealth. Rentseeking is lucrative, which is why there is so much of it, even when its pedigree is repulsive.