White Collar Regulation Reform Goes Down In the House

The House of Representatives has just voted by 221-203, to instruct the conferees of the House to accept the Harkin amendment which would have the effect of preventing the Department of Labor going forward with the proposed white collar exemption regulations. Although technically non-binding, it would seem to make it highly unlikely that the provision will not be in the final bill. If, as it seems likely, there is an omnibus appropriation bill, it makes it even less likely that there would be a presidential veto. (Even without an omnibus appropriations bill the chance of a veto was probably somewhere between slim and none.)



The only good news is that my decision not to spend much time learning the details of the proposed regulations seems to have been a wise one. Good for me, but a real tragedy for the country as a whole not to get some clarity on such an important issue.