[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 123 (Tuesday, September 21, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S11081]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      MINIMUM WAGE AND BANKRUPTCY

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, last Thursday the majority leader filed a 
cloture motion on S. 625, the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1999. If the 
Senate adopts cloture, an amendment to increase the minimum wage could 
not be offered to the bill. Some Senators may support cloture because 
they believe the minimum wage is not relevant to the bankruptcy debate, 
but I disagree. Raising the minimum wage is critical to preventing the 
economic free-fall that often leads to bankruptcy, and many of us have 
sponsored the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 1999 to begin to right that 
wrong.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time of the Senator has expired.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Is that all 15 minutes?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The 10 minutes allotted to the Senator from 
Massachusetts.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Then I yield to myself just 4 of the last 5 minutes, 
please.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is recognized.
  Mr. KENNEDY. I thank the Chair.
  Mr. President, invoking cloture would deny us the opportunity, on the 
floor of the Senate, to offer a minimum wage amendment that will raise 
the minimum wage 50 cents next January and 50 cents the year after and 
provide some $2,000 of purchasing power for minimum wage workers. In 
all, over 11 million Americans will benefit from an increase in the 
minimum wage.
  We seek to raise the minimum wage at a time of virtual price 
stability, at a time of virtual full employment, and at a time when the 
ink is not even dry on the vote by the Members of the Senate to give 
themselves a pay increase of over $4,000 this year. I will say, at 
least the Democrats who voted in support of that increase would also 
vote in support of an increase in the minimum wage. But why should we 
be denied that opportunity? Why should we be denied the opportunity to 
have a vote on this particular issue? It makes such a difference to 
families that work 40 hours a week, 52 weeks of the year.
  We believe raising the minimum wage is relevant to the bankruptcy 
issue. The threat of bankruptcy is related to the availability of 
resources. The fewer financial resources individuals have, the more 
difficult it is for them to meet their economic challenges. We do not 
have the opportunity, at least at this time, to get into all of the 
reasons so many individual Americans are going into bankruptcy. But we 
find half of the women are in bankruptcy because their husbands refuse 
to pay child support. Of workers who are over 55, the greatest 
percentage of those in bankruptcy are there because they don't have 
health insurance. Many in bankruptcy are workers dislocated from their 
jobs because of mergers, who find themselves caught in a downward 
economic spiral.
  We should have an opportunity to address those issues. Why does the 
Republican leadership deny us the chance to have a fair vote on raising 
the minimum wage, providing hard working Americans with an extra 
$2,000? That might not seem like a lot to many here, but it is about 7 
months' worth of groceries for a family, or 5 months of rent. It will 
pay for almost two years of tuition for a worker or her son or daughter 
to attend a community college. It is a lot of money for many hard-
working Americans.
  Finally, the minimum wage is a children's issue because the children 
of workers who earn minimum wage are impacted by their parents' scarce 
resources. It is a women's issue, because the majority of minimum wage 
workers are women. It is a civil rights issue because one-third of 
minimum wage workers are African-American or Hispanic. It is basically 
and most fundamentally a fairness issue. At the time of the greatest 
prosperity in the history of this country, are we going to continue to 
deny our brothers and sisters, Americans who are working hard, 40 hours 
a week, 52 weeks of the year, the opportunity to have a livable wage?


                         privilege of the floor

  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Kathy Curran, a Labor 
Department detailee, be granted the privilege of the floor during 
today's debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. KENNEDY. I thank the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois has 1 minute 
remaining.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Massachusetts, as 
well as the Senators from Hawaii and Mexico, for joining in our 
message.
  My fear is, in the closing weeks of this session, if the Members of 
the Senate were accused of having passed legislation this year to help 
the families of America, we could not gather enough evidence to prove 
the charge. We are about to leave town in a few weeks emptyhanded, 
having done little or nothing on education, little or nothing on 
minimum wage, little or nothing on health care. Frankly, I think the 
American people sent us to this body to do things to make life better 
for families across America. The Senator from Massachusetts speaks 
about minimum wage and education. There are so many other items on the 
agenda that should be addressed by a Congress listening to the American 
people.
  I yield the remainder of my time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the time until 4:15 
shall be under the control of the Senator from Wyoming, Mr. Thomas, or 
his designee.
  The Senator from Wyoming is recognized.

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