[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 41 (Thursday, March 4, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1046-S1049]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FEDERAL MINIMUM WAGE
Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, later today or tomorrow, as part of the
American Rescue Plan, which we will be discussing in the next few days,
which I happen to believe is the most significant piece of legislation
to come to the floor of the Senate in decades in terms of addressing
the crises facing working families--as part of that piece of
legislation, I will be offering an amendment to raise the Federal
minimum wage from $7.25 an hour, which I believe is a starvation wage,
to $15 an hour over a 5-year period--5 years.
I think there has been some miscommunication around here, and there
are people who are saying it is going from 7.25 to 15 bucks an hour in
1 year. Not true. It goes from 7.25 to 9.50, to 11, to 12.50, to 14, to
15 dollars an hour. So anyone who says we are raising the minimum wage
in 1 year, in the midst of a pandemic, to $15 an hour is simply not
telling the truth.
This amendment is similar to a bill which I have brought forth, the
Raise the Wage Act, which I am proud to say has been cosponsored by
some 38 Members of the Senate, and this is also similar to legislation
which has already passed the U.S. House of Representatives. And I thank
them, and I thank my friends in the Progressive Caucus in the House for
doing a great job in pushing this legislation.
I should also add, for my Senate colleagues, that this legislation
raising the minimum wage is supported by some 300 national
organizations, including the 12 million members of the AFL-CIO and
virtually every major union in this country. This is something that
unions like the SEIU, one of the largest unions in this country, have
been fighting for, for a very long time.
I should also add here that while raising the minimum wage is going
to impact every low-wage worker in this country--because African-
American and Latino workers often are earning poverty wages--it
significantly impacts the lives of the minority communities as well.
That is why, among so many other organizations supporting this
amendment, it is supported by the Leadership Conference on Civil and
Human Rights; it is supported by the National Organization for Women
because, again, when we talk about low-wage workers, we are talking
about the minority community, we are talking about women; and that is
why it is supported by groups like Unidos, the American Association of
University Women, Indivisible, Justice for Migrant Women, the National
Domestic Workers Alliance, and the National Women's Law Center.
So, once again, this is legislation that will increase wages for 30
million American workers. And if you ask me what the great economic
crisis in our country is today, it is not just high unemployment; it is
not just income and wealth inequality; it is that half of our people
today, and before the pandemic, were living paycheck to paycheck. Their
wages were so low that if they had a problem with their car or their
kid got sick, suddenly they were in financial crisis
And in the richest country in the history of the world, half of our
people should not be facing economic desperation when their car breaks
down. The reason for that is, significantly, that many millions of
workers are earning starvation wages--and I underline that, starvation
wages--in this country.
I would love to hear anybody get up here and tell me that they could
live on seven and a quarter an hour, they could live on 8 bucks an
hour, they could live on 9 bucks an hour. You can't. And I have been
all over this country, and I have talked to workers who are making 10,
11 bucks an hour, with tears streaming down their cheeks, telling me
what it is like to work for starvation wages and try to raise your
kids.
So the time is long overdue. The last time this Congress passed an
increase in the minimum wage was in the year 2007--2007. It is time to
raise the minimum wage. It is time to raise the minimum wage to a
living wage of 15 bucks an hour.
Now, later on today or this evening, as part of my support for this
enormously important piece of legislation--and, as chairman of the
Budget Committee, I will be speaking more about why we need to raise
the minimum wage, but I want to focus on one part of the minimum wage
bill that I have been hearing a little bit about in the last couple of
days from some of my colleagues, and that is the provision to raise the
tipped wage.
Now, the tipped wage, so everybody understands it, is the Federal
minimum wage that applies to waiters and waitresses, barbers, hair
stylists, parking attendants, and others. Fellow Americans, do you know
what that Federal minimum wage today is for that person who waits on
your table at a restaurant? It is $2.12 an hour. Yeah, you heard me
correctly: $2.12 an hour.
And the proposal, as part of the minimum wage bill, the amendment
that I will be offering, is that tipped minimum wage would go up from
$2.12 an hour to $14.95 over a 7-year period, longer than the overall
national minimum wage would go up. And this is something that clearly
is desperately needed.
Now, I know that, here in Washington, anytime we bring forth serious
and important legislation for working people, the Big Money interests
get to work, and all of their lobbyists, who make their six figures or
seven figures a year, they get to work on Congress and tell you why you
can't do anything to protect the most vulnerable and hard-hit people in
this country.
