We need to congratulate our congressman on voting for HR 2: The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 along with 317 other Representatives from both parties. It raises the minimum wage throughout the US to $7.25 in two years, and on the way there to $5.85 in 60 days after enactment and $6.55 in a year. This bill can only be good for New York, since our state minimum wage is $7.15. It will certainly make New York more competitive with other states whose minimum wage remains at the federal minimum of $5.15.

The minimum wage has not been raised since 1997. It was mandated by HR 3448 that was passed by both Houses (enrolled) on 8/2/1996, presented to the President on 8/8/1996 and signed by President Clinton on 8/20/1996.

The real question is why did he not act earlier? He had every opportunity to back the very same bill in the 109th Congress, HR 2429 and decided not to.

It was bottled up in the Workforce Protection subcommittee of the Education and Workforce Committee (see below* for recent PC history of the committee’s name). Bottled up meaning that the subcommittee refused to report it out for action by the entire House. It therefore never saw the light of day for a vote and was “buried” in committee.

The most effective recourse a sponsor has to get his/her bill to the floor is to get the Rules Committee to issue a special rule directing the House to consider it. If the rule is brought to the House floor and the House approves it, then the bill is considered under the provision of the Rule. But of course, the Rules Committee is merely an arm of the Speaker and the House Leadership and in the 109th Congress they were the Republicans. Now if this sounds convoluted, it is, but bear with the process and the logic.

H. Res. 614 was therefore submitted on 12/15/2005 and immediately referred to the Rules Committee – and there it stayed – bottled up.

So now we have the original bill buried in the jurisdictional subcommittee and the rule to get the bill to the floor buried in the Rules Committee.

What’s a sponsor to do?

The House is where the majority rules. Majority meaning 218 members regardless of party. The mechanism to get a bill past recalcitrant committee chairmen is the Discharge Petition. A Motion for Discharge, to remove the Rules Committee from considering HR 614 and bring it directly to the floor, was filed on 2/28/2006. It only got 192 supporters, among them Republicans Jim Leach (R-IA) and Christopher Shays (R-CT), so it never got to the floor for a vote.
Opinion:

This is where is takes courage, leadership and commitment. It shows the real intentions of the representative. Obviously, HR 2 had overwhelming support (315 to 116) - and likewise, so would have HR 2429 in 2006. The only thing stopping action in 2006 was failure to get enough signatures on the Discharge Petition and get it out of committee.

Mr. McHugh, follower that he is, conveniently ignored the petition. He wasn’t about to stand up to the leadership and President Bush. Instead, he backed the Estate Tax and Extension of Tax Relief Act to which the minimum wage provision (phased in over a longer period of time) was attached. The effect of the bill was to make the Estate Tax Repeal permanent past 2011. It was Dead on Arrival in the Senate and every congressman knew it. The Estate Tax repeal would not become permanent and there would be no increase in the minimum wage.

So there it is again. Parliamentary maneuvering to disguise your real intentions from the voters. Why did a pure minimum wage bill have to wait until the Democrats took over? If he were really committed to the minimum wage why didn’t he sign the discharge petition in 2006 and get 24 more of his Republican colleagues who voted for HR 2 to sign also?

Andrew Jackson was right: “One man with courage makes a majority.”

*The Committee on Education and Labor was established on March 21, 1867 in the aftermath of the Civil War and the growth of American industry. On December 19, 1883, the Committee on Education and Labor was divided into two standing committees: Committee on Education and Committee on Labor. On January 2, 1947, the Legislative Reorganization Act again combined the Committees, renamed the Committee on Education and Labor. On January 4, 1995, the Committee was renamed the Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities. On January 7, 1997, the Committee was renamed the Committee on Education and the Workforce. Finally, on January 4, 2007, the Committee adopted its original name: the Committee on Education and Labor.