Overtime pay changes focus of Congress' budget battle

[Judi Lynn]

Overtime pay changes focus of Congress' budget battle

LEIGH STROPE, AP Labor Writer Friday, November 21, 2003


(11-21) 00:33 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --

A Bush administration effort to exempt thousands of white-collar workers from federal overtime pay protections is pitting Senate Republicans against their House colleagues and blocking future funding for most government programs.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who faces a tough re-election battle next year, is leading the fight against the overtime pay changes, saying millions of workers will see their paychecks cut if the plan is implemented. The issue is especially important in his home state, where organized labor has muscle.

"The regulation which the Department of Labor has is just going to eliminate a lot of overtime for a lot of people, and with the economy being in its current shape, that would be very, very unwise," Specter said Thursday.

Specter's efforts to broker a compromise have stalled passage of a $280 billion, end-of-year spending bill in the Republican-controlled Congress. But his talks with top Republican leaders and the Bush administration so far have failed. (snip/...)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/11/21/national0333EST0450.DTL