Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Bush Foxes Overrun Chicken Coop

Last month I reported a rumor that President Bush was about to nominate Susan Dudley as the new director of the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which approves all environmental, health and safety and other government regulations. director of the regulatory studies program at George Mason University's anti-regulatory Mercatus Center.

Yesterday, the nightmare came true as Bush officially nominated Dudley. As I wrote before, Dudley is known for conjuring up all kinds of reason why protective regulations are killing our country. She opposed OSHA the deceased ergonomics standard on the grounds that all employers really needed was more information and they would automatically do the right thing. Furthermore, OSHA's ergonomics standard would "discourage individual responsibility and hinder innovation into creative solutions."

Meanwhile, the AFL-CIO Today blog reports that the Bush Administration has nominated yet another fox to guard the already besieged chicken-coop. A hearing was held yesterday on the nomination of Paul DeCamp to head the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division (WHD). And what better choice? DeCamp is a former lawyer for Wal-Mart—with a long paper trail outlining his opposition to the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA’s) overtime pay and other provisions.
During the debate on those new rules, Paul DeCamp, Bush’s WHD nominee, wrote that the proposed changes in overtime laws represented:
a window of opportunity, particularly in light of the federal elections of 2002, for the business community to achieve positive results that can bring the FLSA into the 21st century.
During this morning’s Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee’s confirmation hearing, AFL-CIO Legislative Director Bill Samuel testified that DeCamp’s long legal career has been spent:
defending employers against workers in a wide range of employment matters, including FLSA collective actions and sexual harassment individual and class actions, and he has served as counsel to Wal-Mart appealing the certification of a nationwide class of 1.6 million women alleging systematic gender discrimination in pay and promotions.

The Wage and Hour Division is charged with protecting workers from employer violations of the minimum wage, child labor laws, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act and prevailing wage requirements under the Davis-Bacon Act and the Service Contract Act.

The Wage and Hour Division is charged with protecting workers from employer violations of the minimum wage, child labor laws, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act and prevailing wage requirements under the Davis-Bacon Act and the Service Contract Act.

At least that was its original mission.

The Washington Post reported today that DeCamp lucked out at yesterday's confirmation hearing, because most of the attention was focused on an even more controversial nominee, Bush's choice to be commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. But he didn't escape totally unscathed. Republicans, of course, praised DeCamp " as a highly qualified expert in labor law."
But DeCamp conceded that, on his watch at the department, large numbers of temporary and immigrant workers were victimized by wage theft and other illegal practices -- in particular during the Gulf Coast cleanup after Hurricane Katrina.

"Why should we think you're going to do a better job as wage and hour administrator?" asked Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), waving reports documenting recent wage scandals.

DeCamp also drew criticism for having represented Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in a class-action lawsuit by 1.6 million low-wage female workers over alleged sex discrimination.

"Have you ever defended a worker in a lawsuit against an employer?" asked Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.).

"I have not," DeCamp replied.
Oy.
Overtime Out, July 29, 2003
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