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   (Mr. BALLENGER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

   Mr. BALLENGER. Mr. Speaker, Hurricanes Floyd and Dennis have dealt a devastating blow to the residents along the Eastern Seaboard from Florida to North Carolina to New York. The flood waters have resulted in billions of dollars in damage and left thousands without homes.

   Last week, a number of my colleagues and I sent a letter to the President of the United States asking him to relax the Davis-Bacon prevailing-wage requirements in order to facilitate repairs in the States hardest hit by the hurricanes.

   The Davis-Bacon Act requires contractors who work on Federal projects to use Federal dollars to pay certain prevailing wages. Economic studies believe that Davis-Bacon inflates the cost of construction projects up to an estimated 38 percent.

   Victims of the hurricanes should have the opportunity to use Federal disaster relief in local competitive markets to rebuild their homes and communities. In fact, under the Davis-Bacon Act, a man or woman who receives $2,500 of Federal disaster funding cannot use that relief to rebuild their own house themselves, but must pay the inflated prevailing wage to another contractor because of the use of Federal dollars.

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