Cornyn: Protection For Small Businesses Needed For Minimum Wage Increase

Cornyn: Protection For Small Businesses Needed For Minimum Wage Increase

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a Member of the Senate Budget Committee, made the following statement regarding today's vote by the Senate to ensure that the minimum wage increase legislation currently under consideration by the Senate would include important protections for small businesses.

"America's small businesses are the engine driving America's economy, and as we consider increasing the minimum wage, we must also consider the new burdens this will place on small business owners. Most studies show that unless an increase in the minimum wage is coupled with protections for small businesses in the form of new tax incentives, it will have negative effects on employment. So instead of simply raising the minimum wage as the Democrats would have us do, Republicans are standing with small business owners and are working to include protections that will offset higher labor costs.

"Yet, in looking for ways to keep our economy moving forward, I am deeply disappointed that my Democrat colleagues turned their backs today on the opportunity to address wasteful federal spending by rejecting a line-item veto amendment to the minimum wage bill—an amendment that was nearly identical to one that the Democrats themselves introduced in 1995. Today's vote is particularly difficult to reconcile considering the Democrats' repeated commitments to join Republicans on spending restraint. The line-item veto would have been a critical tool in doing just that — so the Democrats' rejection of this important amendment is disappointing, to say the least."

http://cornyn.senate.gov/index.asp?f=record&lid=1&yid=1&rid=237292&pg=1