So the National Restaurant Association, they are a very powerful
lobbying organization. I guess they have been enormously successful
because we have not raised the Federal minimum wage since 2007. So the
powerful lobbying organizations are going around, and they are telling
Members of the House and the Senate that raising the tipped wage is
opposed by restaurant workers and it would be harmful to the interest
of waiters and waitresses and other people.
That is not true. That is what lobbyists say, representing Big Money
interests. That is what they are paid to say, but that is not what
workers who wait on tables are telling us.
One Fair Wage, a grassroots organization representing service
employees--waiters, waitresses, and others--has just delivered to the
White House a petition with 140,000 signatures on it from service
workers who are demanding that they receive the same minimum wage as
every other worker in this country. And polling among service employees
and nonservice employees also supports the reality that Americans want
our waiters and our waitresses and other service employees to get a
fair and equal minimum wage, similar to what other low-wage workers are
receiving.
Now, I have heard from some who tell me that people who are waiting
on tables--and, by the way, I was one of the worst waiters in the
history of the country, but I was a waiter a long time ago. I know a
little bit about it. I am hearing from some that waiters and
waitresses, they are doing really well, making a whole lot of money,
and they don't need an increase in the minimum wage.
Let's be clear. When you talk about the restaurant and the hotel
industry, you are talking about mass discrepancies in the kind of
incomes that people receive. I will not deny it for a second. My
daughter worked in a fancy restaurant. She did quite well.
So if you are working in a hotel in a fancy restaurant where you have
a menu that is quite expensive--you have got a $100 meal and your 20
percent is 20 bucks, you are waiting on three or four tables--you are
doing OK. I don't deny that for a second, and I wish those waiters and
waitresses who work so hard continued success.
But let us be clear. Not everybody works in a fancy restaurant or a
big hotel which has a high-priced menu. You have got a whole lot of
people working in diners, working in working-class restaurants where
the menu is not that fancy, and maybe it is $10 for
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lunch or $8 for lunch. Twenty percent of that is $1.60, on an $8 meal.
Let us be very clear that, when we talk about waiters and waitresses,
some 70 percent of tipped workers in this country are women, who suffer
from three times the poverty rate of the rest of the U.S. workforce. In
other words, women who are waitressing have a three times higher
poverty rate than the rest of the U.S. workforce. Their tips are not
keeping up with their needs. These women waitresses use food stamps at
double the rate of other workers in this country.
And, importantly, and increasingly so--amazingly, during this
pandemic--waitresses suffer from the highest rates of sexual harassment
of workers in any industry because they are forced to tolerate
inappropriate customer behavior to feed their families through the tips
that they get.
We are hearing stories where people in a restaurant, guys in a
restaurant say: Well, take your mask off. You want a tip; let me see
how you look.
And, clearly, this is unacceptable behavior.
I also want to point out that the idea of moving tip wages to the
same level over a period--in this case, 7 years--moving it to the same
level as the overall minimum wage is not a radical idea. It ain't a
Bernie Sanders idea. It already exists. I don't know if people know
this. It already exists in seven States. So in seven States, right now,
people who work in the service industry--waiters, waitresses, and
others--are getting the same minimum wage as all the workers in those
States. And those States are California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada,
Montana, Alaska, and Minnesota. Seven States already pay their service
industry workers the same wages as they pay other minimum-wage workers.
And I should point out that all of these States experienced a growth
in the number of small businesses and restaurants after they abolished
the tip minimum wage. So they abolished the tip minimum wage; it did
not drive restaurants out of business. In fact, in those States where
the tip minimum wage equaled the general minimum wage, we saw a growth
in the number of restaurants.
And, furthermore, to respond to another piece of misinformation,
waiters and waitresses in these States received more in tips, not less.
So the mythology that is going around here is that if we raise the
minimum wage for waiters and waitresses, when somebody walks into a
restaurant, they are going to be thinking, ``Oh, my goodness, this
person is making 10, 12 bucks an hour; I am going to leave less of a
tip,'' ain't the way the world works.
Let me also say a word about how the pandemic, which has impacted
workers in every sector--but how it has impacted tip workers. In many
States where the tip minimum wage still exists, tip workers--and this
is rather unbelievable--tip workers did not even qualify for
unemployment. So we are talking now, in this bill, of substantially
increasing unemployment--a $400 supplement--and we are talking about
extending it to late August. But tip workers, whose minimum wage is so
low, do not even qualify for unemployment.
