Amendment, as originally offered, sought to raise the threshold for application of Davis-Bacon provisions in current law from $2,000 to $250,000 for all federal construction projects; permit the increased use of "helpers" on such projects; change the payroll reporting requirements from weekly to quarterly; and codify Labor Department regulations, including a requirement on wage rate determinations for rural areas to be distinct from urban areas. \ As amended by the Murphy substitute amendment (A043), the Davis-Bacon threshold provisions were raised from $2,000 to $50,000 for all Federal construction projects and a new separate threshold of $15,000 was created for all Federally funded or assisted repair, alteration, renovation, rehabilitation, or reconstruction projects.