Today, Rep. Cindy Axne (IA-03) unveiled new legislation to ensure federal roadway funding isn’t used to undermine competitive wages for local workers.
The Stop Swaps, Protect Local Jobs Act would protect local workers from having their wages undercut by “fund swapping,” a practice where city and county governments move federal dollars out of a roadway project in exchange for state funds.
By swapping these dollars, projects using only local and state funding do not have to comply with certain labor protections, like the Davis-Bacon Act requirement that workers are paid no less than the local prevailing wage.
“As Congress continues to work toward an infrastructure package that will make critical investments in revitalizing Iowa’s crumbing roads, we need to ensure this investment goes back into our local economies and supports Iowa’s workers,” said Rep. Axne. “If we’re going to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and create jobs, we need to invest in workers in Iowa – and that starts with ensuring federal investments aren’t used to suppress local wages and undermine the expanded opportunities that we’re creating for our local workers. I’m committed to making sure Iowa projects hire local workers and pay prevailing wages, and I’ll continue pushing to make sure any investment in Iowa infrastructure is also an investment in Iowa workers.”
Under Rep. Axne’s legislation, states must certify that they have in place prevailing wage protections comparable to federal Davis-Bacon Act.
In 2017, Iowa enacted a law allowing cities and counties to substitute state funding for federal funding, which allows these projects to skirt protections that ensure local workers are hired and paid fair wages.
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