[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 94 (Monday, June 24, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6678-S6679]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    THE SENATE'S UNFINISHED BUSINESS

  Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, I thought this would be a good time 
to remind my colleagues of the unfinished business that is still 
waiting to get done.
  As we head toward the Fourth of July and another recess, we also need 
to remember that the days to take action in Congress are running out. 
It is not only late June, we also have very few days of legislative 
session left.
  Will this be the Congress remembered only for what it did not get 
done? Will this be the Congress that spent all of its time and millions 
of taxpayers' dollars only on camera-filled hearing rooms to learn 
about the White House Travel Office and to turn every pebble over on 
Whitewater?
  Instead, this should be a Congress capable of doing something about 
the day-to-day struggles of hard-working Americans. But to produce, we 
need some basic steps taken. The calendar needs to be pulled out, votes 
scheduled, final agreements reached, and work completed.
  I think of three actions that will help millions of Americans, 
including West Virginians.
  No. 1, it is time to wrap up the Kennedy-Kassebaum health insurance 
bill. Members from the other side of the aisle are determined to 
include something called medical savings accounts. I might add that I 
hear absolutely no clamor for MSA's from constituents, beyond employers 
that are thinking about using this device as a substitute for the 
health insurance they now subsidize for employees.
  But the key point is that the heart of Kennedy-Kassebaum involves 
changes that will make sure insurance is there for people when they 
really need it. When they need coverage for the very illness or 
condition that is now labeled a pre-existing condition. When they need 
coverage, but have to change jobs and now find their insurance 
canceled.
  These are the changes that affect millions of Americans, and many, 
many West Virginians. This is the work we need to get done before this 
session of Congress runs out.
  No. 2, this Congress still has the time to enact welfare reform. This 
is an area begging for reason and common sense. No one is going to get 
exactly their way on something as complicated and contentious as 
changing the welfare system. But it is not hard to figure out what 
Americans expect from us. They want to know that welfare is not a haven 
for avoiding work, responsibility, and the rules that most hard-working 
citizens play by.
  The Democratic leader has just laid out another detailed plan, known 
as Work First Two, that reflects exactly what we need to do on welfare 
reform. It is a tough, no-nonsense plan to require adults to work or 
prepare for work. It does not make a point of punishing innocent 
children, who have done nothing wrong.
  It is time to move away from politics, rigid positions, and posturing 
on welfare reform. The President has proven he will not sign a bill 
just because of its label. We should not waste any more time on 
legislation that belongs to one faction or simply rubber-stamps what 
some Governors have asked for. We need to work out our differences, and 
produce the bill that will turn welfare into a last-resort--for the 
sake of poor families and the hard-working taxpayers who want reform.
  Finally, I find it shameful that this Congress has still not been 
able to enact an increase in the minimum wage. And I want to elaborate 
some on this subject, because it is so important to the people of my 
State.
  A few weeks ago, the Washington Post ran an article telling us that 
the CEOs of major companies got a 23-percent raise in their 
compensation in 1995. According to the consulting firm of Pearl Myers & 
Partners, the average salary of a CEO was $991,300 with the remaining 
in stock options and bonuses. Twenty years ago, the top CEO earned 
about 40 times as much as the typical worker. Today, that same CEO 
earns 190 times as much.
  We know from study after study, town meeting after town meeting back 
home, that wages for most other Americans are stagnant and that most 
workers have every reason to feel insecure about their income, their 
jobs, and their health insurance. The people who work 8 hours every 
day, making products and providing needed services, deserve a living 
wage. They should not be left behind. The gap between the rich and the 
poor continues to polarize the country into the haves and have-nots, 
and that is downright un-American.
  As others have already said, whatever economic tide that is rising 
seems to be lifting a lot of yachts, and not much that carries the rest 
of Americans. Working families today are making less than they did 20 
years ago. Look at what has happened to a single worker over those 20 
years. He or she has watched the collapse of communism, voted in four 
Presidential elections, seen computers become a part of every day life, 
and watched the stock market rise over 5,000 points. For the worker 
relying on the minimum wage, his or her most recent paycheck is worth 
less than the first one in purchasing power.
  And some wonder why hard-working American families feel left out of 
the American dream? The stagnation of wages over the past 20 years is 
obvious to parents struggling to pay their bills.

