[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 112 (Friday, July 26, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H8574-H8581]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 APPOINTMENT OF CONFEREES ON H.R. 3448, SMALL BUSINESS JOB PROTECTION 
                                ACT 1996

  Mr. ARCHER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the 
Speaker's table the bill (H.R. 3448) to provide tax relief for small 
businesses, to protect jobs, to create opportunities, to increase the 
take home pay of workers, to amend the Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947 
relating to the payment of wages to employees who use employer owned 
vehicles, and to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to increase 
the minimum wage rate and to prevent job loss by providing flexibility 
to employers in complying with minimum wage and overtime requirements 
under that act, with Senate amendments thereto, disagree to the Senate 
amendments, and request a conference with the Senate thereon.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Torkildsen). Is there objection to the 
request of the gentleman from Texas?
  There was no objection.


                 motion to instruct offered by mr. clay

  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I offer a motion.
  The Clerk read as follows:

       Mr. Clay moves that the managers on the part of the House 
     at the conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses 
     on the Senate amendments to the bill H.R. 3448 be instructed 
     to report as soon as possible their resolution of the 
     differences between the Houses, because the minimum wage is 
     at its lowest real value in 40 years and because working 
     families deserve a raise.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under rule XXVIII, the gentleman from 
Missouri [Mr. Clay] and the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Goodling] 
each will control 30 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Clay].

[[Page H8575]]

  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
   Mr. Speaker, I rise to offer a motion to instruct conferees. We have 
spent this morning debating a bill that will jeopardize overtime pay 
for working Americans. More and more workers rely on overtime pay just 
to make ends meet, yet Republicans insist on passing legislation that 
will weaken a worker's right to time and a half pay for overtime.
  The House's action today makes it even more necessary that we act 
quickly to enact an increase in the minimum wage. An increase to the 
minimum wage will provide simple justice for working men and women.
  We offer talk about the importance of getting people off welfare. If 
we are serious about that, if we really want to get people off welfare 
as opposed to just talking about it, there is one simple way to do 
that--make work pay.
  Almost two-thirds of the minimum wage workers are adults, while 4 in 
10 are the sole breadwinner of their family.
  Recent studies suggest that 300,000 would be lifted out of poverty if 
the minimum wage were raised to $5.15 per hour. This includes 100,000 
children now living in poverty.
   Mr. Speaker, this is a matter of simple justice. This is a matter of 
promoting family values.
  It is time to do something positive for the working poor. Polls show 
that 75 percent of Americans support raising the minimum wage.
  Mr. Speaker, the time to raise the minimum wage is long overdue.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds.
  Mr. Speaker, obviously we want to work with the minority to resolve 
the differences as quickly as possible.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from 
Michigan [Mr. Bonior].
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me the 
time, and I am glad to hear my friend from Pennsylvania say that he is 
interested in working with the minority to resolve this issue as 
quickly as possible.
  Back in 1948, Harry Truman gave a speech about a do-nothing Congress, 
and in that speech he said that the Republicans had not created jobs, 
they had not raised wages, they had not protected pensions, they had 
not dealt with the health care issue, they had not done a single thing 
to help working families in America. At the end of the speech Truman 
looked at the audience and he said, ``How many times do you have to get 
hit over the head before you realize what is hitting you over the 
head?''
  Mr. Speaker, I want to believe my friend from Pennsylvania. He is a 
noble, decent, hard-working Member of this body, Mr. Goodling, but let 
me tell my colleagues something, I have some difficulty here because we 
have seen a strategy of delaying, of burying, of ducking on this issue.
  Five separate times Republicans blocked an increase in the minimum 
wage. Newt Gingrich said the minimum wage should be based on the wages 
of workers from Mexico. Dick Armey said that he would fight it with 
every fiber of his being. Tom DeLay said that the minimum wage families 
do not really exist. And the chairman of the Republican conference said 
he would commit suicide before he would vote for raising the minimum 
wage.
  So, after all this published pressure in the country forced them to 
act, the House raised the minimum wage, but only after our friends on 
this side of the aisle tried to repeal the minimum wage for 10 million 
workers in this country. So people can understand our trepidation and 
our fear that this is not going to get done.
  Workers in this country are losing these wages on a daily basis, 
costing literally hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars to these 
low-income workers in this country today. Twelve million Americans are 
working hard, they are working long hours.
  These are people who are choosing work over welfare, and they cannot 
raise a family on $8,800 a year. When they are in that situation, they 
end up working two jobs and three jobs and overtime.
  When a mother is working an extra job, she is not there for her kids 
in the evening, she is not there to teach them right from wrong, she is 
not there to read them bedtime stories. When the father has to work two 
or three jobs or overtime, he is not there for Little League of soccer 
games. He is not there for dinner conversations. And the whole fabric 
of civil society starts to come unraveled.
  This needs to be done now. It needs to be done before Labor Day. It 
needs to be done so we can get on with the object of giving America a 
raise. So I encourage my colleagues to vote for this resolution so we 
can do this, as the resolution says, as the instructions say, as soon 
as possible. We do not need to wait another month or two or three 
before this issue is resolved.
  Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute.
  Mr. Speaker, I do that to make sure that everybody understands that 
nobody was trying to exempt millions of American workers from minimum 
wage. What we were trying to do is what the other side of the aisle 
thought they had done in 1989 and thought they had done later, which 
was to say that there is no difference between interstate and 
intrastate, because all those workers were already exempt less than 
500,000 of them.
  What we were trying to do, as I indicated, is make sure that there is 
no difference between interstate and intrastate, exactly what the 
minority thought they had done in 1989. According to the Congressional 
Research Service, that affected 230,000 people, not 10 million, not 16 
million, 230,000, of which I grandfathered all of those so none of them 
was affected.
  Therefore, we cannot say that somehow or other somebody was trying to 
take away an exemption, because the exemption was already there. All we 
were trying to do was make sure that we got it the way they wanted it, 
but it did not work out that way.

