October 3, 2003

House Rebuffs the White House Over Rules to Limit Overtime Pay

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 — In a slap to the Bush administration, the Republican-controlled House reversed itself on Thursday and voted to block the White House from issuing regulations that opponents say would strip millions of workers of their right to overtime pay.

The 221-to-203 vote was a rare, though largely symbolic, victory for labor unions and Democrats, who immediately hailed it as evidence that, with his poll numbers slipping, President Bush was losing support among members of his own party.

"It would have been very hard to pass this two weeks ago," said Representative David R. Obey, Democrat of Wisconsin, lead sponsor of the measure. "I think the willingness of their troops to give blind loyalty to their leadership under all circumstances is a little bit modified."

But the vote is nonbinding; the real decision will come when a House-Senate conference committee considers whether to insert the provision passed into a larger labor spending bill.

The White House has threatened to veto the spending bill if the provision is in it. With Thursday's vote, both the House and Senate are on record in favor of the provision.

The overtime fight revolves around plans by the Department of Labor to issue regulations updating the Fair Labor Standards Act, the 1938 law that guarantees overtime pay to certain employees who work more than a 40-hour week.

The act exempts professional, administrative and executive employees, but the White House wants to revise the exemption criteria. Proponents and opponents disagree on how many people would be affected.

Thursday's vote reverses a position taken by the House in July, when lawmakers voted 213 to 210 to support the administration's plan. Eight Republicans who voted against the provision in July voted for it Thursday.