In an industry where more than 6 million workers have lost their
jobs--and, obviously, we all know the restaurant and hotel industry
have been terribly hard-hit by the pandemic--more than 60 percent of
subminimum wage earners could not get unemployment benefits because the
State and Federal Government denied them benefits for not making enough
earned income. You all got that?
So we are talking about the need--and I certainly agree with that--to
expand and extend unemployment benefits, but you have a whole lot of
workers who are earning starvation wages who are not going to be
eligible for unemployment.
At the same time, as restaurants reopen, the CDC has declared
restaurants as the most dangerous place to work. We all know that. It
is obvious. You are coming face-to-face with your customers. And now
servers, in the midst of that, are responsible--you are a waiter, you
are a waitress, and you are now responsible--for telling somebody who
walks into your restaurant that they must socially distance themselves
or wear a mask. It is not necessarily a comfortable position for a
worker dealing with a hostile customer.
I would also add, as all of us are increasingly aware of sexual
harassment in general in this country, that the restaurant industry has
some of the highest rates of sexual harassment. In a workplace where 70
percent of the workers are women and where they rely on their customers
to determine their wages because of tips, women are often expected to
withstand sexual harassment in order to get those tips.
In States where the subminimum wage has been eliminated, sexual
harassment has been cut substantially because women no longer have to
take that. It is not an all-or-nothing proposition.
If you ask me again what the major economic crisis facing this
country is, we know unemployment is sky-high, we know income inequality
is unacceptable, and so many other factors are out there about the
economy, but at the top of my list is the fact that tens of millions of
workers in the richest country on Earth are barely making it. They are
having a hard time feeding their kids. They are having a hard time
paying their rent. Many of them get inadequate or no health insurance
at all.
Now, year after year, the American people--I think, correctly--
perceive that this Congress bows to the wishes of the rich and the
powerful, gives tax breaks to people who don't need it. We deregulate
companies that should be regulated, et cetera, et cetera.
In this moment of economic and health crisis, now is the time for us
to stand with working families, and the most important thing that we
can do is to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. This is what Joe
Biden believes. This is what the Democratic platform stands for, and
this is what at least 38 cosponsors of the Raise the Wage Act also
believe.
So here we are at a pivotal moment. The working class is being
decimated. People are struggling to feed their kids. We have to raise
wages in this country, and we have to raise the wages of tip workers.
I will be back later for more on this.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Van Hollen). The Senator from Vermont.
Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed
in the Record a letter dated February 22, 2021, about tip wages, signed
by hundreds of organizations
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
February 22, 2021.
Dear Members of Congress: The undersigned organizations
enthusiastically support the Raise the Wage Act of 2021, as
introduced in the Senate by Senators Bernie Sanders (VT) and
Patty Murray (WA), and in the House by Representative Robert
C. ``Bobby'' Scott (VA).
If enacted, the Raise the Wage Act of 2021 would:
Gradually raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by
2025;
After 2025, adjust the minimum wage each year to keep pace
with growth in the median wage--a measure of wages for
typical workers;
Phase out the egregious subminimum wage for tipped workers,
which has been frozen at a meager $2.13 since 1991; and
Sunset unacceptable subminimum wages for workers with
disabilities employed in sheltered workshops and for workers
under age 20.
Since fast-food workers in New York City first walked off
the job in 2012, demanding a $15 minimum wage and the right
to form a union, workers across the country have completely
changed the conversation and politics surrounding the minimum
wage. Yet, 20 states still have not raised their minimum
wages beyond the paltry $7.25 federal minimum wage, and many
more have only marginally higher minimum wages than the
federal floor--despite clearly negative impacts on workers
across the country. Those negative impacts also
disproportionately affect Black and brown workers, who have
historically been segregated into the lowest paying
occupations in the U.S., and who are leading the Fight for
$15 and a union.
Congress should heed the demands of workers of color,
communities, and their constituents and waste no more time in
passing the Raise the Wage Act. Raising the federal minimum
wage to $15 an hour and eliminating subminimum wages for
tipped workers, youth workers, and workers with disabilities
is a long overdue, human rights imperative and a critical
racial and gender justice issue--one that will make a crucial
difference in the lives of millions of workers and in
communities across the country.
Gradually raising the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2025
would lift pay for nearly 32 million workers--21% of the U.S.
workforce. Affected workers who work year-round would earn an
extra $3,300 a year--enough to make a tremendous difference
in the life of a
[[Page S1048]]
cashier, home health aide, or fast-food worker who today
struggles to get by on less than $25,000 a year. A majority
(59%) of workers whose total family income is below the
poverty line would receive a pay increase if the minimum wage
were raised to $15 by 2025.
