[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 112 (Friday, July 26, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H8561-H8562]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        MINIMUM WAGE AND WELFARE

  (Mr. MILLER of California asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, Members of the House, 
apparently the Republicans have gotten the message. America's families 
are working harder than ever, longer than ever, and earning less than 
at any time in the last 20 years. The reason for that is simply that 
wages have not kept up.
  But what we now see is the Republicans fighting an effort to bring a 
minimum wage to a livable wage. We see it is Republicans now allowing 
employers to take away people's overtime, overtime that has become, 
unfortunately, more and more important to maintaining family wages in 
this country.
  So, what we have is, we have a dual attack on working families, and 
now we see also that they are going to bring us a welfare bill that 
will plunge a million more children into poverty that are not in 
poverty today. Half of those children are in working families, but 
because their families cannot earn a better minimum wage, because they 
will not be allowed to earn more overtime, those families are now going 
to be put into poverty because they are

[[Page H8562]]

also going to lose what little benefits they get under the current 
welfare system. No; working families, working poor families, working 
middle class families continue to be under assault by this Republican 
Congress because they have not got the message these families need 
help.

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