Mr. Speaker, Teddy Roosevelt first suggested that all hard working Americans  should earn what he called a “living wage.”  Today, a century later, millions of Americans have

Click Here to Watch Video

been denied the promise of his great vision, due to fear tactics involving unemployment and a slowed economy.  Those who stand in the way of President Roosevelt’s dream, and the well-being of the American work-force, warn of hypothetical scenarios involving unemployment and a slowed economy.

But these fears have proven false time and time again.  The truth can be found, not in contrived hypotheticals, but in our country’s history.  America’s minimum wage was raised regularly from 1938 to 1997 and the economy thrived through—and in no small part, due to those actions. In those 59 years, minimum wage increases have never led to unemployment.  What they’ve led to is higher wages across the board, increases in spending, and consequently: a healthy and vibrant economy.  Without exception, this has been the case, and when we return our attention to our underpaid workforce, the results will again prove positive and beneficial to all of America.

Of the more than 5 million minimum wage workers in this country, 30,000 live in my home district - Louisville, KY.  They go to work 40 hours a week, only to come home to a life of poverty.  In Louisville, you can’t provide housing, food, and clothing for an individual—let alone a family—on 206 dollars a week, and you’d be remiss to find a district where you can.

It is our responsibility, our moral obligation, and our patriotic duty to ensure that all hard working Americans have the opportunity to provide for themselves and their families.  We have the unique opportunity to approach Teddy Roosevelt’s vision: that for an American who works, a living wage is the absolute minimum.  89% of Americans want it, 13 million Americans need it, and after ten years we—the members of this great institution— finally have the chance to do it.  I urge my colleagues to support this measure and I yield back the balance of my time.