Raising the minimum wage to $15 and eliminating subminimum
wages will be particularly significant for workers of color
and women workers, who have historically been pushed into the
most underpaid paid jobs through occupational segregation.
Passing the Raise the Wage Act would help narrow both the
racial pay gap and the gender pay gap. Of those whose pay
would increase, nearly 6 in 10 (59%) are women and more than
a quarter (28%) have children. One-third (31%) of African-
American workers and one-quarter (26%) of Latinx workers
would get a raise if the federal minimum wage were increased
to $15. Almost one in four (23%) of those people who would
benefit is a Black or Latina woman. African-American workers
and Latinx workers are paid 10-15% less than white workers
with the same characteristics, so the Raise the Wage Act
would deliver the largest benefits to Black and Latinx
workers--about $3,500 annually for a year-round worker. The
Raise the Wage Act will also deliver increased wages to an
estimated 1.45 million LGBTQ workers and would reduce the
proportion of male same-sex couples living in poverty by one-
third and female same-sex couples by almost one-half. There
would be similar reductions in poverty among LGBTQ people who
are not in same-sex couple households, with the largest gains
for those with the highest rates of poverty--Black, Latinx,
bisexual, and transgender adults.
Raising wages has never been more urgent than during this
pandemic. Essential and frontline workers make up a majority
of those who would benefit from a $15 minimum wage. Members
of Congress should do more than pay lip service to front line
workers; they should make sure they get higher wages. The
median pay is well under $15 an hour for many essential and
frontline jobs; examples include substitute teachers, nursing
assistants, and home health aides. More than one-third (35%)
of those working in residential or nursing care facilities
would see their pay increase, in addition to home health
aides and other health care support workers. One in three
retail sector workers (36%) would get a raise, including 42%
of workers in grocery stores. More than four-in-ten (43%) of
janitors, housekeepers, and other cleaning workers would
benefit. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of servers, cooks, and other
food preparation workers would see their earnings rise by
$5,800 on a year-round basis. For 6 million tipped food
service workers, a majority female workforce, the subminimum
wage for tipped workers is a legacy of slavery that has been
a source of poverty, sexual harassment, and exposure to
health risks and hostile customers during the pandemic. Ten
million workers in health care, education, construction, and
manufacturing would see a raise--representing nearly one-
third (31%) of the workers who would see a raise.
Contrary to what opponents of a living wage would argue,
our economy can more than afford a $15 minimum wage. Workers
earning the current federal minimum wage are paid less per
hour in real dollars than their counterparts were paid 50
years ago. Businesses can afford to pay the most underpaid
worker in the U.S. today substantially more than what her
counterpart was paid half a century ago. The economy has
grown dramatically over the past 50 years, and workers are
producing more from each hour of work, with productivity
nearly doubling since the late 1960s. If the minimum wage had
been raised at the same pace as productivity growth since the
late 1960s, it would be over $20 an hour today.
In fact, an immediate increase in the minimum wage is
necessary for the health of our economy. A $15 minimum wage
by 2025 would generate $107 billion in higher wages for
workers and would also benefit communities across the
country. Because underpaid workers spend much of their extra
earnings, this injection of wages will help stimulate the
economy and spur greater business activity and job growth.
It is long past time to pass the Raise the Wage Act of
2021--and we call on all Members of Congress to finally give
nearly 32 million workers the raise they have fought so hard
to secure.
A Better Balance; Action Center on Race & the Economy;
Adelante Alabama Worker Center; Advocates for Basic Legal
Equality, Inc. (ABLE); Advocates for Better Children's Diets;
Advocates for Justice and Education, Inc; AFL-CIO; AIDS
Alabama; Alabama Arise; Alameda County Community Food Bank;
Alianza Nacional de Campesinas; Amara Legal Center; American-
Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC); American
Association of University Women (AAUW); American Federation
of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME); American
Public Health Association; Americans for Democratic Action
(ADA); Americans for Tax Fairness; AnitaB.org; Asian Pacific
American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO.
Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence; Asset
Funders Network; Autistic Self Advocacy Network; Be A Hero;
Bend the Arc Jewish Action; Bet Tzedek Legal Services; Black
Visions; Block Builderz; Border Workers United; Bridgeways;
Business for a Fair Minimum Wage; Business For Good San
Diego; CAAP; California Association of Food Banks; Campaign
for America's Future; Caring Across Generations; CASA; Casa
de Esperanza: National Latin@ Network for Healthy Families
and Communities; Center for American Progress; Center for
Disability Rights.
