I wanted to celebrate, belatedly, this important potential defeat for Republican domestic policy and the dysadministration’s allies in big business. “The Republican-led chamber approved a Democratic amendment that would derail a proposed expansion of overtime exemptions for white-collar workers under the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act. The vote was 54-45. Yet the final fate of the Bush administration proposal remained unclear, as it still faces a number of procedural and possible legal twists and turns.” Reuters

I have been following this issue through the eyes of the nurses with whom I work as close colleagues and who are directly threatened by the proposed rule change. They are in particular jeopardy because of the nationwide nursing shortage. Rapacious corporate healthcare employers would have no disincentive against compelling them to work overtime on the cheap to fill accumulating holes in nursing coverage. In a recent interview on NPR, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao had the unmitigated double-speaking gall to say this rule change was merely a clarification and was for the protection of American workers. The House still has to consider Bush’s attack on overtime pay. Here is a site sponsored by the AFL-CIO seeking your support to defeat the Republican measure; it will fax your US representatives on your behalf.