[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 20]
[House]
[Page 28504]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



 REPUBLICANS HAVE KILLED CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM AND CONTINUE TO BLOCK 
                    AN INCREASE IN THE MINIMUM WAGE

  (Mr. OLVER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks).
  Mr. OLVER. Mr. Speaker, Americans have enjoyed an unprecedented 
growth in our economy over 8 years. We have the lowest unemployment 
rate in decades, but 12 million workers, 10 percent of all American 
workers, work at the minimum wage. The majority of them are adults, a 
majority are women.
  Most of those women are trying to bring up children at that minimum 
wage with less than $10,000 a year. They have not seen any benefit from 
the economic boom. They deserve a wage increase, and they can only get 
that wage increase by increasing the minimum wage by this Congress.
  Eighty percent of Americans favor doing that. Even two-thirds of all 
Republicans favor doing that. We have a bill that would raise the 
minimum wage by $1 over the next 2 years. It should pass. It could pass 
in a day, but the Republican leadership is going to hold that bill 
hostage unless it is possible to give $70 billion per year of tax cuts 
to the handful of Americans who make more than $300,000 a year. That 
tax reduction goes to the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans.
  Why is this? Members guessed it, the handful of Americans who make 
more than $300,000 a year make the vast majority of contributions to 
political campaigns.
  The Republican leadership of this Congress, the House and Senate, 
have killed campaign finance reform again this year.

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