GOP Prevents Committee from Having a Debate on the Merits

WASHINGTON, DC— Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) released the following statement on the Republican Appropriators’ rejection of her amendment to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, as called for in the Fair Minimum Wage Act (H.R. 1010).  In 2006, the House Appropriations Committee acted in a bipartisan way to raise the minimum wage with President Bush ultimately signing legislation to increase the wage in 2007.

“Republican duplicity on the minimum wage could not be any clearer than it was today. Republican appropriators, without any argument on the merits, voted against a wage hike that would give a raise to 25 million Americans, lift millions out of poverty, create jobs and strengthen our economy. They claimed that my amendment to do just does not belong on an appropriations bill. The fact is both Democrats and Republicans voted to increase the minimum wage on an appropriations bill in 2006. That same year 26 Republicans urged then-Majority Leader John Boehner to schedule a vote to raise the minimum wage, saying ‘Nobody working full time should have to live in poverty.’ In 2007, 36 Republicans who are still in Congress voted to increase the minimum wage and President Bush ultimately signed the last increase into law.

“We know Speaker Boehner, who once said ‘I’ll commit suicide before I vote on a clean minimum-wage bill,’ will not bring the bill to the floor for a vote, so it is incumbent upon individual members to act.  The Republicans on the committee showed their true colors today, hypocritically voting against giving working families the living wage they desperately need.”

DeLauro, the senior Democrat on the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education Appropriations Subcommittee, offered the amendment to the Fiscal Year 2015 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act during full committee consideration of the bill.