[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 55 (Thursday, April 25, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H3825]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               AMERICA SUPPORTS RAISING THE MINIMUM WAGE

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, again I do not understand what the argument 
is about which Congress tried or did not try to raise the minimum wage. 
The bottom line is we know now we have a majority in both Houses, 
mostly Democrats, but also enough Republicans, so that we could pass 
the minimum wage if it was only brought up for a vote on the floor 
right now.
  The problem is that the Republican leadership, Speaker Gingrich and 
the others, do not want to bring it up for a vote. They had a meeting 
yesterday and all the newspapers today say they refuse to bring it up 
for a simple up or down vote. The reason they will not bring it up is 
because they know it will pass.
  The American people favor this, four out of five in all the recent 
polls, and the majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate 
and the President of the United States. So why not bring it up?
  Very simple: They do not want to do it. Instead, they have come up 
with some bureaucratic cockamamie proposal to essentially use a 
government subsidy to help certain families, but not everyone.
  Why in the world are we talking about a government subsidy to 
employers so that they do not have to pay a higher wage, a living wage? 
It makes no sense.

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