US House panel backs minimum wage increase By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. House of Representatives panel on Tuesday voted to raise the U.S. minimum wage in increments to $7.25 an hour by January 1, 2009.
The House Appropriations Committee backed the proposal by a vote of 32-27 during work on a massive fiscal 2007 funding bill for labor and health programs.
The surprise result came after seven Republicans on the committee supported the Democratic amendment.
But the legislation faces many hurdles, including possible efforts by Republican leaders to have the proposal stricken from the legislation, according to Republican and Democratic aides.
Under the proposal, which was offered by House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, the current $5.15-per-hour federal minimum wage would rise in 70-cent increments starting January 1, 2007. On that date, the minimum wage would be set at $5.85 and a year later it would go to $6.55 before topping off at $7.25 in 2009.
Think Progress » Right-Wing Shelves Vote on Minimum Wage
Earlier this week, the House Appropriations Committee voted to raise the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour by 2009. The increase passed as an amendment to the Labor-HHS spending bill after seven Republicans — Reps. Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO), John Sweeney (R-NY), Ray LaHood (R-IL), Don Sherwood (R-PA), Mike Simpson (R-ID), James Walsh (R-NY), and Bill Young (R-FL) — broke ranks to pass the increase.
The right wing objected to the move on the grounds that the committee “shouldn’t be legislating on an appropriations bill.” (They forget how Sen. Frist (R-TN) and Rep. Hastert (R-IL) did exactly that last year when they slipped liability protections for vaccine makers into a defense spending bill.)
The “next step” for the bill would have been for the House Rules Committee “to decide whether to ‘protect’ the amendment as part of the bill,” followed by a floor vote on their ruling.
Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), who offered the amendment along with Rep. George Miller (D-CA), told ThinkProgress he was planning to fight attempts to take the increase out of the bill. “If there is an attempt to strip the amendment on procedural grounds,” he said, “we will fight back for the American people. The minimum wage is now at its lowest level in 50 years, and hardworking American families deserve a fair, livable wage.”
But now it looks like the vote will be delayed indefinitely. CongressDaily reported yesterday that “the bill would not reach the floor next week” and “there is a chance it would not come up even the following week, and possibly not at all.”
Conservatives are clearly afraid to be on the record opposing a minimum wage increase at a time when 83 percent of Americans support such a move.
The Seattle Times: Nation & World: House lawmakers take $3,300 pay raise
Despite record low approval ratings, House lawmakers Tuesday embraced a $3,300 pay raise that would increase their salaries to $168,500.
The 2 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) would be the seventh straight for members of the House and Senate. Lawmakers easily squelched an attempt by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, to get a direct vote to block the increase, which is automatically awarded unless lawmakers vote to block it.
In the early days of GOP control of Congress, lawmakers routinely denied themselves the annual COLA.