Date: 1996-04-25
Speaker: GENE GREEN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. in just a few minutes we will be going to the budget agreement that I want to congratulate not just the majority Members. but also the whole Congress. because we finally have a budget agreement that. and I know I have heard this morning a lot of my colleagues on the Republican side talking about how it saves the tax dollars. and it does. and that is great. But it also restores a great many of the devastating education cuts that we have been talking about on this floor for months and months. What it does is it shows us we can have a balanced budget in 7 years. just like the President talked about. and still have investment in education and job training and those issues that ve know are not just for today. that tley are for next year and 5 years from now. But the reason I asked for 5 minutes this afternoon. Mr. Speaker. is to talk about it is time to have a clean vote on the minimum wage increase. Working Americans support an increase in the minimum wage. In fact. the latest poll I saw showed that 83 percent of Americans support an increase in the minimum wage. In fact. just today I see reported that we are not going to have a vote on this floor on a minimum wage increase. I think that hurts not only the Congress. but the majority. but I also think it hurts a lot of good. hardworking people in our country who are trying to struggle on $4.25 an hour. Americans know the real value of the minimum wage has declined in the past 15 years and the minimum wage earners have not seen an increase since April 1. 1991. 5 years ago. Mr. Speaker. During that time. with Inflation 3 percent a year on the average. we see that percentage increasing. We have a bipartisan bill that has been introduced by some of my majority Republican colleagues. 20 Members I understand. and I am a cosponsor of that bill. to increase the minimum wage. Yet we see that we are not going to have a vote on It. I know some Members on the majority Republican side are disappointed just like those of us on the Democratic side. There is a proposal though. not the bipartisan bill. but there is a proposal we heard about. and again in speeches today from the majority. that the minimum wage would remain at $4.25. but we would continue to talk about a Federal Government subsidy for employees with families. So what we are seeing is an increase in this big Government in Washington. We have heard now for over a year. a year and 4 months. how we need to not have big Government in Washington. Yet we are going to. instead of businesses who can earn. who are depending on those people making $4.25 an hour to produce a product. we are going to subsidize them from this big Government in Washington. It is like the world turned upside down. Mr. Speaker. I just do not understand it. just being a Member from Houston and understanding that the minimum wage. typically you earn that. We do not need any more subsidies for people who have families. We want a decent wage for a decent job being done. and to get these people off welfare. The biggest problem I think we have. and the majority has to explain. is how a person making $4.25 an hour working 40 hours a week is still eligible in my district for welfare benefits. What we need to do is. If we increase the minimum wage to $5.15 an hour. a person working 40 hours a week would then no longer be eligible for welfare. They would actually be able to work their way off of this subsidy that they may be receiving and the expanded subsidy I hear the majority party may be talking about. That is what is wrong. We need to make sure that they can earn that money to keep themselves. get themselves off welfare. And that is why it is amazing to me that instead of just increasing the minimum wage to where businesses will pay their employees a minimum wage reasonable enough to get them off of welfare. that we are coming up with ways that the government can subsidize it and say. well. we really need to do even more on an earned income tax credit. or do even more for providing for these families. These families want to work and earn a living. They do not want the government to provide it. and that is why it is so important that we provide for a livable wage for the minimum wage. Americas families are working harder than ever and we know that. We see the polls. We see what is happening. The disparity between the highest paid people in our country and the lowest paid is getting higher and higher. We need to respond to that as members of Congress. not just as Democrats but as a Congress. because we need to make sure that. disparity is not there. The beauty of America has always been that we have a middle class and the hope for people to go into that middle class. And yet what we see is the disparity is getting bigger. The people who make the most are making more money and the people who make less are making even less. Mr. Speaker. I understand we are getting ready to go to the budget. but I would hope we would also see sometime in the near future a clean vote on the minimum wage issue.