A Brief Tribute to the Congressional Sponsors of the McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act and Almost 60 Years of History
"What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments but what is woven into the lives of others."
-- Thucydides
Last year I wrote a blog about how to become immortal in the world of government contracts. https://www.awrcounsel.com/blog/2024/8/26/how-to-become-immortal-in-the-government-contracts-world-the-origins-of-the-davis-bacon-act?rq=Senator%20Davis. I focused on the congressional sponsors of Davis-Bacon Act, the Federal construction contract wage law. Today, I turn my gaze to the lesser known congressional sponsors of the Service Contract Act (“SCA”) of 1965, the wage law for US Government service contracts, and pay those sponsors a similar tribute.
The first mover for the SCA was James Grant O’ Hara, a Member of the House of Representative from Michigan. The timeline for enactment of the SCA was very compressed. HR 10238 was reported out of by House Education and Labor Committee (H. Rept. 948) on Sept. 1, 1965. Rep. O’Hara is quoted as saying that in the Committee, the bill “was enthusiastically supported by both sides.” Just a few days later, on Sept. 20th, it was passed by the House by voice vote. Thereafter, it was reported out of the Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee (S. Rept. 798) on Sept. 30th and then passed as amended by the Senate by voice vote on Oct. 1st. The bill as amended by the Senate was accepted by the House by voice vote Oct. 6, 1965. https://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal65-1257925#_=_ (1965).
President Lyndon B. Johnson signed HR 10238 (PL 89-286) on Oct. 22, 1965 with a statement which noted “many of the employees who will benefit are among the lowest paid workers in our society.” Johnson added that:
The Government of the United States must be a model employer. Those enrolled in the service of the Nation must be assured the same labor standards and working conditions which apply to private industry. This legislation, H.R. 10238, closes the last big gap in protecting those standards where employees of contractors are doing business with the Federal Government.
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This measure will be enforced fairly and impartially. But I want to make it clear that it is not a license for harassment of management nor is it an open door to misuse of its aims. I would hope that emerging from these new rules will be better understanding on the part of both employees and employers.
So, who was Rep. O’Hara? Rep. James Grant O’Hara was born in Washington, DC and grew up in Detroit, MI. He served as an enlistee in World War II and then later graduated from the University of Michigan and its law school. He was elected to Congress from a Michigan district and served from 1959-1977, when he unsuccessful tried to get elected to the Senate. He resumed the practice of law in Washington, DC where he died in 1989. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/19136.
As to the identity of McNamara, it has always be a mystery to me, depite my many years of working in the field. Even on the internet, there is some confusion. In a search, Google AI mentions an “Edward” McNamara and a “John” O’Hara as the sponsors. In another search the Google AI contends that “The McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act (SCA) was enacted in 1965 and is named after Robert McNamara, who was the U.S. Secretary of Defense at the time of the Act's passage.” As to Robert’s role, Google AI states:
While the SCA is named after Robert McNamara, his role was primarily in advocating for the legislation and ensuring its passage. He understood the importance of ensuring fair labor practices for employees working on government contracts.
Google AI goes on to hedge its bet by noting that “While {Robert] McNamara's direct role in the SCA's passage is not explicitly detailed in the provided search results, his tenure as Secretary of Defense during this period, along with the broader context of government contracting and labor standards at the time, suggests his influence was likely significant.” Well, so much for the accuracy of Google AI. I think the references to Edward and Robert McNamara are all likely rubbish, illustrating (if you didn’t know already) that Google AI isn’t ready yet for prime time. You need to look at the links and not just the AI response, a process I read that about 40% of us dispense with.
As best I can tell, the chief sponsor of the SCA in the Senate was Sen. Patrick Vincent McNamara (D-MI). Laws are often named after their legislative sponsors. Patrick V. McNamara was a high school dropout who worked as a pipefitter, then worked for the Office of Price Administration (like my father did) during World War II, rose up to become president of the union local, and eventually got himself elected to the Senate, after the incumbent died only two weeks before the primary election. He served in the Senate from 1955 until his death at age 71 (while still in office) on April 30,1966, which was only a few months after the enactment of the SCA. He is buried in Detroit, MI. Thus, he never lived to see the full fruits of his labor, or to fully know what his legacy would be, or how many millions of lives he touched.
The obscurity that surrounds Patrick V. McNamara belies my original thesis set forth in my Davis-Bacon Act blog cited above that the way to immortality is to get your name on a major piece of federal legislation which lives on long after your death. As best I can tell Patrick V. McNamara’s role in the SCA enactment is mostly lost to time. But the US Department of Labor continues to honor his role and actively refers to the law as the McNamara–O’Hara Service Contract Act, thus preserving his legacy at least in name.
Lastly, I have posted public domain pictures of our two Congressional sponsors on the main webpage of this blog.