                              {time}  1200

  Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California [Mr. 
Cunningham].
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman that spoke in the aisle a 
minute ago said to increase the minimum wage. If my colleagues remember 
the last time the minimum wage was raised before this, it was raised by 
Ronald Reagan and the Republicans.
  Why, when the Democrats had both the House and the Senate and the 
White House, if the minimum wage is so important now, did they do 
nothing? They had control of all three of the areas in which they could 
have raised the minimum wage and they chose to do nothing. The 
President even said the minimum wage is not the way to empower people. 
But now it is important because it is a political year.
  No, Mr. Speaker, they do not raise the minimum wage and they talk 
about a do-nothing Congress. Well, Democrats did a lot of things in the 
103d Congress. They increased taxes the highest level ever. They 
promised a middle-class tax cut and they increased the marginal rate on 
the middle class.
  Mr. Speaker, we tried to live up to that bargain and give money back 
to the middle class with a $500 tax deduction to working families for 
every child, and my Democrat colleagues fought that. Why? Because they 
want the power and the ability to spend money out of Washington, DC, so 
they can rain it down to their liberal interest groups, so they can get 
reelected. That is what is cruel.
  Mr. Speaker, if my colleagues want to help the American people, 
balance the budget and cut out the extra spending.
  Let me give another classic example. In education, the liberals have 
cut education year after year after year. How? The President's direct 
lending program cost over a billion dollars more just to administer. 
One year in operation they have lost $100 million and they cannot 
account for it. That is cutting education because those dollars are not 
going to the classroom.
  We took the savings from that and increased Pell grants and increased 
students loans 50 percent and Democrats said Republicans are cutting 
education. What we did is we cut their power in River City and we 
capped the administrative fees on direct lending.
  AmeriCorps where it is $29,000 per volunteer, and in Baltimore it was

[[Page H8576]]

$50,000 per volunteer; the wasteful spending that we have in 
Washington, DC. If my colleagues want to help American families and get 
them a minimum wage, then balance the budget and take off interest 
rates. They will have more money for schools and car loans and home 
loans and they will have a good life. But no, Democrats want to make it 
political rhetoric in an election year, when they absolutely refused to 
do it when they had the total House, the total Senate and they had the 
White House.
  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, may I remind all speakers that we are talking about the 
minimum wage and not some of these other issues that have been brought 
before us.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Hawaii [Mrs. 
Mink].
  Mrs. MINK of Hawaii. Mr. Speaker, I thank our ranking member for 
yielding me time.
  Mr. Speaker, this matter of raising minimum wage is a matter of 
simple justice. We have heard throughout the last year and a half about 
how important it is for people to work. In fact, we have passed a 
welfare reform bill, so-called, which will require work because work is 
an important ethic that ought to be encouraged.
  And while we talk about work, we always say work should be rewarded. 
So we have come now to this legislation which is an attempt to pay fair 
wages, to make it profitable for people to work at the lowest income in 
our country.
  People who work at minimum wage, $4.25 now, all they are going to 
receive after a year is $5.15 an hour; not much more than what they 
get, but a substantial amount for those people who are in the lowest 
income in our society. And I have met many tens of thousands of workers 
who are earning minimum wage in my district.
  Mr. Speaker, I was appalled when once the Labor Department issued the 
unemployment statistics, everywhere we had been told that the economy 
was down and that the tax collections were down. And yet at the same 
time our unemployment figures remained stable. They remained stable 
because in my community, people have to work three or two jobs just to 
keep their families together. So when they lose the third job and 
retain two, they are not unemployed, so it was not reflected in the 
unemployment statistics, but it certainly was reflected in the amount 
of money that they had to sustain their families.
  Mr. Speaker, if we are going to consider the family and the 
importance of the family, the importance of rewarding work and making 
people self-sufficient and encouraging this idea of family 
responsibility, we have to have an increase in the minimum wage.
  Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from West 
Virginia [Mr. Wise].
  Mr. WISE. Mr. Speaker, the minimum wage is finally going to be a 
bipartisan bill, but with Republicans and Democrats alike, to my 
friends on the other side of the aisle who want to troop down here and 
talk about how Democrats did not do anything the first 2 years of the 
Clinton administration, I would hasten to remind them of the earned 
income tax credit which was part of the deficit reduction bill.
  Democrats passed that and it gave every American earning under 
$26,000 a year a tax cut. It gave 100,000 working West Virginians a tax 
cut. That was in lieu of the minimum wage and I might add not one 
Republican Member voted for it. Not one Republican Member voted for 
that middle-income and lower middle-income working person's tax cut, 
which, in effect, was a minimum wage increase.
  But let us talk about this minimum wage, because it is time for it to 
go up. The minimum wage has not been raised since 1991, effectively. In 
West Virginia, what it has meant, failure to raise the minimum wage 
during the year that it has been talked about has meant $41 million of 
lost wages to working West Virginians. It has meant, since July 4, the 
loss of about $2 million a week to working West Virginians. That is 
money not only in their pockets but money that could be circulating in 
the economy.
  Mr. Speaker, it also means that for working West Virginians it means 
that there are 112,000 payroll jobs that will see an increase because 
of this minimum wage increase over the next 2 years going from $4.25 to 
$5.15 over a 2-year period.
  We talk about welfare reform; this is welfare reform, because what it 
says is there is value to work. I think that if workers have not had a 
pay increase since 1991, if they are at minimum wage, their buying 
power is at an all-time buying low for the last 40 years. If they are 
now making one-third the average nonsupervisory wage, and the minimum 
wage used to be one-half of that, yes, it is time for a raise.
  So, Mr. Speaker, let us get this to the floor quickly. I am delighted 
to see there seems to be agreement among Republicans and Democrats. It 
is time for West Virginians to stop losing $2 million a week and get 
that pay raise.
  Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, do we have the right to close on this side?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Torkildsen). Yes, the gentleman is 
correct.
  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire of the gentleman if he intends 
to call additional speakers.
  Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, whenever the 
gentleman from Missouri tells me he is down to his last speaker, I will 
get up and endorse his motion and then yield back the balance of my 
time.
  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California [Mr. 
Becerra].
  Mr. BECERRA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me 2 
minutes. That is all it should take Members of this House to pass this 
bill. Two minutes. Not 2 months and certainly not 40 years. But for 40 
years we have seen the minimum wage constantly have the value eroded 
down to the point now where we are now talking to folks who are working 
for minimum wage who cannot afford to exist.
  Mr. Speaker, this is not a liveable wage. And it has been more than a 
month since this House, by a vast majority of its Members, decided to 
tell the American people, America you deserve a raise. But for more 
than a month this bill has been held in limbo because of politics. The 
Senate passed a raise on the wage more than a month ago and we cannot 
get this out so Americans can finally get their raise.
  Mr. Speaker, there is not a need to wait any longer. We need not have 
an instruction to tell Members of Congress to finally do their work. 
Let us get to the business of this Congress. Let us increase the wage 
of American workers who earn the least amount in this country and do 
some of the hardest work. They have waited a long time. They have had 
to suffer through this. And quite honestly, it is time for us to tell 
them we appreciate what they do. And rather than the politics day after 
day, denying them the opportunity to have a 50 cent increase in their 
hourly pay, let us get past this political bickering and say it is time 
to increase the wage of America.
  I urge Members to vote for this instruction and let us tell the 
leadership of the Congress: Fight if you wish, but do not do it on 
American workers' time. Let us pass this and get it over with and give 
America what it deserves.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 15 seconds.
  Mr. Speaker, as soon as we cut the rhetoric, we will get this minimum 
wage conference over.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from 
Connecticut [Ms. DeLauro].
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of raising the minimum 
wage and I call on the Republican leadership to quit the stalling 
tactics on this much-needed legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, 80 percent of the American public wants to see an 
increase in the minimum wage. Americans need a raise and the Gingrich 
Congress has gone to unbelievable lengths to stiff working people, 
including this morning voting to cut overtime pay for working people. 
The Republican leadership has employed every parliamentary trick in the 
book to deny the minimum wage to, deny workers a 90-cent increase. We 
are talking, friends, about 90 cents.

