[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 55 (Thursday, April 25, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H3839-H3840]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         MINIMUM WAGE NOW AT 40-YEAR LOW; AMERICA NEEDS A RAISE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas [Mr. Doggett] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, America needs a raise. With the purchasing 
power of the minimum wage now approaching a 40-year low, America needs 
a raise. And just a few minutes ago we had an opportunity to vote on 
whether America should get a raise. Unfortunately, at the last minute 
the Gingrich leadership was able to twist enough arms, apply enough 
pressure, cajole enough Members, to succeed on a very narrow vote, and 
I think that one thing we can see from this vote, as disappointing as 
it is, the setback that it is to America, is that all Americans can now 
see that all that stands between them and this House of Representatives 
and a raise, all that stands between them and that raise, are 10 
Republican Members and their votes, 10 Republican Members and their 
votes who were not willing to come forward this morning and cast a 
critical vote in favor of giving America a raise.
  Now, what is particularly ironic about this development is the fact 
that there were some 15 Republican Members of this body who have 
already signed their name onto an increase in the minimum wage of even 
greater than that proposed by President Clinton, and yet those 15 
Members, when they had an opportunity to come to the well of this House 
and cast a vote in favor of a raise for the American people, a vote 
that they have stood in front of the cameras and said they think the 
American people deserve, well, this morning they choose to vote against 
that raise.
  It is a setback, and it is a disappointment to the people that are 
out there this morning working in the nursing homes, washing dishes in 
the back of the restaurants, cleaning our buildings, and doing the 
other kinds of tasks that make life possible to go forward in America, 
and yet receiving the lowest wage that anyone in our country receives.
  But, you know, despite this temporary setback, I remain hopeful about 
where we are headed in this country, hopeful because of what is 
happening in the budget process today. You see, it was only a year ago 
that Republicans came to the well of this House and demanded that we 
terminate the COPS Program. That is the program that is designed to get 
100,000 law enforcement officers into our neighborhoods, and our 
streets to assure the security of our families and our businesses, and 
they said they did not want that program anymore.
  It was only 1 year ago that the Republicans came to the well of this 
House, and they were saying, ``You know, we have got to raise the cost 
of going to college for those middle-class families that are working 
and struggling with their young people to get them through college. 
What we have in mind is $5,000 more for a Stafford loan for 4 years, 
the standard cost of a Federal loan to go to college.'' And the 
Republicans said, ``We will place another obstacle in the way of those 
who are trying to educate their young people.''
  It was only 1 year ago that they were working to jeopardize the 
health care security of our seniors with their pay more, get less that 
they called a reform in the Medicare system, but to those seniors whose 
pocket was going to be invaded, to pay more, to get less, in they way 
of health care, who were going to face increases in premiums, increases 
in copayments, increases in deductible, it was a pretty heavy hit.
  It was only 1 year ago that our Republican colleagues were here, 
indeed it was less than 1 year ago, demanding that we do further damage 
to the air and the water of this country with a series of very 
restrictive riders that they were placing on the Republican 
appropriations bill with reference to the environment. Indeed, they 
were working on that only within the last few weeks, and it was only 1 
year ago, indeed only a few weeks ago, that Republicans were pursuing 
cuts in public education that in my hometown of Austin, TX, stood the 
costs about 2,300 of our youngest Texans, our pre-kindergarten 
children, to lose half of their pre-kindergarten program. It was the 
same kind of cutback that would have affected public education in a 
most detrimental way in our part of the country and really across this 
country.
  What has happened in the course of that year? All of those mean-
spirited, extremist initiatives, whether it was to permit more 
pollution of our air and water, to erect more obstacles to our young 
people with reference to their ability to get public education, to get 
a college education, whether it was the

[[Page H3840]]

threat to the security of health with reference to our oldest citizens, 
all of those initiatives, including the one concerning putting more law 
enforcement officers in our neighborhoods, all of those initiatives 
that the Gingrich leadership declared they had to have in order to have 
a revolution, they have now yielded on in this new budget bill.

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