Republicans vote to allow federal contractors to steal wages from workers

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According to reports, Republicans in the House voted down an amendment to eliminate federal contractors found guilty of wage theft.

The amendment, proposed for the commerce, justice and science appropriations bill, failed by a vote of 196-211. All Democrats who cast votes supported it, while 10 Republicans crossed the aisle to join them.

On the House floor before the vote, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), chairman of the subcommittee handling the bill, suggested he was surprised by the amendment’s introduction late Thursday and urged his colleagues to vote it down out of caution.

“No one knows what the amendment does. If you know what this amendment does, you should vote for it, because nobody else seems to know. That’s one of the problems [that] these things come rolling in at 10:15,” Wolf said. “I don’t know what it does, so I don’t want to vote for it. I strongly urge, in the interest of making sure that this place does not mess up, a no vote.” Read more…