[[Page H8577]]

  Under Federal law, Speaker Gingrich takes home $171,500 a year in 
taxpayers' money for his salary. In contrast, the minimum wage worker 
who puts in 40 hours a week for 52 weeks a year makes a grand total of 
$8,840.
  On April 17, Speaker Gingrich promised to, ``look at raising the 
minimum wage.'' It has been exactly 100 days since Speaker Gingrich 
made that promise and the American taxpayers have paid him $46,989 in 
that time. And in Connecticut, minimum wage workers lost a total of 
$4.8 million in this time in terms of their wages.
  Speaker Gingrich and the Republican revolutionaries passed their 
Contract With America in the first 100 days of this Congress, but when 
it comes to working people, the Republican leadership cannot get its 
act together enough to enact a paltry 90-cent raise. America needs a 
raise now. Let us do it.
  Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise just to indicate that I voted for the bill when 
it left the House. I got some provisions in to protect the most 
vulnerable who normally are affected. Therefore, as soon as we stop the 
rhetoric, we will go on to conference and get the job done.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Georgia 
[Mr. Lewis].
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge my Republican 
colleagues to stop blocking action on the minimum wage. I have said it 
before and I will say it again here today: Raising the minimum wage is 
not just an economic issue, it is a moral issue. It is the right thing 
to do. The time is always right to do right.
  The Republicans in Congress will do anything to deny hard-working 
people a small raise. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Majority Leader, I know you 
vowed to fight an increase in the minimum wage with every fiber in your 
being but you cannot fight the will of the American people forever. Now 
is the time to act. Now is the time, not tomorrow, not next week, but 
today. One thing is for sure. Come November, working people will 
remember.
  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New 
York [Mr. Owens].
  (Mr. OWENS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, America needs a raise; most of America needs 
a raise. Really, the CEO's are doing very well in America. The 
stockholders are doing very well. This is a time of prosperity and a 
great deal of growth. it is time to share the wealth, however.
  American workers are stagnated and some are faced with decline in 
incomes. Here is a small step that we can take. I wish that we could 
have both Republicans and Democrats resolve between now and the end of 
this session, at least we will do no more harm to workers than has been 
done already this year.

