[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 103 (Friday, July 12, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H7507]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                MINIMUM WAGE BILL HELD HOSTAGE IN SENATE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Connecticut [Ms. DeLauro] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, it is day 3 and the Republican Senate 
continues to hold the minimum wage hostage. Does this make any sense? 
The Senate passed an increase in the minimum wage by a vote of 74 to 
24, and yet this legislation is not on its way to the President for 
signature.
  Why? Because Senate Republicans are holding the minimum wage hostage 
to special interests. In exchange for releasing their hold on the 
minimum wage, Republican Senators want medical savings accounts added 
to health care reform as a ransom for its release.
  MSAs, the Republican payoff to special interests and big donor 
insurance companies. The same MSAs that Consumers Union, Consumers 
Union is the group that puts out Consumer Report that tells you what 
kind of a car it makes sense to buy, what kind of an appliance so that 
you do not buy a lemon. The same MSAs Consumers Union called a time 
bomb that will make health insurance less accessible and less 
affordable for many Americans; the same MSAs that will make us take a 
step backward in our quest for health care coverage for the majority of 
Americans.
  This is an outrage. Over 80 percent of the American people support a 
minimum wage increase. Let me repeat that. Over 80 percent of the 
American people support a minimum wage increase. The Republican 
leadership understands that figure. In fact, the Senate Republican aide 
told the New York Times that ``Republicans do not believe in raising 
the minimum wage. We voted for it because it was killing us.''
  Talk about political expediency. And because they truly believe that 
they do not believe in raising that minimum wage and they do not 
believe in helping American families by increasing their economic 
earning power, and because they were forced to vote for it, they are 
now holding the minimum wage increase hostage.

                          ____________________