Center for Economic and Policy Research; Center for Law and
Social Policy (CLASP); Center for LGBTQ Economic Advancement
& Research; Center for Popular Democracy; Center for Public
Representation; Center for Workers' Rights; Center on Policy
Initiatives; Centro de los Derechos del Migrante; Centro de
Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha (CTUL); Centro Legal de la Raza;
Change Machine; Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy; Chicago
Foundation for Women; Child Care Aware of America;
Children's Defense Fund; Civic Ventures; Clean Up the River
Environment (CURE); Clearinghouse on Women's Issues;
Coalition for Labor Union Women, San Francisco; Coalition of
Labor Union Women.
Coalition on Human Needs; Coalition to Abolish Slavery &
Trafficking; Communications Workers of America (CWA);
Community Enabler Developer, Inc.; Community Legal Services,
Philadelphia; Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI)/
POWER-PAC IL; Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good
Shepherd, U.S. Provinces; Connecticut Women's Education and
Legal Fund (CWEALF); CRLA Foundation; DC Dorothy Day Catholic
Worker; Demos; Disability Rights DC at University Legal
Services; Domestic Violence Legal Empowerment and Appeals
Project; Economic Opportunity Institute; Economic Policy
Institute; Encuentro; Endangered Species Coalition; Equal
Justice Center; Equal Pay Today; Equal Rights Advocates.
Equality Labs; Equity Advocates; Etowah County Women's
Democratic Club; Etowah Democrats Club; Every Texan; Fair
Work Center; Family Equality; Farmworker Association of
Florida; Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin; Feeding
Texas; Fight for $15 and a Union; First Focus Campaign for
Children; Florida Policy Institute; Food Bank of Northern
Nevada; Food Chain Workers Alliance; Food for People; Food
Research & Action Center (FRAC); For Our Future Action
Fund; Freedom Network USA; Friends Committee on National
Legislation.
Fund for Community Reparations for Autistic People of
Color's Interdependence, Survival, & Empowerment; Futures
Without Violence Gender Justice; Georgetown Law Center;
Granite State Interfaith Action Fund; Granite State
Organizing Project; Groundwork Action; Hawaii Appleseed
Center for Law & Economic Justice; Hawaii Children's Action
Network Speaks!; HBCU Collective; Hispanic Federation;
Hometown Action; Hunger Solutions Minnesota; Hunger Task
Force; ICNA Council for Social Justice; Illinois Hunger
Coalition; In The Public Interest; Indiana Institute for
Working Families; Indivisible; Island Empire Labor Council
AFL-CIO.
Institute for Women's Policy research; International
Brotherhood of Teamsters; Islamic Relief USA; Islamophobia
Studies Center; Jobs with Justice of East Tennessee; Just
Economics of Western North Carolina; Justice at Work; Justice
at Work (PA); Justice for Migrant Women; Juvenile Law Center;
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy; Kentucky Equal Justice
Center; Labor Council for Latin American Advancement; Lambda
Legal; Land Stewardship Project; LatinoLEAD; The Leadership
Conference on Civil and Human Rights; Legal Aid at Work;
Legal Aid Justice Center; Legal Aid Society of the District
of Columbia.
Legal Momentum, the Women's Legal Defense and Education
Fund; Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA); Long Beach
Alliance for Clean Energy; Louisiana Budget Projet; Macomb
Immigrant Service Center; Maine People's Alliance; MANA, A
National Latina Organization; Maryland Hunger Solutions;
Massachusetts Employment Lawyers Association; Massachusetts
Law Reform Institute; Meriden Congregational Church, UCC;
Michigan Immigrant Rights Center; Michigan League for Public
Policy; Michigan United; Milwaukee Area Service & Hospitality
Workers Organization; Minnesota Voice; Mississippi National
Organization for Women; Missouri Faith Voices; Missouri Jobs
with Justice; MomsRising.
Mothers Outreach Network; Muslim Advocates; NALC; National
Action Network; National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of
the Good Shepherd; National Association of Councils on
Developmental Disabilities; National Association of Social
Workers; National Black Justice Coalition; National CAPACD-
National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community
Development; National Center for Law and Economic Justice;
National Center for Lesbian Rights; National Coalition
Against Domestic Violence; National Coalition for the
Homeless; National Council for Occupational Safety and
Health; National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA
(NCC); National Council of Jewish Women; National Council on
Aging; National Disabled Law Students Association; National
Disability Rights Network (NDRN).
