[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 74 (Thursday, May 23, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S5520]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      INCREASING THE MINIMUM WAGE

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, today's action by the House of 
Representatives removes one of the Republican's obstacles to successful 
action on the minimum wage. An overwhelming majority of House 
Republicans, 81 percent, tried to kill the increase by attaching a 
``poison pill'' to exempt all workers of small business, but 43 
courageous Republicans stood up to the extremists in their party and 
spit out the poison pill.
  As the price for accepting an increase, House Republicans tried to 
deny any minimum wage at all for millions of men and women who work for 
small business. It was a Republican sneak attack on the minimum wage, 
and it did not deserve to pass. The minimum wage is supposed to be a 
floor. It is wrong for Republicans to try to turn that floor into a 
trap door.
  The Republican philosophy seems to be the only good minimum wage is 
no minimum wage. It is bad enough that in today's economy, America has 
to compete with sweatshop labor overseas. If the Republicans have their 
way, American workers and American employers will have to compete with 
sweatshop labor right here in our own backyard. How very Republican. 
Every previous Congress that dealt with the minimum wage voted to 
expand coverage and give the benefits of the law's protection to more 
and more Americans. Now is no time to roll back that progress. It is 
time to end the Republican war on hard-working American families, and I 
am confident the Senate will also reject any Republican scheme to roll 
back the minimum wage. No one who works for a living should have to 
live in poverty.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be allowed 
to speak in morning business for no more than 5 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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