[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 58 (Wednesday, May 1, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H4307]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         CONGRESS SHOULD BRING MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE TO A VOTE

  (Mr. ENGEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, the 104th Congress has been on now for a 
little over a year and let us look at the extreme Republican agenda.
  They have spent the whole year trying to cut Medicare and Medicaid, 
to pay for a tax break for the rich. The Democrats and the President 
has stopped it. They want to give us the largest education cuts in the 
history of the United States. Can you imagine that? And they want to 
gut the environment and make air dirtier and water dirtier.
  Now they lecture us about family values, but they do not want to 
increase the the minimum wage. We cannot even get a vote on the floor 
of this House to say whether or not we want to increase the minimum 
wage by a lousy 90 cents an hour, up or down. Give us a vote. The 
American people want an increase in the minimum wage. Do not tell us 
you are for family values, Republicans. You do not give a darn about 
the American family. You will not even allow us to have a vote to raise 
the minimum wage 90 cents. When 84 percent of all Americans, 84 
percent, say they want an increase in the minimum wage, including 71 
percent of Republicans, the House leadership here will not even give us 
a vote.
  The minimum wage ought to be raised 90 cents; 90 cents is all we are 
asking. Give us a vote.

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