  Mr. President, I ask my colleagues who still do not support a minimum 
wage increase to listen to this: When adjusted for inflation, the 
current Federal minimum wage of $4.25 an hour is worth 27 percent less 
to workers and their families than that amount in 1979. Measured in 
1979 dollars, the minimum wage is only worth $3.10 an hour. A minimum 
wage worker earns $8,840 a year. This is not a living wage, in fact, it 
is barely a sustainable wage. Even with an expanded earned income tax 
credit, earning $4.25 an hour does not lift a family out of poverty.
  No matter what the opponents say, minimum wage earners are not a 
collection of teen-age burger-flippers. Sixty-nine percent of all 
minimum wage earners are adults over the age of 21. Women make up 60 
percent of all minimum wage workers and are usually a single parent 
trying to keep their families together. These workers are playing by 
the rules, paying rent, utility bills, health care premiums, food and 
clothing for their families. They are working long and hard hours, and 
they do not want to slip into welfare and dependency.
  They deserve our admiration, our respect, and they deserve a raise.
  In my home State of West Virginia, over 100,000 workers would get a 
raise if we pass the Democratic amendment to raise minimum wage to 
$5.15. Almost 24 percent of West Virginia's work force would benefit 
from an increase in the minimum wage--about one out of four workers.
  Let me share the story of just one woman in West Virginia. When her 
husband was injured in the mines and denied disability coverage, she 
went to

[[Page S6679]]

work to support her family. The only job she could find was a minimum 
wage job at a lumber yard located miles away from her home. The work 
was hard, and after 9 months she broke her ankle on the job. Her family 
income last year was only $8,500. While on workers compensation, the 
section where she worked at the lumber yard closed and her job was 
eliminated. Now, both of her teenage sons are working to help support 
the family. Imagine trying to support a family of four on such a small 
income. But this woman just wants another job as soon as her physician 
allows her to go back to work.
  This West Virginian deserves a raise--and if we raise the minimum 
wage to $5.15, and her family gets their full earned income tax credit, 
they will be lifted out of poverty.
  It is a sad day in America when we do not help a West Virginia family 
that works hard to raise their children above the poverty line.
  We in Congress have the ability to bring badly needed relief to this 
family and about 12 million workers in America. We should come together 
in a spirit of decency and common sense, restore some glimmer of hope 
for these families, and raise the Federal minimum wage.
  The minimum wage has not been raised for 4 years, but the prices of 
everything else, from rent to food has gone up each and every year. 
Raising the minimum wage is essential to help families and reinforce 
the fundamental American values of hard work and self-sufficiency.
  And we all know that solely raising the minimum wage is not the 
silver bullet that will erase the gross inequity between the haves and 
have nots. Nor, will this act alone restore the economic vitality of 
working Americans that deserve so much more from the society they 
contribute to. But it is a simple, important, obvious step in the right 
direction to reward and encourage work. It tells hard-working American 
families that we value their right to a decent life.
  Mr. President, it is long past the time when the U.S. Senate should 
get the chance to vote for an increase that is shamefully overdue.
  I conclude by reminding everyone listening how little time there is 
left to get anything done that is relevant, meaningful, and helpful to 
hard-working Americans. But there is still the time to take three 
basic, important steps that deal directly with what weighs on the minds 
and shoulders of families in West Virginia, in Mississippi, from 
California to North Carolina.
  The bipartisan Kennedy-Kassebaum bill--a bill with the most basic 
health insurance reforms should get settled and enacted, now, this 
week, immediately.
  Welfare reform, drawing on plans from both sides of the aisle, should 
get worked out, put into final legislative form, and sent to the 
President in a form that he can sign in good conscience--in a form that 
will make welfare dependency something to avoid and work something 
expected.
  An increase in the minimum wage, the most basic and decent step we 
can take for millions of Americans who are doing everything possible to 
work, avoid welfare, and be productive citizens.
  If my colleagues want to continue endless hearings on what fascinates 
them about 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, so be it. But just a little time, 
some modest leadership, and some amount of attention to the calendar 
must go into producing something for the people who are waiting for 
action that makes a difference in their lives.
  Mr. LEAHY addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont is recognized.

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