[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 28 (Monday, July 15, 1996)]
[Pages 1217-1220]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Senate Action on Minimum Wage Legislation and an Exchange 
With Reporters

July 9, 1996

    The President. Good afternoon. This was a very good day for 
America's working families. Today's vote by the Senate means that 10 
million hard-working Americans will get a little bit of help to raise 
their children and keep their family strong. A 90-cent increase in the 
minimum wage will honor our most basic values, work and family, 
opportunity and responsibility. It will help working people without 
hurting our economy, and it is plainly the right thing to do.
    Today the minimum wage is not a living wage. You can't raise a 
family on $4.25 an hour. This action by the Senate today restores the 
bipartisan commitment that the minimum wage will keep pace with the cost 
of living. This action will directly benefit millions of hard-working 
Americans.
    Sixty percent of minimum wage workers are women. More than a third 
are the sole breadwinners in their household. Over 2 million children 
live in poor or near-poor families where a worker earns the minimum 
wage. And they will now get a raise.
    I'm gratified that a bipartisan majority of the Senators rejected a 
killer amendment that would have stopped this bill. The provision would 
have been a powerful incentive for employers to push employees out of 
their jobs after 6 months. It would have locked millions and millions of 
Americans into lower wages.
    The way has now been cleared for final passage of a minimum wage 
bill. I call on Congress to send me the final bill quickly. The 
differences between the House and Senate versions are not significant. 
An American worker should get their raise as soon as possible. There's 
no reason that minimum wage workers should have to wait any longer for 
their raise. This is not a time to nickel and dime our working families. 
Our economy is sturdy; we have 10 million new jobs; unemployment at 5.3 
percent; nearly 4 million new homeowners; rising real hourly wages for 
the first time in a decade. Now we have to make

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sure that all Americans have the opportunity to benefit from a growing 
economy.
    This has been a difficult fight. But it turned out to be a real 
victory for the working families of this country. Today's vote by the 
Senate will make it possible for more of our people to be rewarded for 
their hard work, to believe that there is opportunity on the other end 
of their responsibility.
    Again, I thank the Members of the Senate who took this step. I thank 
the Members of the Congress, both parties, who supported it in both 
Houses. I look forward to the speedy resolution of the two bills and to 
signing it into law.
    Let me say one other thing. Today is a special day for me, and since 
the Vice President's here, I wanted to announce that this is our fourth 
anniversary. It was 4 years ago today that I asked and he accepted the--
I asked him to become Vice President, or at least the nominee for Vice 
President, and he accepted it. It has been 4 years of great adventure. 
It's been a wonderful partnership. And I believe that historians will 
record that he has been the most effective and influential Vice 
President in the history of the country. And I just wanted to have this 
chance to acknowledge 4 great years and to thank him for his remarkable 
service and his steadily improving sense of humor. [Laughter]

Budget Legislation

    Q. How do you feel about a CR that runs through March, sir?
    The President. A CR to do what?
    Q. [ Inaudible]--that runs through March at fiscal--[inaudible].
    The President. Well, I would hope we could get some of the 
appropriations bill passed. My understanding is that there are some that 
we're pretty close to an agreement on. And I would hope that we could 
keep working into September after we have the August recess to see what 
else can be done.
    There's still a lot of things that need to be done. We need to pass 
Kennedy-Kassebaum. We need to pass a good welfare reform bill. And I'm 
still open to any kind of progress we can make on the budget. So I will 
work with the Congress in any way possible. We have to keep the 
Government open, and we have to keep the fundamental functions of the 
country going forward. But I would hope that we wouldn't give up this 
early on the prospect of progress.

Minimum Wage and Former Senator Dole

    Q. Mr. President, former Senator Dole's press secretary says you're 
playing maximum politics with the minimum wage, yet you were silent for 
the first 2 years of your administration on the increase of the minimum 
wage and that he has supported an increase in the minimum wage. Are you 
playing politics with the minimum wage?
    The President. Does that mean that he's changed his position, and he 
now supports this minimum wage increase?
    Q. He says he supports--as of May 24, 1996, he was in support of the 
minimum wage, according to the Congressional Record and the press 
release that they put out.
    The President. Well, good for him. That's good.
    The Vice President. With or without the poison pill?
    The President. I mean, if he is now in support of this bill, I hope 
he will say so and urge the leadership in the Senate and the House of 
his party to send me the bill right away. And I think the American 
people should say that we're glad he supports the bill. If in fact he 
changed his position in May to support it, I think it's good.
    Let me say, I never opposed--the implication that I, like Senator 
Dole and the Republican leadership, opposed the minimum wage increase in 
the first 2 years is simply false. Let's remember, though, we did first 
things first. The first thing we did was to double the earned-income tax 
credit, so that we could say over a period of years we were going to 
take all working families who work 40 hours a week who had children in 
the home out of poverty. That was a very important thing to do on its 
own merits. And that took a lot of doing. That took virtually all of 
1993. It was an important part of our economic plan, and it was opposed 
by all the Members of the other party in the Congress. So we focused on 
the earned-income tax credit in the first 2 years.
    The change of parties in the '94 election had nothing whatever to do 
with raising the minimum wage. When I ran in 1992, I said

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I thought we ought to take action to keep the minimum wage up with 
inflation. And it hadn't been raised in 5 years; it needs to be raised.

