Date: 2006-07-28
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as Imay consume. Mr. Speaker and Members of the House. it is rather -interesting to see my colleagues on the Republican side of the aisle ask us whether we know that the minimum wage is $5.15 an hour. Apparently. they have just discovered that fact. I would ask them did they know that the minimum wage was $5.15 an hour 10 years ago and 9 years ago and 8 years ago and 7 years ago and 6 years ago and 5 years ago and 4 years ago? It was $5.15 an hour and you never raised a finger. You never raised a finger to help these individuals. We introduced a bill every year. I have asked for hearings in my committee every year to raise the minimum wage because these people have been stuck at $5.15 an hour. You control the House. you control the Senate. you control the White House. You could never find time for these people. You found time for the richest people in the country. but you never found time for the people at $5.15 an hour. Now. as your. political fortunes change. you get a letter from the most vulnerable members of your caucus. and you discover that people are working for $5.15 an hour. But even then you cannot play it straight. No. the only way you can do this bill for the people whom you now recognize need help. and they have needed it for many years. is to put a poison pill into the minimum wage increase of the estate tax cut. knowing that you will send it off to the Senate and it will be embroiled in the 18 days that we have left in this session and there will be no increase in the minimum wage. You could vote for the motion to recommit. The extenders are not controversial. And apparently the minimum wage is not controversial on your side. Although when a clean minimum wage passed on the Health and. Human Services appropriations -bill. it came to a grinding stop. and your Speaker said we are not going to have a minimum wage increase. and your majority leader says. I havent voted for one of these and I have not supported it for 25 years. with great pride. Did he know they were working for $5.15 an hour all that time? If he had his way. they would have been working for $3.15 an hour over the last 25 years. So tonight what are we presented with? The appearance of a minimum wage increase. but it is really about driving the estate tax. But it is about driving the estate tax into a hostile environment in the Senate. where you will argue and you will argue and you will argue and the session will end. and those same people that are working for $5.15 an hour today will be working for $5.15 an hour next year and next month. As much compassion as you felt for them. you decided they ought to wait longer to get $7.25 in the bill you presented. As much compassionas you felt for them. you decided if they work for tips. you would take away their wages in the States that Mr. INSLEE pointed out. in Washington and California and elsewhere. They would lose their wages under this bill. So I think this newfound compassion is somewhat shallow. somewhat less than sincere for these people because you could not find time for them over the last 5 years. You could not find time to deal with their problems of Working all year long and ending up with $10.700 and being in poverty. You could not find time for them when the price of gasoline went up and the price of rent went up and the price of education went up and the price of milk went up. You could not find time then. But all of a sudden. you can find time now. but only. only if you can stick it in with relief for the richest people in America. relief that you know will not happen in this legislation. And once again. these people will be denied. They will be denied at the hands of the Republican leadership that has been hostile to the minimum wage from the moment they came to this House of Representatives. They had never had any intention of supporting it. they had never voted for it. and it will not happen again. Mr. Speaker. I yield back the balance of my time.