[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12039]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     INCREASE FEDERAL MINIMUM WAGE

  (Mr. BLUMENAUER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, the Federal minimum wage is now the 
lowest that it has been, adjusted for inflation, in over 50 years. Here 
in Congress we have not made an adjustment; we have not given the 
lowest-income, most hard-pressed economic citizens of our country any 
raise since 1997.
  I thought for a moment that there was a glimpse of hope as we have 
seen a proposal that finally passed in the Appropriations Committee 
that would have made in order an amendment that would have raised it 
gradually from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour. But now we see this is tied up 
in partisan politics, and it looks as though the Republican leadership 
is not going to allow the House of Representatives to vote on giving 
low-income Americans a salary increase.
  Mr. Speaker, in my State of Oregon the voters have gone ahead and 
passed a statewide initiative that provides an automatic increase in 
the minimum wage, taking it out of politics. It is supported by our 
public, it is good for our economy, and it is good for our citizens. I 
hope we can do the same here in Congress.

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