                              {time}  1215

  The tiny steps that we can take is to move from $4.25 an hour to the 
first step in this two-step raise which will be 45 cents a year over a 
2-year period, just 90 cents, to move from $4.25 to $5.15. What all the 
economist say, if you factor in inflation and you look at the way that 
the cost of living has been raised over the last 20 years, we are way 
behind.
  To really stay level with the cost of living, this minimum wage 
increase should go to something like $6.30 an hour. So even after we 
give the two-step increase over a 2-year period, 90 cents to bring it 
up to $5.15 an hour, we will still be way behind what we really had 20 
years ago with the minimum wage.
  This is the least we can do. The war that has been declared on 
workers this year, starting with the November victory in 1994 of the 
Republican majority, is an unprecedented war. At least we can call a 
halt between now and November, try to stake some small steps to 
communicate to the American people that we do care about working 
families, that when we talk about moving from welfare to work, we want 
to make work rewarding. We have taken the rewards out of work by having 
people who earn the minimum wage earning less than you get if you are 
on welfare, and in many cases you are better off if you are on welfare 
and have Medicaid because at least you have a health care plan. Let us 
end the war on workers and raise the minimum wage without further ado.
  Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds.
  Mr. Speaker, if we wanted to delay the process, we would not have 
come to the floor to ask to appoint conferees. I might remind my 
colleagues that it was the senior Senator from Massachusetts that held 
all of this up over on the Senate side, the appointing of the 
conferees, not because it had anything to do with the minimum wage but 
because he did not like something in relationship to health care. That 
is where the delay has been. We are trying to expedite it.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, just to correct the record, I yield myself 
such time as I may consume.
  Why do they keep adding these nongermane issues to important issues 
like the minimum wage? It should not have been there in the first 
place. That is the problem with what is happening in this 104th 
Congress under the leadership of the Republicans.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. 
Volkmer].
  (Mr. VOLKMER asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. VOLKMER. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Pennsylvania says that 
they are not the cause of the delay. I can remember back early on in 
this year, way back, when we on this side attempted many times to bring 
up a minimum wage bill and to be thwarted by the votes of the majority, 
because why? Speaker Gingrich did not want us to have a minimum wage 
bill.
  Finally, because of some of their Members and some of the Members 
from people from the media and the public said we have to have a 
minimum wage, everybody knows that the minimum wage has the lowest 
buying power that it has had in the last 40 years, so that got to them. 
So then they finally came up with they want an amendment, though that 
would have obfuscated most of it, even denied any minimum wage to over 
10 million workers. We defeated that. They tried the same thing in the 
Senate.
  This has been a long arduous process, and all because Speaker 
Gingrich and Dick Armey, they do not want us to have the public, the 
people out there that work, they do not want them to have a little 
increase in the minimum wage, 90 cents over a period of 2 years, a 90-
cent increase.
  Most of my colleagues on the majority side, that would be a hill of 
beans, does not amount to anything. They would throw that away in 15 
minutes without any problem. To people in my district who work for a 
minimum wage, that 90 cents means a heck of a lot, folks. That means 
more bread on the table. That means maybe an extra pair of socks for 
the kids, maybe even a pair of shoes in due time. That is what it 
means. It does not mean that to the majority, to the wealthy, but it 
does to those who work for it.
  As for me, I worked for a minimum wage at one time. I know what it is 
like. I do not like it. I do not think anybody on the minimum wage 
really likes working for the minimum wage. But to have to work for 
$4.25 when you should be working for $5 or $5.15 makes a big 
difference.
  Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from 
North Carolina [Mr. Coble].
  Mr. COBLE. Mr. Speaker, I had not planned to speak today. I have no 
prepared text. But I get tired of bashing. It is easy for Democrats to 
bash Republicans, easy for Republicans to bash Democrats. We seem to be 
in the bashing game.
  I was back on the rail, listening to the bashing exercise. I may be 
wrong, Mr. Speaker, but I think if memory serves correctly, and it 
does, during the 103d Congress, when my Democrat friends controlled the 
House, controlled the Senate, controlled the White House at the other 
end of Pennsylvania Avenue, not one word was mentioned about minimum 
wage. They were in the wheelhouse of that ship. My colleagues had 
control of the ship. But minimum wage was not on their radar screen, my 
friends. Now all of a sudden it is a hot item and it is the 
Republicans' fault.

[[Page H8578]]

  I tire of it, Mr. Speaker, and I believe the American public tires of 
it and can see through it.
  I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for yielding me the time.
  Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
Indiana [Mr. Souder].
  Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Speaker, I am a little confused as to what we are 
debating because we mostly seem to be having a bash Republican session 
here as opposed to debating the substance. In other words, the House 
appointed conferees. I think the chairman in the House and the majority 
in the House are willing to move ahead.
  I have differences with what the House did. I actually agree with 
much of what the Senate is trying to do because I believe, and I get 
tired of having my motives attacked, I believe that in actuality that 
the increase in the minimum wage will hurt those who least can afford 
to be hurt.
  I know in inner-city Fort Wayne we have been trying to get a grocery 
store to relocate back there. We lost all the major downtown grocery 
stores. This will increase their wage rates basically 20 percent. They 
already made a market decision that they could not put it there and we 
are making the market decision more difficult.
  In the small town that I grew up and other small towns, the increases 
in the minimum wage are helping to take very marginal businesses under. 
We are seeing the Wal-Martization of America because suburbs can 
afford, through economic growth, to afford a lot of this. We need to 
look at creative ways, particularly for small businesses to deal with 
it.

  Basically I believe that what we are debating here is not the 
substance of the minimum wage. We voted and I lost. What we are 
debating is how to resolve this procedure, how to move the conferees 
through, how to do it. We are not really resisting the point of trying 
to get the conference done. The Senators have been holding up the 
conference.
  We want to see it move. As a freshman who has voted on this issue, 
who is willing to argue this issue, who unlike others have stood up and 
talked and tried to explain why I voted my vote, I do not retreat from 
my vote. I realize we have had this argument before.
  I just wish that some of rhetoric would be toned down, that the 
motives attacks would be toned down, and we could move ahead with this 
process rather than continue what I believe has become malicious 
bashing of our side.
  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from 
Missouri [Mr. Volkmer].
  Mr. VOLKMER. Mr. Speaker, one of my many small businessmen in my 
rural district, he has been in business for 30 years, he has 
approximately 25 employees. Does the gentleman know what he said? He 
said, the minimum wage should be increased.
  He does not pay the minimum wage. He starts people out at the minimum 
wage, but he says, people even starting out now at $4.25 cannot make 
it.
  If the gentleman wants his name, I will be glad to give it to him. 
His name is Pete Leukenhaus. He has a small business in Wentzville, MO. 
He believes that it should be increased had, not decreased, not held 
the same but increased.
  Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. VOLKMER. I yield to the gentleman from Indiana.
  Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Speaker, I believe every business that can pay more 
should absolutely pay more. There are many small businesses that are 
closed that used to pay less, and they cannot make it. That is really 
what I am talking about.
  I would have liked to have seen some sort of adjustments to code to 
help low-income people who are just starting out, particularly young 
mothers who are often divorced or single and trying to make it. I would 
like to look at it. This is not the way.
  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, since the first week of this month, when the 
Senate passed the minimum wage bill, Republican delay has cost the 
gentleman from Indiana's workers, workers in his State, $5 million a 
week. I wish he would consider that when he talks about how dangerous 
the minimum wage is.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Colorado [Mrs. 
Schroeder].
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Missouri for 
yielding me the time.
  I have been interested in this debate because Members come in and 
say, I do not like the bashing, and then they proceed to bash the 
President, the Democrats or whatever.
  Let us stop the bashing. Let us reach that challenge. Let us talk 
about what is at the core of this debate.
  When I went to college, I went to an out of State public university, 
which meant I was paying out-of-State tuition. I had a job with the 
minimum wage and, with that job, I made enough money to pay that 
tuition. Show me where you can do that today.
  Let me tell my colleagues, what the real issue is is the minimum wage 
is lower in value than it has ever been. You are talking about a 40-
year low. The minimum wage was supposed to be the floor.
  Everybody wants to do welfare reform. Everybody wants to do these 
kinds of things. But if we cannot have a job where people can sustain 
themselves, we are really showing how totally coldhearted we are.
  I think it is difficult for people who make $130,000 a year to stand 
up here and scream about, we do not want to raise the minimum wage. Yet 
the leadership on the other side of the aisle has said they were going 
to fight it with every fiber in their body. They were not going to let 
it go through.

