(7/11/14) The National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS), the national society of individual practicing surveyors, today praised House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-MN), Small Business Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO) and Subcommittee on Workforce Protections Chairman Tim Walberg (R-MI) for urging Labor Secretary Thomas Perez to reverse the department’s decision to unilaterally extend the Davis-Bacon Act requirements to survey technicians.
"The Labor Department made this decision a year ago without any consultation or discussion with the surveying profession and without analysis of the economic impact or administrative burden on the small business firms that comprise more than 98 percent of the profession," said Curtis W. Sumner, PLS, Executive Director of NSPS.
"It has been a year since Congress first asked for documents and information on the Labor Department’s decision making. That request has still gone unanswered. However, NSPS knows from its meetings with the Department staff that the surveying profession was not consulted and no impact analysis was conducted," Sumner added.
"The Labor Department’s classification of he skilled and valued technicians who support professional surveyors as ‘laborers and mechanics’ is an affront to our profession and a reversal of more than 50 years of Federal policy. This costly and unjustified regulation provides no meaningful benefit. NSPS commends Representatives Kline, Graves and Walberg for their leadership and we join with them in asking Secretary Perez to rescind this ill-conceived policy," said Patrick A. Smith, RPLS, of Austin,TX, President of NSPS.
About NSPS
NSPS (www.nsps.us.com) is a national organization of more than 13,000 individual surveyors, with member organizations and affiliates in all 50 states and the U.S. territories. The society advances the sciences and disciplines within the profession, encourages high standards of ethical and professional behavior, promotes public faith and confidence in the profession, and advances the protection of public welfare relative to surveying and mapping issues.