House beats back effort to block overhaul of overtime rules

The Bush administration and House GOP leaders staved off a spirited effort by Democrats and their allies in organized labor to block proposed Labor Department rules governing overtime compensation Thursday.

The amendment by Appropriations ranking member David Obey, D-Wis., and Education and the Workforce ranking member George Miller, D-Calif., to the $138 billion fiscal 2004 Labor-HHS appropriations bill failed on a 213-210 vote.

The Labor Department said the proposed changes would make 1.3 million low-income workers eligible for overtime compensation, although many middle-income workers could lose overtime pay.

Miller said "half-a-million first responders who go out on code orange" terror alerts would lose overtime pay, while Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Boehner, R-Mich., said the current rules are outdated and the changes would benefit low-income workers. A number of GOP moderates crossed party lines to back the Democratic amendment and a few conservative Democrats opposed it.

In the federal government, the Office of Personnel Management is in charge of overseeing overtime rules. OPM's criteria for deciding if an employee is exempt or nonexempt are based on the Labor Department's criteria.

OPM was not involved in the Labor Department's revision efforts, but because its rules are so similar to Labor's, it's possible that OPM will follow Labor's suit. OPM would have to propose its own regulatory changes for federal agencies to be affected.

The overall House Labor-HHS bill passed on a 215-208 vote.