The U.S. Senate appropriations committee Wednesday approved an amendment offered by Iowa Senator Tom Harkin to block the new overtime rules that took effect in August. The Senate move followed similar action by the House in what’s developed as an election year battle with the administration. Harkin, a democrat, says the two votes should send a message. He says bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress have sent a clear message, “instead of turning back the clock 60 years on workers’ right, you should turn back this ill-advised and unpopular rule.” Harkin says the president should turn back the rule before “damage is done.” Harkin says the rule hurts workers.He says it destroys the right to time-and-a-half overtime for some six million workers. He says time-and-a-half overtime accounts for about 25-percent of the total income of Americans who do work overtime. The issue is still up in the air as it must make it through a joint House-Senate committee which will draft the final version of the spending bill.
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