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The Davis-Bacon Act, as amended, requires that, for Federal contracts over $2,000 where the Federal government or the District of Columbia is a party for the construction, alteration, or repair of public buildings or public works, laborers be paid the locally prevailing wages and fringe benefits for work done at the contractually-determined work-site. .[1] Additionally, Congress has added prevailing wage provisions to approximately 60 Federal statutes ("Related Acts") that assist construction projects through financial assistance awards, loans and loan guarantees, and insurance. Collectively, these Federal prevailing wage laws are known as Davis-Bacon and Related Acts, or DBRA. The Davis-Bacon Act is specific only to those contracts to which the United States is a party for the construction, alteration, or repair of public buildings or public works.[1]    Issuing a financial assistance award to a recipient who then issues a contract for construction does not make the United States a party to that contract, and as such the Davis-Bacon Act does not directly apply.  For this reason, Congress has had to specifically incorporate Davis-Bacon applicability into other statutes in order to make the law applicable in circumstances where the Federal government assists construction projects through the provision of grants, loans, loan guarantees, and insurance.

For grants and cooperative agreements, Davis-Bacon provisions only applies to through "Related Acts", i.e., those that specifically incorporate the requirement in the program's authorizing statute/legislation. For example, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) incorporated the requirements of the Davis-Bacon Act. See the U.S. Department of Labor's website at http://www.dol.gov/whd/programs/dbra/whatdbra.htm for more information.

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