National Domestic Violence Resource Center; National
Domestic Workers Alliance; National Employment Law Project;
National Employment Lawyers Association; National Employment
Lawyers Association--Eastern Pennsylvania; National Equality
Action Team (NEAT); National Farm to School Network; National
Health Care for the Homeless Council; National Network to End
Domestic Violence; National Organization for Women; National
Partnership for Women & Families; National WIC Association;
National Women's
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Health Network; National Women's Law Center; Native Women
Lead; NC-NELA (North Carolina National Employment Law
Project); Network for Victim Recovery DC; NETWORK Lobby for
Catholic Social Justice; New Earth; New Georgia Project.
New Hampshire Youth Movement; New Haven Legal Assistance
Association; New Mexico Center on Law and Policy; New Orleans
Workers' Center for Racial Justice; North Carolina Justice
Center; Northwest Harvest; Northwest Workers' Justice
Project; Oasis Legal Services; Ohio Organizing Collaborative;
Oklahoma Policy Institute; One Fair Wage; One Fair Wage
Action; One Pennsylvania; Operation Food Search; Our
Revolution; Oxfam America; Parent Voices CA; Partnership for
America's Children; Pathways for Prosperity Coalition,
Fayetteville, NC; Patriotic Millionaires.
Pennsylvania AFL-CIO; People For the American Way; People's
Action; People's Parity Project; Philadelphia Drivers' Union;
Physicians for Reproductive Health; Policy Matters Ohio;
Poligon Education Fund; Power Coalition for Equity and
Justice; Preble Street Maine Hunger Initiative; Progressive
Leadership Alliance of Nevada; Prosperity Now; Public
Citizen; Public Justice Center; RAISE High Road Restaurants;
Raise the Wage PA; Reframe Health and Justice; Restaurant
Opportunities Center of DC; Restaurant Opportunities Centers
United; RESULTS DC/MD.
Results for America; Reviving the Islamic Sisterhood for
Empowerment (RISE); Rights & Democracy NH; Rights & Democracy
VT; River VAlley Organizing; ROC-Chicago; ROC-Minnesota; ROC-
New York; ROC-Pennsylvania; San Francisco-Marin Food Bank;
Saverlife; Sciencecorps; SEIU Wisconsin State Council;
Service Employees International Union; Shriver Center on
Poverty Law; Sierra Club; Social Justice Associates of South
Church, Portsmouth NH; Southwest Detroit Immigrant and
Refugee Center; Southwest Women's Law Center; Step Up
Louisiana.
TakeAction Minnesota; Tax March; Temp Worker Justice;
Terence Crutcher Foundation; The 99% Pennsylvania campaign;
The AIDS Institute; The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal
Analysis; The Employee Rights Advocacy Institute For Law &
Policy (The Institute); The International Union, United
Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of
America (UAW);
The Legal Aid Society; The National Domestic Violence
Hotline; The New York Womens Foundation; The Partnership for
Working Families; The Rebuild, Overcome, and Rise (ROAR)
Center of UMB; The West Side Commons; The Women and Girls
Foundation of Southwest Pennsylvania; The Women's Building;
TIME'S UP Now; Ujima Inc.: The National Center on Violence
Against Women in the Black Community; UnidosUS.
Unitarian Universalist Action New Hampshire; Unitarian
Universalist Justice PA; United Food and Commercial Workers
International Union; United State of Women; United
Steelworkers; United Valley Interfaith (UVIP); United Vision
for Idaho; Unity Fellowship of Christ Church NYC; URGE: Unite
for Reproductive & Gender Equity; Virginia Poverty Law
Center; Voices for Progress; Washington Lawyers Committee for
Civil Rights and Urban Affairs; Washington Wage Claim
Project; Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights;
West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy; Western Center on
Law and Poverty; Western Pennsylvania Employment Lawyers
Association.
Wildfire: Igniting Community Action to End Poverty in
Arizona; Women Employed; Womenpreneurs; Women's Fund of Rhode
Island; Women's Institute for Secure Retirement; Women's Law
Project; WOMEN'S WAY; Worker Justice Center of New York;
Workers Defense Action Fund; Working Families Party; Working
Washington; Workplace Fairness; Workplace Justice Project at
Loyola Law Clinic; Worksafe; Young lnvincibles; YWCA USA;
ZERO TO THREE.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Carolina is recognized.
____________________