House Republicans passed a measure Tuesday that would allowcompanies to offer employees compensatory time rather thantime-and-a-half pay, something supporters say would enhanceworkers' scheduling options but opponents warn would erodeprotections.

“Nothing should stop us from doing what we can right now to helpmake life a little easier for moms and dads,” the bill's sponsor,Alabama Republican Rep. Martha Roby, said during the floor debatepreceding the vote.

The bill passed on a largely party-line vote of 229 to 197. Asimilar one passed the House in 1996, 1997 and 2013, only to failto get through the Senate — where it again faces hurdles. MajorityLeader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican whose office declinedto comment, hasn't indicated whether he plans to take up themeasure.

If he does, it's likely to face opposition from Democrats.Republicans, who hold 52 Senate seats, would need the support ofeight Democrats to overcome a filibuster if all Republicans supportthe measure. Otherwise, the bill would stall once again in theSenate.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican and chairman of theSenate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, favors themeasure getting a vote in the Senate “when time allows,” TaylorHaulsee, a spokesman, said in an email.

“With working families across the country scraping to make endsmeet, Congress should strengthen protections for workers — not gutprotections already on the books,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, aMassachusetts Democrat, said in an email. “But today, HouseRepublicans are actually voting to make it legal for employers tocheat their workers out of overtime pay.”

The Trump Administration announced Tuesday that it supports thebill, saying in a Statement of Administration Policy that it “wouldhelp American workers balance the competing demands of family andwork by giving them flexibility to earn paid time off — time theycan later use for any reason, including family commitments likeattending school appointments and caring for a sick child.”

Under current law, eligible private-sector employees must bepaid time-and-a-half for any hours beyond 40 that they work in aweek. Under the Republican proposal, companies and individualemployees could agree that their overtime work would instead berewarded with comp time.

Sunset Provision

In lieu of getting paid any wages right away for their extrahours in a week, those employees would instead accrue an hour and ahalf in a comp time bank for each extra hour they worked, whichthey could then request to use at a future date as paid time off.The House bill has a “sunset” provision that would make it expirefive years after enactment unless it's extended.

“This bill would ensure workers have less time, less flexibilityand less money,” Maryland Democratic Rep. Anthony Brown said in afloor speech before the vote.

Supporters say the proposal would help workers take care ofchildren or aging parents without forfeiting their pay.

“Congress, of course, cannot legislate another hour in the day,”Roby said in an interview Monday. “But we can give men and womenmore choice and flexibility in how they choose to use theirtime.”

Republicans say the bill has plenty of worker protections, likea ban on coercing employees into choosing comp time; a guaranteethat they be paid for any unused comp time within 13 months afteraccruing it; and a requirement that workers who asked to utilizetheir comp time get to do so “within a reasonable period aftermaking the request if the use of the compensatory time does notunduly disrupt the operations of the employer.”

That doesn't satisfy opponents, who see the bill as a Trojanhorse that undermines existing protections for workers withoutcreating any actual new ones.

“It's a complete and total fraud,” said Ross Eisenbrey, vicepresident of the left-of-center Economic Policy Institute.

Nothing under current law prevents companies from just offeringpaid sick days or family leave to their workers, opponents of theproposal say — or short of that, from granting requests for unpaidleave. Because workers right now could take paid overtime and thenuse the money to make up for unpaid leave taken later, they argue,there's no benefit to them in letting them instead work unpaidovertime and then make up for it by taking paid leave.

Given the prevalence of wage-and-hour violations and Trump'sproposal to slash the Department of Labor's budget, workers who areillegally coerced out of time-and-a-half would be unlikely to gethelp, said Ellen Bravo, founder of the coalition Family Values atWork.

“It plays into the hands of bad actors who are already engagingin wage theft – it gives them another tool,” Bravo said.

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