Reps. Hoyer, Miller and AU Call on House GOP to Help Force Up or Down Vote on Minimum Wage
House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, U.S. Rep. George Miller and Americans United Call on House Republicans to Help Force Clean Up or Down Vote on Minimum Wage
It's time for the 48 House Republicans who claim to support a minimum wage increase to back up their words with action!
September 28, 2006 (Washington D.C.) - House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the senior Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee, joined a press conference call today hosted by Americans United to call on Republicans who say they support an increase in the minimum wage to help Democrats force a clean up or down vote to increase it from the current $5.15 per hour to $7.25 per hour. Congress has failed to increase the national minimum wage since 1997 and it has dipped to its lowest level in 50 years when adjusted for inflation. In July 2006, House and Senate Republicans doomed legislation increasing the minimum wage to failure by attaching it to a virtual repeal of the estate tax - effectively holding hostage a wage increase that would benefit 6.6 million Americans for a huge tax cut for the country's 7,500 wealthiest estates.
On July 24, 2006, forty-eight House Republicans sent a letter to Majority Leader John Boehner asking him to schedule a vote on the minimum wage. Reps. Hoyer, Miller and Americans United will call on the forty-eight House Republicans who signed the letter to "back up their words with action" and join them in signing a "discharge petition" that would force a vote on H.R. 2429 - legislation that would raise the minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to $7.25 per hour over two years.
To read the July letter of 48 Republicans to Majority Leader Boehner, click here: http://democraticwhip.house.gov/docUploads/minwage5.pdf
"Forty-eight Republicans publicly supported an increase in a letter in July. Yet, they allowed their leadership to cynically hold an increase hostage to a virtual repeal of the estate tax for a few thousand of the wealthiest Americans," House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said today. "The failure of this Republican Congress to allow for a fair up-or-down vote on the minimum wage perfectly illustrates what I have been saying for many months about the so-called Republican moderates: They stand with the working people of their district up until the point that it matters. Until these Members sign the "discharge" petition that would force a clean vote on a minimum wage increase, these 48 Republicans aren't being honest when they say they fought for an increase in the minimum wage. In the end, what they fought for was political cover for themselves. On behalf of the 6.6 million Americans would benefit from an increase in minimum wage, we are again directly appealing to these 48 Republicans to join Democrats in forcing an up-or-down vote on the minimum wage. It is the fair thing to do, and it is the right thing to do."
"Republican leaders in Congress have refused to raise the minimum wage for nearly a decade, blocking Democrats' repeated efforts to give working families a long overdue pay raise. There are 48 Republicans who profess to care about low-wage workers. If they are serious about it, there is something they can do right away. If a majority of the House - that's 218 members - signs the discharge petition, then it will force a clean vote on whether or not to increase the minimum wage," said Rep. George Miller (D-CA). "It's time for these 48 Republicans to back up their words with action so we can finally have a vote to raise the minimum wage."
"All Americans deserve a fair wage, but a full-time worker making the minimum wage would earn a mere $10,700 annually - that's poverty level income for a family of 2 or more," said Brad Woodhouse, spokesman for Americans United. "It's unconscionable that after a decade of skyrocketing drug costs and gas prices, the GOP leadership would continue to play sick political games with their neediest constituents by first insisting on even more tax breaks for the very, very rich. It's just sad, and it's time for the House Republicans who claim they're for raising the minimum wage to put their money where their mouth is before Congress adjourns this week. Talk is very cheap these days -- if these same Republicans are not willing to sign this discharge petition today, their campaign trail grandstanding on the long overdue wage increase for working Americans will ring painfully hollow."
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