[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 104 (Tuesday, July 16, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H7538]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  IT IS TIME TO FREE 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, it is day 6, and Republicans in the Senate 
continue to hold the minimum wage hostage. Their unreasonable ransom 
demands include adding medical savings accounts to health care reform. 
While the Republicans in the Senate hold the minimum wage increase 
hostage, they also hold the wages of 12 million Americans hostage, all 
for the sake of special interests and big donor insurance companies.
  The Consumers Union, the same group that publishes Consumers Report 
and tells us what to buy and what is a real lemon, has called MSA's a 
``time bomb * * * that will make health insurance less accessible and 
less affordable for many Americans.''
  Over 80 percent of the American people support a minimum wage 
increase. It is time to free the minimum wage.
  Let us give the 12 million hardworking Americans who depend on the 
minimum wage what they deserve; that is a raise. Stop holding them and 
their hard-earned paychecks hostage.

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