  Nevertheless, when we point that out, they say, there you go, 
bashing. It is not bashing. This is reciting what they have said 
publicly.
  I think it is time we lift the minimum wage. It is way overdue. That 
will be the biggest incentive to welfare reform.
  I think we need to get on with dealing with the real people who keep 
this country moving. It is particularly necessary for women. A very 
high percentage of people on the minimum wage are young moms trying to 
make it for their kids. They are trying to make it for their kids 
because we have not given them the tough child support enforcement help 
that they need. Now we are trying to cut off any other kind of support.
  Raise the minimum wage. Let us do this together.
  Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 15 seconds, just to remind 
everyone that the core of this debate, as a matter of fact, is do we 
expedite or do we not expedite the conference. That is the only core of 
this debate. If we stop talking, we will expedite it.
  I would just mention that, to the best of my knowledge, to my friend 
from Missouri, the senior Senator from Massachusetts, I think, is still 
a Democrat.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California [Mr. 
Riggs].
  Mr. RIGGS. Mr. Speaker, I want to point out to my Democratic 
colleagues, as the person who actually offered the minimum wage 
amendment on this floor, that I was joined by 92 other Republicans in 
voting for that legislation on final passage. The difference is that us 
93 Republicans also support meaningful welfare reform. So while on the 
one hand we do believe that the Federal minimum wage ought to be 
increased, if not to keep pace with inflation to at least restore some 
of the purchasing power to the minimum wage that has been lost or 
eroded due to inflation and to try to reverse this sort of perverse 
incentive in American society where welfare benefits in the aggregate 
pay more than the minimum wage job, that is to say, trying to make work 
more attractive than welfare, trying to make work pay more than 
welfare, the difference again is that we support raising the minimum 
wage and reforming welfare.

                              {time}  1230

  And I do not believe a single Democratic speaker who has come down to 
the floor and has been talking on this particular subject, this 
relatively innocuous motion to instruct conferees, supported welfare 
reform when they had the opportunity in this Chamber.
  Now, the history is quite clear, colleagues. In 1992, candidate 
Clinton promised to end welfare as we know it. In 1995 and again in 
1996 President Clinton vetoed welfare reform. Empty rhetoric spoken 
with the greatest of sincerity, followed by another broken promise. 
This cycle repeats itself all too often with President Clinton.

[[Page H8579]]