1996 Election

    Q. Mr. President, on this anniversary it seems only fair to ask you 
when you plan to officially announce what has clearly been your 
intention all along here, to seek reelection?
    The President. I don't know. [Laughter] I don't know. We haven't 
made a decision about an official announcement. I can tell you this, 
that I'm going to try to keep my team together. I hope that we'll--I'm 
hoping for an eighth anniversary. How's that?

Small Business and the Minimum Wage

    Q. Mr. President, what do you say to small business owners who say 
they'll have to lay off workers if the minimum wage is increased?
    The President. I would say two things. First of all--first, in 1993, 
when we made 90 percent of the small businesses in this country eligible 
for a tax cut by increasing the expensing provisions by 70 percent, and 
again in this minimum wage bill, there are tax relief provisions for 
small businesses, a number of them which will actually put more money 
into the hands of small businesses. So that this--even the most hard-
pressed small businesses should not be adversely affected by this.
    Secondly, there have been study after study after study showing--the 
vast majority of the studies show that a moderate increase in the 
minimum wage, especially in a strong economy, does not increase the 
unemployment rate. We have produced over 10 million new jobs as a 
country in the last 3\1/2\ years. But the people who are still out there 
working for $4.25 an hour can't live on it. And it is simply a myth to 
say that most people on the minimum wage are middle class kids living at 
home with their parents.
    I was in Chicago the other day, and some of you probably were with 
me at that Taste of Chicago event. And I went to one of the food booths, 
and there was a woman there who said, ``I really appreciate you trying 
to raise the minimum wage. I'm a single mother with two children working 
full time on the minimum wage and going to school at night. And it's 
just not true that we're all living in comfortable circumstances. Most 
people are having a tough time like me.''
    And that's what I think the answer is. This country has been well-
served over a long period of time by having a minimum wage that 
guaranteed a decent level of subsistence. And remember this, these are 
people that virtually have to spend everything they make. And when they 
earn more money, they will turn right around and spend it with small 
businesses all across the country. They'll spend it at those eating 
establishments. They'll spend it at the dry cleaners and the places that 
do laundry. They'll spend it on supporting their children. And 
therefore, they will be lifting the American economy up, and they'll be 
helping a lot of small businesses, too.
    The Vice President. Could I say something? Could I add a word since 
in view of the occasion I feel it's okay to interject one word here. I 
remember when we started this fight. I believe it was the Jim Lehrer 
show went and asked the question you just asked----
    The President. I remember that.
    The Vice President. ----to employees who are making the minimum 
wage. And you know, they're the ones who really ought to give the 
answer. And I remember vividly one woman in southern Virginia who was 
making the minimum wage, was asked by the reporter, what about this 
argument that if they increase your minimum wage X amount, your employer 
might reduce the number of jobs in your workplace. She thought just for 
a minute and looked at him straight in the eye and she said, ``I'll take 
my chances.''
    And that's the way people who were making the minimum wage feel 
about this question. And the studies indicate that they're right, 
especially in today's economy.

Helms-Burton Legislation

    Q. Mr. President, do you plan to implement--[inaudible]--Helms-
Burton legislation that would allow lawsuits to move forward?
    The President. Would you say that again, please?

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    Q. Do you plan to implement title 3 of the Helms-Burton legislation 
which is due on July 16th to allow those lawsuits to move forward?
    The President. I'm sorry, I have not made a determination on that. 
That has not come to me for a determination yet, so I can't comment.
    Let me--before I leave, I also want to say a special word of thanks 
to my longtime friend Secretary Reich, who has carried on this fight for 
the minimum wage and for a minimum wage that would not be crippled by 
exempting millions and millions of workers from its impact. And so this 
was an especially sweet day for him as well, and I thank him for his 
efforts. And I thank you again, all of you, for being here. This is a 
great day for our working families.
    Thank you.

Assault Weapons Ban

    Q. Mr. President, what's your response to Dole's statement on 
assault weapons?
    The President. Let me say, I'm not entirely sure what he meant when 
he said what he said. My position is clear. I fought for and passed the 
Brady bill, the assault weapons ban, the 100,000 police. If he now 
believes that we were right on that, then I applaud that. But it's not 
clear to me that that's what he said. So I can't comment on what he said 
because I'm not sure what he said.
    Thanks.

Note: The President spoke at 5:10 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the White 
House.