The U.S. Senate passed the amended Energy Independence and Security Act 2007 ( H.R. 6 ) yesterday by a vote of 86-8. The House is set to approve the compromise bill next week. James Sherk of the Heritage Foundation notes that Eight sections of EISA extend the coverage of the Davis-Bacon Act.

Davis-Bacon requires that U.S. government contractors and subcontractors engaged in “construction, alteration, and/or repair, including painting and decorating, of public buildings or public works of the United States or the District of Columbia” pay employees certain minimum wage rates. The statute defines these wages as:

the wages that will be determined by the Secretary of Labor to be prevailing for the corresponding classes of laborers and mechanics employed on projects of a character similar to the contract work in the city, town, village, or other civil subdivision of the State in which the work is to be performed . . .

Mr. Sherk notes with respect to the EISA programs that would be covered by Davis-Bacon:

Few of these programs involve federal construction. § 136, for example, provides funding for automobile manufacturers to re-equip their plants to make more efficient vehicles, and § 471 provides loans to institutions to increase their energy efficiency. This bill would thus extend Davis-Bacon coverage from federal construction projects to private projects that Congress has chosen to subsidize.

Additionally, Mr. Sherk’s article, entitled “Congress Should Fix the Flawed Wage Determination Process Before Expanding the Davis–Bacon Act,” argues that the methods for determining “prevailing wages” is unreliable and should be revised.