  So even though his party, the Democratic Party, controlled the White 
House and the Congress for the first 2 years of his Presidency, 
President Clinton did nothing about welfare. He even admitted that when 
he finally got around to introducing welfare reform legislation, or 
suggesting welfare reform legislation to this body, it was quite 
watered down, and as previous speakers have already pointed out, when 
one controls the House and the Senate, they fail to offer legislation 
to increase the minimum wage, which seems to sort of undermine their 
credibility on this particular issue, it has taken a Republican-led 
Congress to pass legislation to reform welfare as President Clinton 
promised to do and to increase the minimum wage.
  Now, last Thursday we made it possible for President Clinton to again 
sign on to a serious commonsense welfare reform package. He can either 
keep his word to end welfare as we know it, and my colleagues can help 
him do that, or he can do as usual break his word and prove yet again 
he means little or nothing of what he says. In order, though, for him 
to keep his word, he is going to have to stand up against the 
opposition of his party in the House of Representatives and most of the 
people who have spoken here on this floor today in the last few minutes 
to the idea of genuine welfare reform. The choice is his.
  I ask all of my colleagues on the Democratic side of the aisle to 
join us in raising the minimum wage and reforming welfare.
  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  The diversion is becoming an art in this House. The subject today is 
minimum wage; it is not welfare reform, or capital gains, or a host of 
other nongermane issues. The gentleman from California who just spoke, 
workers in his district have lost $25 million a week since the 
beginning of this month because of the delay in this bill becoming law.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York [Mr. 
Engel].
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for yielding this time to 
me. As my colleagues know, this is not Republican bashing or any other 
kind of bashing. This is simply setting the record straight.
  The American people are not fools. They understand that the Democrats 
in Congress all Congress long have been pushing for an increase in the 
minimum wage. We could not even get a procedural vote to bring the 
minimum wage to the floor for months upon months upon months.
  The Republican leadership did not want this bill. They finally are 
here kicking and screaming every inch of the way because they know that 
80 percent of the American people support the minimum wage increase and 
they were on the wrong side of the issue. So they are cutting their 
losses, and they are reluctantly coming to the table.
  But the American people, again, are not fools. They know that the 
Democratic Party has been pushing it in this Congress.
  I do not need history about what happened in previous Congresses. Let 
us talk about this Congress. This is the Congress that the Republicans 
have the majority, and this has been to do-nothing Republican Congress 
because it took us so long to finally get the minimum wage to the 
floor, and we are finally about to pass the minimum wage, but again 
with 90 Republicans or 92 Republicans, still a majority of Republicans 
in this Chamber, voted against raising the minimum wage, and a majority 
of Democrats overwhelmingly supported and voted for the minimum wage. 
So the American people should understand that. That is what has 
happened.
  We talk about welfare reform. Well, no one is going to get off the 
minimum wage, get off a minimum wage job or get into a minimum wage job 
and get off welfare if the minimum wage is not worthwhile, if there is 
no child care, if there is inadequate health care, and that is the 
problem with the welfare bill. But we are discussing minimum wage, and 
it is very clear, very simple. The American people know the Democrats 
in this Congress have been for increasing the minimum wage time and 
time again, and Republicans have dragged their feet every step of the 
way, and again it is consistent with the Republicans attacking working 
people in this country, being against the minimum wage, being for 
gutting OSHA and gutting all kinds of rights for workers.
  So let us get on and let us pass the minimum wage. This is a victory 
for the American people.
  Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 15 seconds just to remind 
the gentleman from New York again he had 2 years, complete majority in 
the House, complete majority in the Senate, had the White House, never 
even mentioned in my committee for 2 years when they had total majority 
anything about the minimum wage.
  But again I say, the senior Senator from Massachusetts delayed 
appointing in conferees over there, we delayed now about 45 minutes 
appointing them here. We could get on with the job. All we have to do 
is name the conferees.
  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from 
Montana [Mr. Williams].
  Mr. WILLIAMS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding this 
time to me.
  Perhaps the most interesting element in this debate is how one-sided 
it is. As my colleagues here and I, similar viewers, know, the reason 
our good friend from Pennsylvania has to stand up and keep granting 
himself 15 seconds and half a minute is because he cannot get any 
Republicans to come over here and support him on this, or very, very 
few, and some who have come over and supported him on it are actually 
against the minimum wage and have said so.
  Look, the American people understand this. This is a very partisan 
issue. It has been for almost 60 years. Republicans have been against 
the minimum wage since it was first created in the late 1930's, and 
they have been against it each time it has come up since. Oh, if we 
bring the bill publicly out on the floor, as we have done this 
afternoon, the Republicans are back in the cloakroom, and if they 
finally have to vote on it, usually enough of them will join Democrats 
that we can get it passed.
  But Americans are not fooled on this issue. They know that 
Republicans are against the minimum wage and Democrats are for it. 
There is another way to put that:
  My colleagues remember the economics of the 1980's called trickle-
down economics, the new Republican-designed economics called trickle-
down. Of course what that was, it is if we can deny income to lower-
middle-income and middle-income folks and we can increase the income to 
the rich and the well-to-do, eventually it will trickle down and help 
the low-income workers. Democrats are not for that. We are for an 
economics which we like to call percolate-up. This bill is part of 
percolate-up: increase the minimum wage so that at the end of the month 
the workers in this country have a little jingle in their pocket, they 
go out and spend it, and that is what helps the American economy. It is 
called percolate-up. It is far different than trickle-down, and there 
is an enormous difference between Republicans and Democrats on this 
issue.
  Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from 
Connecticut [Mr. Shays].
  Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, this has been an amazing experience because 
this is a time in the history of Congress where two-thirds of Congress 
believes we should move forward in a certain direction where two-thirds 
of the majority party for very valid reasons disagrees, and this was a 
test of this Republican Party on whether a minority within the party 
could have some opportunity to pursue with the minority party on the 
other side.
  I am absolutely convinced that we have been dealing in good faith on 
this issue. There were other issues in the Senate, like some Member 
holding up the health care bill, and it seemed logical that that was a 
bill we wanted because we wanted to deal with the issue of 
transportability and preexisting condition and the health care fraud 
positions there and the medical savings accounts and so on, and that 
bill was being held up by the minority party there, and there were some 
on our side who said, ``Well, if that's the case, then the minimum 
wage, we're just going to wait on the conference report.'' But both 
have been resolved, and we are having a debate now that is somewhat 
academic because I understand as soon

[[Page H8580]]

