-By Warner Todd Huston
Today there may be a vote on striking a section of H.R. 2055 that will insure that federal construction projects for the military are fairly priced and will save money for the taxpayers. Some representatives want this advantageous section struck out and replaced with a union-favoring provision that will cost the tax payers millions and will cause even more job loss in an already failing economy.
The bill is the Military Construction (MilCon) and Veterans Affairs (VA) and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2012 (H.R. 2055). The section the Democrats want to eliminate is section 415.
Section 415 removes the requirement for companies bidding for federal construction projects for the military to sign anti-competitive project labor agreements (PLAs) that will force these companies to pay union dues, union benefits and adhere to union rules regardless if the companies themselves are staffed by union members of not.
Striking the section would force all military construction projects to soar in costs. It will automatically raise the cost of construction projects to the federal government and will cost us all millions more into the future.
Sadly, it is a fool of a Republican that is offering this expensive, jobs-killing amendment. Ohio Rep. Steve LaTourette has offered to have the money-saving section 415 struck.
Contact your Congressman and tell him to vote “NO” on striking this money-saving section of the construction projects bill.
Illinois may be especially troublesome as several other bills striking down destructive and costly PLAs have found little support by Illinois House Members.
The following Illinois congressmen have been woefully supportive of destructive union PLAs in the recent past:
- Judy Biggert : http://biggert.house.gov/
- Robert Dold: http://dold.house.gov/
- Tim Johnson: http://timjohnson.house.gov/
- Peter Roskam: http://roskam.house.gov/
- Bobby Schilling: http://schilling.house.gov/
- John Shimkus: http://shimkus.house.gov/
- Aaron Schock: http://schock.house.gov/
- Joe Walsh: http://walsh.house.gov/
- Randy Hultgren: http://hultgren.house.gov/
Please, Illinois, contact your congressman and ask them why they voted in favor of Big Labor destructive practices?
For more detailed information, check out The Truth About PLAS.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
For a full bio, please CLICK HERE.