[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 90 (Wednesday, July 12, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H5105]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      INCREASING THE MINIMUM WAGE

  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent 
to speak out of turn.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentleman from 
California is recognized for 5 minutes.
  There was no objection.
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, Members of the House, 
earlier today we had a motion to instruct on the vocational education 
conference, and the motion to instruct was about the minimum wage and 
about the need of 6 million people who work at the minimum wage for an 
increase in that minimum wage. These individuals have been stuck at 
$5.15 since 1997. They are earning 1997 wages in the year 2006.
  Over 80 percent of Americans from all across the country, obviously 
if it is 80 percent of Americans, from every walk of life, from every 
social economic strata, believes that these people are entitled to an 
increase in their wages, and they believe that out of fairness, they 
believe that out of a sense of fair play for these individuals. They 
know when they look at their own life, be they middle class or be they 
rich, the fact of the matter is they recognize that costs have gone up, 
that the cost of food has gone up, that the cost of bread has gone up, 
that the cost of milk has gone up, that the cost of education has gone 
up, that the cost of utilities has gone up, the cost of gasoline of 
course has soared. And these people in many ways are dependent, whether 
it is on public transit or whether it is on their own automobiles, it 
costs them more to go to work.
  And so America understands this very clearly. But the critical piece 
to getting these people the minimum wage is to get the Republican 
leadership in the House of Representatives to understand the morality 
of this decision to provide for a minimum wage, because these people 
are working under a Federal minimum wage that was imposed in 1997. And 
until the Republican leadership decides to go forward, these people 
will not get that increase in the wages that they so desperately need.
  Now, there is a glimmer of hope, because today 64 Republicans made 
the decision to support the motion to instruct. I assume they 
understood that this motion to instruct will not become law. I hope 
they didn't vote for it because it won't become law; I hope that it 
wasn't about posturing. I talked to many of them before the vote and 
after the vote, and they told me that they wanted to speak and vote on 
the minimum wage and to send a message. And they did that today. 
Hopefully that message will start to be received by the Republican 
leadership in the House of Representatives and they will schedule a 
minimum-wage bill for an up or down vote on this House floor, and we 
will get to speak our wills and hopefully we will reflect what the 
American people want us to do, and that is to give these people an 
increase in the minimum wage.
  So I would hope that this vote that was taken today will be the 
beginning of the Republican leadership walking toward that decision to 
provide for an increase in the minimum wage. I would hope that they 
would do that because it is the right thing to do. I would hope that 
they would do that without tricking up the bill, without making the 
bill so that it can pass the House but it can't get passed in the 
Senate or it won't get done in conference. I hope they will do it soon 
enough so that it can become the law of the land.
  We all understand the political games that can be played, but these 
political games are tragically almost lethal to these families. These 
people go to work every day for a whole year and they end up with 
$10,700, and out of that $10,700 not only are they substantially below 
the official poverty line, so you are making a decision that the 
official minimum wage in this country will keep these individuals 
locked in poverty.
  That is not the only part of it. It means that those people, those 
people will have more difficulty in providing the necessities for their 
families, for their children, because many of these minimum wage 
workers have children who rely on that wage as a means of holding the 
household together. So as rents have continued to go up and energy has 
continued to go up and telecommunications has gone up, all of these 
things have gone up, these people struggle with this every day.
  I dare say most of us in Congress, we work an 8-hour day or 10-hour 
day or 12-hour day, but when we go home we are done. These people have 
a second job. They have to figure out how to economically hold their 
household together, how to provide for their children, how to provide 
food and rent and health care and all of these things together on 
$10,700 a year. That is difficult. That is tough.
  I hope that today's vote with 64 Republicans sending a message to 
their leadership that they want to speak out, they want to vote on the 
minimum wage, that the Republican leadership will respond in kind and 
give the House of Representatives the vote that the American people 
desire.

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