as the debate is over we will have individuals appointed to the 
conference committee.
  But I just want to, one, thank my leadership for their willingness in 
my conference and particularly the Members who strongly disagreed 
because they thought it would and still believe that jobs would be at 
risk and that profits will be at risk and that prices would be at risk. 
We disagree, those of us who support raising the minimum wage.
  We have a very good debate on the floor of the House. I believe 
people on both sides of the aisle were dealing in good faith. Two-
thirds of this conference wants to move forward on the minimum wage. I 
think that will happen, and to the credit of this majority party we 
just did not vote out a minimum-wage package, we voted out a package of 
economic stimulus tax credits for those individuals who are hiring the 
least employable. So I think we got a better bill through the synergies 
that exist.
  I recognize that the Democrat Party has been pushing the minimum 
wage, that they cut a clear majority on their side, they had a role to 
play in this process. But this side of the aisle, and I do make the 
point, as has been illustrated, but they did have 2 years when they 
were in power they could have brought this bill up. And we do 
understand that there is a lot of politics involved in this process, as 
well.
  But to the credit, we are moving forward, we will see Members 
appointed to the conference committee, and I urge adoption of this 
conference effort.
  Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I merely say again we are here to appoint conferees, 
which that means we want to move ahead, we do not want to delay, but we 
have lost 50 minutes now. We probably could have solved it all in 50 
minutes if we could have just named the conferees and sat down and got 
in conference, and it may be all over by this time.
  But again I know it is a political year. And I yield back the balance 
of my time.
  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from 
Texas [Ms. Jackson-Lee].
  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to revise 
and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend for 
yielding this time to me. And I might say to the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania in fact this is an important debate. It is 50 minutes, but 
I would say to the American people it has been a long time since the 
Senate passed the minimum wage. I would ask my Republican colleagues, 
why so long? Why not then, on July 1, and certainly before July 4? Why 
not recognize that since the Senate passed the minimum-wage increase, 
American workers, some 5 million of them who earn less than $4.70, 
would have already gotten a raise?
  According to the Labor Department, if we had gone ahead on July 1, we 
would have provided the American people 3\1/2\ months of groceries, or 
4\1/2\ months of utility bills or 2 months of rent. My own State of 
Texas, the workers there have lost $19 million a week because we did 
not increase the minimum wage when this House voted for it and the 
Senate voted for it. Workers have lost nearly $4 billion because of the 
Republican delay.
  That is why we are debating this on the floor of the House.
  And might I take on my colleagues on the issue of welfare reform? I 
do not mind discussing it, because we are so eager to talk about 
welfare reform, which I agree with, but at the same time we do not want 
to give the American workers a decent working wage. I support welfare 
reform with job training, with child care, with health care and jobs. 
But I recognize that the fact that we have had a minimum wage that was 
less than a minimum wage in 1962 in terms of buying power, we are not 
doing anything to suggest to people get off welfare but yet do not have 
the jobs or the income to be able to survive, for when one gets off 
welfare they do still need health care.
  This is an important step. I am just so sorry that we did not move 
more sooner so that the billions of dollars that have been lost already 
by the American worker could have been corrected, so that more families 
could buy groceries, so more could pay utility bills, and, yes, those 
who maybe were without homes could be in apartments now paying rent.
  That is really the cause of the ire of those of us on this side of 
the aisle. We did not need to be voting on this today. We could have 
been voting for the American worker on July 4, really celebrating this 
holiday of independence and celebration.
  And so, Mr. Speaker, I think it is extremely important that we do 
move forward. I hope the conferees will spend more time in discussing 
how we can help the American worker. I hope it will spend time 
listening to economists who will say that increasing the minimum wage a 
mere 95 cents does not hurt small businesses, it does help the economy 
, it does help circulate dollars into the economy so that consumers 
will have more money. And we recognize that those individuals with the 
least amount of money are our greater consumers. Give them the 
opportunity to get a fair day's wage for a fair day's work. Vote for 
this minimum-wage conference so that we can stand with the Americans. I 
am sorry it is so late.
  Mr. PAYNE of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, today I rise in support of 
American workers and in support of an increase in the national minimum 
wage. Every day, we hear how the living standards of Americans are 
steadily eroding. And finally, we are looking at a bipartisan effort to 
increase the living standards for millions of Americans who are looking 
to take personal responsibility and keep them and their families off 
welfare.
  Consider that since the early 1970's, the benefits of economic growth 
have unevenly distributed among workers. Raising the minimum wage would 
help ameliorate this trend.
  The positive effects of the minimum wage are not felt solely by low-
income households, but minimum wage workers are overrepresented in poor 
and moderate-income households.
  Consequently, the minimum wage is an important component of a broad-
based policy to help low-wage workers, particularly in households that 
are working hard to keep themselves and their families in self-
sufficiency.
  With wages stagnant, people are spending less money. As a result, 
companies profits are way up and inflation adjusted wages and benefits 
are climbing at less than half the pace of previous economic 
expansions.
  And with growth in consumer spending down, that means that per capita 
GDP growth is way below projected trend.
  So what does all this mean for you? As many of my colleagues on the 
other side are seriously considering reductions in the earned income 
tax credit, workers who are impacted by a stagnant minimum wage are in 
large part the same people who would be hurt by cuts in the tax credit.
  And in this age of personal responsibility, here's the incentive to 
move out of poverty.
  I know that my colleagues vote in favor of this small effort to help 
hard-working Americans struggle to keep themselves and their families 
out of poverty. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

                              {time}  1245

  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The Speaker pro tempore (Mr. Torkildsen). Without objection, the 
previous question is ordered on the motion to instruct.
  There was no objection.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion to instruct 
offered by the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Goodling].
  The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that 
the ayes appeared to have it.
  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a 
quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not 
present.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Evidently a quorum is not present.
  The Sergeant at Arms will notify absent Members.
  The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 365, 
nays 26, not voting 42, as follows:

                             [Roll No. 369]

                               YEAS--365

     Abercrombie
     Allard
     Andrews
     Archer
     Bachus
     Baesler
     Baker (CA)
     Baldacci
     Ballenger
     Barcia
     Barrett (NE)
     Barrett (WI)
     Bartlett
     Bass
     Bateman
     Becerra
     Beilenson
     Bentsen
     Bereuter
     Bilbray
     Bilirakis
     Bishop
     Bliley
     Blute
     Boehlert
     Boehner
     Bonilla
     Bonior
     Bono
     Borski
     Brewster
     Browder
     Brown (CA)
     Brown (FL)
     Brown (OH)
     Brownback
     Bryant (TN)
     Bryant (TX)
     Bunn

[[Page H8581]]


