[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 80 (Tuesday, June 20, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H4223]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        RAISING THE MINIMUM WAGE

  (Ms. SOLIS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. SOLIS. Good morning, Mr. Speaker. Imagine if you had not received 
a pay increase since 1997. The price of goods and services you rely on 
like gasoline and prescription drugs have gone up dramatically over the 
last few years. But one thing that hasn't has been the minimum wage. It 
has almost been 10 years that we haven't raised the minimum wage, and 
the reality is that 7 million Americans will not receive a minimum-wage 
pay increase. And most of those individuals happen to be single head of 
households, women, with kids, children.
  Democrats want to take America in a different direction. We want to 
expand opportunities to millions of Americans that feel they have been 
left behind by the Bush economy that has favored the wealthiest few 
above the middle class. One of the ways we want to expand opportunity 
is by giving minimum-wage workers a pay raise for the first time in a 
decade.
  Last week, Democrats passed an amendment to the Labor-HHS 
appropriations bill that would raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to 
$7.25 an hour. Democrats were joined by several Republicans in passing 
this commonsense amendment. We need to have support to bring this up 
and vote on it. Let's give those 7 million people an increase in the 
minimum wage.

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