President Barack Obama now is dictating businesses pay overtime to an additional 10 million employees who are now ineligible for overtime, drawing criticism from business groups and congressional Republicans, The Hill reported. Liberals said it will put more cash in the pockets of millions of workers but conservatives said it will damage the economy and is another example of executive overreach. 

The White House Council of Economic Advisers said it's only trying to "make the labor force as fair as possible." Labor Secretary Thomas Perez pledged that his agency would conduct a "complete" and "thorough" rulemaking process before final regulations are issued. 

Current regulations require employers to pay overtime to salaried workers making less than $455 a week. Obama's proposal would redefine which employees can be classified as "executive or professional" and thus ineligible for overtime pay, The Hill reported. 

As many as 10 million could benefit but the plan could backfire if employers limit employee hours or cut base pay to accommodate overtime, The Hill reported. "Changing the rules for overtime eligibility will, just like increasing the minimum wage, make employees more expensive and will force employers to look for ways to cover these increased costs," said Marc Freedman, executive director of labor law policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday recognized eight of Alabama's nine members of Congress for their pro-business voting record. The pro-business ranking honored a total of 206 members of the House and 32 members of the Senate with the Chamber's annual Spirit of Enterprise Award in recognition of their support of pro-growth, pro-jobs policies during the first session of the 113th Congress. 

"2013 was challenging, but a number of legislators from both sides of the aisle worked to pass legislation and enact policies that will keep our country moving forward economically," U.S. Chamber President and CEO Thomas J. Donohue said. "The Spirit of Enterprise Award recognizes the men and women who have demonstrated their commitment to supporting pro-growth policies in the 113th Congress." 

The Chamber said its Spirit of Enterprise Award is given each year to members of Congress based on their votes on critical business legislation outlined in the Chamber publication, "How They Voted." Members who supported the Chamber's position on at least 70 percent of select votes qualified to receive the award, the Chamber said. 

During the first session of the 113th Congress, the Chamber scored members on eight Senate votes and 13 House votes: To reopen the federal government and raise the national debt ceiling, reform the nation's broken immigration system, delay enforcement of the employer mandate provision of the Affordable Care Act, and ease approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. Also scored were votes on a number of other issues including trade, transportation, legal reform, and the budget. 

Sens. Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile, and Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, voted pro-business 78 percent and 74 percent, respectively. 

U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Haleyville, had a pro-business vote record of 86 percent; Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Vestavia Hills, 91 percent; former U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Mobile, 91 percent; Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, 78 percent; Rep. Martha Roby, R-Montgomery, 90 percent; and Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Saks, 90 percent. U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, had a 50-percent vote record. (Bonner resigned last summer and was succeeded by Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Daphne, for the second session of the 113th Congress. 

Big business takes on tea party over Common Core 

POLITICO (Simon 3/14) "Tea party activists have been waging war for months against the Common Core academic standards. Now, in a coordinated show of muscle, Big Business is fighting back - and notching wins. The urgent effort stems from a sense among supporters that this is a make-or-break moment for the Common Core, which is under siege all over the country.

"A coalition including the Business Roundtable and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will launch a national advertising blitz Sunday targeted at Republicans skeptical about the standards. In a parallel effort unfolding mostly in deep red states, thousands of small-business owners and corporate executives have been bombarding state lawmakers with emails, calls and personal visits to press the point that better standards will mean a better workforce and ultimately, a better economy.

"So it was that Billy Canary, president of the Business Council of Alabama, got four dozen influential executives on a conference call with the state senate leadership the other day to talk up the standards. He has also nudged hundreds of less prominent business leaders to reach out to their representatives in a campaign he calls 'No lawmaker goes uncontacted.'...'The business community is by far the biggest consumer of the product created by our education system,' Canary tells them - and that system needs to produce better product if businesses are to compete in the global economy. 'That's why,' he said, 'we're all fighting in this direction."

Foundation staff attorneys help employees defend their secret-ballot vote to keep the UAW out of their workplace

National Right to Work Foundation (Semmens, 3-10) "The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has just granted a motion to intervene filed by five Volkswagen employees in the United Auto Worker union's legal challenge to the outcome of the recent unionization election at VW's Chattanooga plant. All five employees are receiving free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation.

"Patrick Semmens, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation, issued the following statement: 'We are very pleased that, despite attempts by Volkswagen and UAW officials to keep workers out of this process, the acting Regional Director has ruled that the workers are entitled to defend their vote to keep the UAW out of their workplace. The decision over whether or not to unionize is supposed to lie with the workers, which makes the attempt by VW and the UAW to shut them out of this process all the more shameful'.

"Foundation staff attorneys earlier helped several VW workers file charges citing improprieties in the UAW's unionization campaign in Chattanooga, including union attempts to get workers to sign union authorization cards through coercion and misrepresentation and the UAW's use of cards signed too long ago to be legally valid. Some of those workers also filed a federal charge against Volkswagen after company officials made comments linking unionization to increased production at the Chattanooga facility."

GOP senators call on Obama to kill Obamacare union 'carveout'

The Hill (Bogardus 3/13) "Twenty-five GOP senators - including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), John Thune (S.D.) and Orrin Hatch (Utah) - signed a letter, sent Thursday, to express 'deep disappointment' that the administration 'has approved a final rule creating an unwarranted special carveout benefiting certain unions over other Americans'.

"In the letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the senators said she should pull back on the rule or they would attempt to block it with legislation. 'We demand that the rule be immediately rescinded or we will consider using options such as the Congressional Review Act ('CRA') to stop the rule from going into effect', the Republicans wrote.

"The rule in question was issued March 5 by the administration and dealt with the Affordable Care Act's 'reinsurance fee'. The fee taxes health plans from 2014 to 2016 to help stabilize the individual insurance market as sick patients come on board. Under the revised regulations, certain self-insured plans, which are used by some unions, would be excluded from having to pay the fee. Unions have bristled at the healthcare reform law, with the AFL-CIO passing a resolution at its convention last September criticizing ObamaCare."