Waiving Requirement of Clause 6(a) of rule XIII with respect to consideration of certain resolutions
WAIVING REQUIREMENT OF CLAUSE 6(a) OF RULE XIII WITH RESPECT TO CONSIDERATION OF CERTAIN RESOLUTIONS -- (House of Representatives - July 28, 2006)
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my good friend from Washington (Mr. Hastings) for yielding me the customary 30 minutes. I yield myself 5 1/2 minutes.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this martial law rule. For weeks and weeks and weeks, this House has wasted valuable time. We have spent short workdays during short workweeks passing meaningless legislation without doing a thing to actually help the American people.
Today, the day before the August recess, this Republican leadership is bringing to the floor legislation that will actually be harmful to America's working families.
The martial law rule before us, passed last night by the Republicans in the Rules Committee, makes three bills in order: first, the pension conference report, which will lead to benefit cuts for millions of workers; second, a tax cut bill mostly for the rich, including an estate tax cut that affects only the very wealthiest in the country; and third, this is my favorite, ``a bill to provide economic security for all Americans, and for other purposes.'' Okay. Can anybody in this House tell me what that means? Of course not.
Apparently, the Republican leadership will be presenting a minimum wage bill that will be loaded down with sweetheart tax deals for the wealthy and the corporate special interests, the same special interests that call the shots in the Republican House.
So here we are voting on a rule to bring up bills that appeared literally just an hour ago which no one has read, 1,200 pages of legislation, Mr. Speaker, that the Members of this House have not had an opportunity to review, 1,200 pages.
This is what passes for the legislative process in the House these days, and it would be laughable if it were not so sad.
The Republican strategy is as apparent as it is cynical. They want to clutter the minimum wage bill with so many giveaways to the wealthiest Americans and to corporations that it will never actually become law. That way, the dozens and dozens of vulnerable Republican incumbents can claim that they voted to increase the minimum wage, while the corporate special interests can claim victory for killing it.
Senate tax writes have already rejected, on a bipartisan basis, proposals that combine the estate tax with a tax extenders package, which is exactly what the House Republican leadership has put forward today as an attachment to the minimum wage.
The losers in this mess are hardworking American families who deserve to make a wage that keeps them out of poverty.
No wonder the American people are so sick and tired of politics as usual in Washington. For months, years even, a clear bipartisan majority has existed in the House to support an increase in the minimum wage with no strings attached. The Republican leadership has been dragged kicking and screaming to this point. It is an amazing thing to watch.
I would ask my Republican colleagues, why is it so impossible for you to do anything good for working families? Why does it cause you such pain and anguish and hand-wringing?
Congress has not raised the minimum wage since 1997. That is 9 years. During that same period, Congress has raised its own salary eight times. Now, that is what I call out of touch.
A Republican House staffer told the Columbus, Ohio, Dispatch, ``Not too many people work at minimum wage anymore. I don't think it gets you anywhere politically.''
Mr. Speaker, maybe I missed it and Columbus, Ohio, is on a different planet these days because nearly 15 million Americans will benefit from a minimum wage increase, 6.6 million directly and 8.3 million indirectly. Almost 60 percent of these workers are women; 40 percent are people of color.
The average corporate CEO, who will benefit, of course, from the estate tax cut, earns more before lunchtime than a minimum wage worker earns all year.
Mr. Speaker, I cannot say it more plainly. The priorities of this Republican leadership are not the priorities of the American people. What the American people want and what they deserve is a clean up-or-down vote on increasing the minimum wage, period. They will not be getting it today.
I am sick and tired of the priorities of this Republican Congress being determined by who has the fattest checkbook, by who contributes the most money to their campaigns.
Low-income workers do not have high-priced lobbyists. They do not contribute huge amounts of money to politicians or political parties, but these are the people who make this country work, Mr. Speaker. These are the people who do the hard labor, each and
every day to keep this country running. They deserve a break. They deserve a raise. They deserve the ability to provide for their families.
For once, just once, I urge my Republican colleagues to do the right thing. Reject this martial law rule.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Let me just respond to the gentleman. What is frustrating to us here tonight is the fact that for months and months and months we have been trying to get a straight up-or-down vote on the minimum wage. We think it is an absolute disgrace that the minimum wage has not been raised since 1997, 9 years, and in those 9 years, Congress has given itself eight pay raises. We think there is something wrong with that, and we want to see passed and enacted into law an increase in the Federal minimum wage.
So we want a straight up-or-down vote because we think that is the best way you can get that.
Instead, what you do, you bring a minimum wage bill to floor to provide some of your more vulnerable Members cover, and you bring it in a package that you know probably is not going to go anywhere in the Senate because the previous combination of the estate tax and the tax extenders package has not gone anywhere in the Senate.
So this is about cover, political cover, and not about giving millions and millions of Americans, hardworking Americans who have been neglected by the Republican Congress for years, the raise that they deserve.
The minimum wage has not been raised since 1997, and adjusted for inflation, the current minimum wage is at its lowest level in more than 50 years. Minimum wage earners working 40 hours per week, 52 weeks per year, make $10,712. That is nearly $6,000 below the poverty line for a family of three. Thirty-five percent of those workers are their family's sole wage earners; 61 percent are women; and almost one-third of those women are raising children.
The average annual cost of family health insurance is more than a minimum wage worker's income for a whole year, and given the cost of gasoline, it takes a full day's pay for a minimum wage earner to fill just one tank of gas.
What we want is not political cover. What we want is to give these hardworking Americans, millions and millions and millions of Americans, who constantly get neglected by this Congress, who always get a cold shoulder when it comes to trying to provide them some help, what we want to do is give them a raise.
If Members of the House deserve a raise, these low-income wage earners also deserve a raise.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, let me urge all my colleagues, both Republican and Democrat, to oppose this rule. This is a martial law rule. There are 1,200 pages of legislation that nobody has read. This is not the way this House should be run.
People who are watching this on TV are scratching their heads and wondering how in the world can Members of Congress vote on legislation that they have never seen, that they haven't had a chance to read. But that is exactly what we are being asked to do tonight, and that is wrong.
What is happening right now is a deliberate attempt to, essentially, give people cover on the minimum wage, on a bill that will die.
This is not going to be enacted into law. We know that because the Senate has already made it clear that they are not going to support this legislation. And so this is political cover for Republicans who are afraid that they are going to be criticized for not voting for the minimum wage.
If you want a minimum wage, then vote for it up or down. Don't clutter it up with tax breaks for millionaires and for special corporate interests.
The fact of the matter is that it takes a full day's pay for a minimum-wage earner to fill just one tank of gas. The average CEO earns 821 times more than a minimum-wage worker. The average CEO earns more before lunchtime than a minimum-wage worker earns all year.
Let's not be cynical. Let's defeat this martial law rule. Let's give the Members of this House an opportunity to vote on the minimum wage up or down. That is what the American people deserve. Vote ``no'' on this martial law rule.
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