[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 73 (Wednesday, May 22, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H5385]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            THE MINIMUM WAGE

  (Ms. DeLAURO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, today the House takes up increasing the 
minimum wage, and, in what amounts to little more than a political 
dance, the Republican majority has designed the debate to ensure that 
we take one step forward and two steps back. By coupling an increase in 
the minimum wage with an amendment exempting companies with less than 
$500,000 annual gross sales, the Republicans have assured a minimum 
wage increase that is unfair and is unacceptable.
  Mr. Speaker, if the amendment passes, 10 million hard-working 
Americans will be excluded from the increase, and millions more 
Americans already covered will lose their coverage.
  The gentleman from Texas [Mr. Armey] was not kidding when he said he 
would, and I quote, resist an increase in the minimum wage with every 
fiber of his being. By increasing the minimum wage and making it less 
available, the Republican leadership is dancing around an issue that 80 
percent of the American people support. In words that Dick Armey can 
understand, a country music song goes: One step forward, two steps 
back; nobody gets too far like that.

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