Egad! Congress grows a spine! (And during election season, too. Imagine that.)
In a sharp rebuke of a new administration policy, the House moved Thursday to block the Labor Department from carrying out overtime rules that critics argued could deprive millions of workers of their overtime pay.
The 223-193 vote in favor of blocking the rules defied the White House. A threatened veto applied to veto a massive spending bill, now on the House floor, if it contains any language tampering with the rules that took effect Aug. 23.
"This is one step in the legislative process. We are continuing to work with the Congress,'' said Trent Duffy, a spokesman for President Bush.
Democrats, united against the rules, were joined by 22 Republicans in voting for the amendment to a $142.5 billion health and education spending bill.
The vote was Bush's second election-season defeat in Congress in two days. On Wednesday the Senate disregarded a White House veto threat and voted to prohibit Bush from giving federal immigration jobs to private workers.
One wonders what Congress will do if Bush does as promised and vetoes the spending bill. They don't have enough votes to override the veto. That said, most people are opposed to the overtime rules. Can the president afford the appearance of being against ordinary workers at the current time, or is it more important for him to placate his backers?
We shall see, I suppose.
Posted by iain at September 09, 2004 05:50 PM