     Bunning
     Burr
     Burton
     Buyer
     Callahan
     Calvert
     Camp
     Canady
     Cardin
     Castle
     Chabot
     Christensen
     Chrysler
     Clay
     Clayton
     Clement
     Clinger
     Clyburn
     Coble
     Coburn
     Collins (GA)
     Collins (MI)
     Condit
     Conyers
     Cooley
     Costello
     Cox
     Coyne
     Crapo
     Cubin
     Cummings
     Cunningham
     Danner
     Davis
     de la Garza
     Deal
     DeFazio
     DeLauro
     Dellums
     Deutsch
     Diaz-Balart
     Dickey
     Dicks
     Dingell
     Dixon
     Dooley
     Dornan
     Doyle
     Dreier
     Duncan
     Dunn
     Durbin
     Edwards
     Ehlers
     Engel
     English
     Ensign
     Eshoo
     Evans
     Everett
     Ewing
     Farr
     Fattah
     Fawell
     Fazio
     Fields (LA)
     Fields (TX)
     Filner
     Flake
     Flanagan
     Foglietta
     Foley
     Forbes
     Fowler
     Fox
     Frank (MA)
     Franks (CT)
     Franks (NJ)
     Frelinghuysen
     Frisa
     Frost
     Funderburk
     Furse
     Gallegly
     Ganske
     Gekas
     Gephardt
     Gibbons
     Gilchrest
     Gillmor
     Gilman
     Gonzalez
     Goodlatte
     Goodling
     Gordon
     Graham
     Green (TX)
     Greene (UT)
     Greenwood
     Gunderson
     Gutierrez
     Gutknecht
     Hall (OH)
     Hall (TX)
     Hamilton
     Hansen
     Harman
     Hastert
     Hastings (WA)
     Hayworth
     Hefley
     Hefner
     Heineman
     Herger
     Hilleary
     Hilliard
     Hinchey
     Hobson
     Hoke
     Horn
     Hostettler
     Houghton
     Hoyer
     Hunter
     Hyde
     Istook
     Jackson (IL)
     Jackson-Lee (TX)
     Jacobs
     Jefferson
     Johnson (CT)
     Johnson (SD)
     Johnson, E. B.
     Johnson, Sam
     Johnston
     Jones
     Kanjorski
     Kaptur
     Kasich
     Kelly
     Kennedy (MA)
     Kennedy (RI)
     Kennelly
     Kildee
     Kim
     King
     Kleczka
     Klink
     Klug
     Knollenberg
     LaFalce
     Lantos
     Largent
     Latham
     LaTourette
     Lazio
     Leach
     Levin
     Lewis (GA)
     Lewis (KY)
     Lightfoot
     Linder
     Lipinski
     Livingston
     LoBiondo
     Lofgren
     Longley
     Lowey
     Lucas
     Luther
     Maloney
     Manton
     Manzullo
     Markey
     Martini
     Mascara
     Matsui
     McCarthy
     McCollum
     McCrery
     McDermott
     McHale
     McHugh
     McInnis
     McKeon
     McKinney
     McNulty
     Meek
     Menendez
     Metcalf
     Meyers
     Millender-McDonald
     Minge
     Mink
     Moakley
     Molinari
     Mollohan
     Montgomery
     Moorhead
     Moran
     Morella
     Murtha
     Myers
     Myrick
     Nadler
     Neal
     Neumann
     Ney
     Norwood
     Nussle
     Oberstar
     Obey
     Olver
     Ortiz
     Orton
     Owens
     Oxley
     Packard
     Pallone
     Parker
     Pastor
     Paxon
     Payne (VA)
     Peterson (MN)
     Petri
     Pickett
     Pombo
     Pomeroy
     Porter
     Portman
     Poshard
     Pryce
     Quinn
     Radanovich
     Rahall
     Ramstad
     Rangel
     Reed
     Regula
     Richardson
     Riggs
     Rivers
     Roemer
     Rogers
     Rohrabacher
     Ros-Lehtinen
     Rose
     Roth
     Roukema
     Roybal-Allard
     Rush
     Sabo
     Salmon
     Sanders
     Sawyer
     Saxton
     Schaefer
     Schiff
     Schroeder
     Schumer
     Scott
     Sensenbrenner
     Serrano
     Shaw
     Shays
     Shuster
     Sisisky
     Skaggs
     Skeen
     Skelton
     Slaughter
     Smith (MI)
     Smith (NJ)
     Smith (TX)
     Smith (WA)
     Solomon
     Spence
     Spratt
     Stark
     Stearns
     Stenholm
     Stockman
     Stokes
     Stupak
     Talent
     Tanner
     Tate
     Tauzin
     Taylor (MS)
     Taylor (NC)
     Tejeda
     Thomas
     Thompson
     Thornton
     Thurman
     Torkildsen
     Torres
     Towns
     Traficant
     Upton
     Velazquez
     Vento
     Visclosky
     Volkmer
     Vucanovich
     Walsh
     Wamp
     Ward
     Watt (NC)
     Watts (OK)
     Waxman
     Weldon (FL)
     Weldon (PA)
     Weller
     White
     Whitfield
     Williams
     Wilson
     Wise
     Wolf
     Woolsey
     Wynn
     Yates
     Young (AK)
     Zeliff
     Zimmer

                                NAYS--26

     Armey
     Barr
     Barton
     Campbell
     Chambliss
     Chenoweth
     Combest
     Crane
     DeLay
     Doolittle
     Ehrlich
     Goss
     Hoekstra
     Inglis
     Kingston
     Kolbe
     McIntosh
     Royce
     Sanford
     Shadegg
     Souder
     Stump
     Thornberry
     Tiahrt
     Walker
     Wicker

                             NOT VOTING--42

     Ackerman
     Baker (LA)
     Berman
     Bevill
     Blumenauer
     Boucher
     Chapman
     Coleman
     Collins (IL)
     Cramer
     Cremeans
     Doggett
     Ford
     Gejdenson
     Geren
     Hancock
     Hastings (FL)
     Hayes
     Holden
     Hutchinson
     LaHood
     Laughlin
     Lewis (CA)
     Lincoln
     Martinez
     McDade
     Meehan
     Mica
     Miller (CA)
     Miller (FL)
     Nethercutt
     Payne (NJ)
     Pelosi
     Peterson (FL)
     Quillen
     Roberts
     Scarborough
     Seastrand
     Studds
     Torricelli
     Waters
     Young (FL)

                              {time}  1304

  Messrs. TIAHRT, STUMP ARMEY, DeLAY, COMBEST, EHRLICH, INGLIS of South 
Carolina, DOOLITTLE, WALKER, SANFORD, and GOSS, Mrs. CHENOWETH, and 
Messrs. ROYCE, WICKER, CHAMBLISS, BARTON of Texas, and KOLBE changed 
their vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
  So the motion to instruct was agreed to.
  The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Torkildsen). Without objection, the 
Chair appoints the following conferees:
  From the Committee on Ways and Means, for consideration of the House 
bill, except for title II, and the Senate amendment numbered 1, and 
modifications committed to conference: Messrs. Archer, Crane, Thomas, 
Gibbons, and Rangel.
  As additional conferees from the Committee on Economic and 
Educational Opportunities, for consideration of sections 1704(h)(1)(B) 
and 1704(l) of the House bill and sections 1421(d), 1442(b), 1442(c), 
1451, 1457, 1460(b), 1460(c), 1461, 1465, and 1704(h)(1)(B) of the 
Senate amendment numbered 1, and modifications committed to conference: 
Messrs. Goodling, Fawell, Ballenger, Clay, and Owens.
  As additional conferees from the Committee on Economic and 
Educational Opportunities, for consideration of title II of the House 
bill and the Senate amendments numbered 2-6, and modifications 
committed to conference: Messrs. Goodling, Fawell, Ballenger, Riggs, 
Clay, Owens, and Hinchey.
  There was no objection.

                          ____________________