WASHINGTON – Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) reintroduced the Davis-Bacon Repeal Act Wednesday, a bill designed to repeal the wage subsidy law requiring all federally funded projects worth more than $2,000 to pay workers the “prevailing wage” rate on non-federal projects in the same locality.

“The Davis Bacon Act exemplifies how big government hurts the people it purports to help, gives unfair advantages to favored special interests, and squeezes the middle class,” Sen. Lee said. “The Davis-Bacon Repeal Act would remove these government-imposed obstacles to economic opportunity facing low-skilled workers, and return wasted taxpayer dollars back into the hands of the American people.” 

The bill is cosponsored by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), and Tim Scott (R-S.C.). 

See below for support from outside groups:

“The Davis-Bacon Act is a Jim Crowe relic that that funnels federal project funding to politically-connected union firms at the expense of the 89.2% of American workers who have chosen not to join a union. Repealing Davis-Bacon would empower independent, merit-shop contractors to bid competitively on the projects financed by their own tax dollars. We are proud to stand by Senator Lee in calling for the elimination of this taxpayer subsidy to Big Labor.”
- Greg Mourad, Vice President of the National Right to Work Committee

“Eliminating or modernizing the Davis-Bacon Act would create the conditions for all qualified contractors and their skilled workforce to compete to rebuild their communities and give taxpayers additional value for investments in public works projects as Congress works to enact critical infrastructure modernization and America faces a $2.6 trillion infrastructure gap by 2029.”
- Kristen Swearingen, Vice President of Legislative and Political Affairs, Associated Builders and Contractors