Friday, May 24, 1996
Vote seen as victory for Clinton; tax breaks for small business
includedBy David Espo
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — In a striking triumph for President Clinton and
the Democrats, the House approved election-year legislation
Thursday to raise the minimum wage by 90 cents an hour.
The 281-144 vote came after a sharply divided House rejected a
proposal by Republican leaders to exempt millions of workers from
federal wage and overtime laws.
"The House worked its will and America will get a raise,"
exulted Rep. Jack Quinn of New York, the most outspoken in a group
of moderate Republicans who defied their leaders in supporting the
increase.
House approval of the measure sets the stage for Senate action
after lawmakers return from next week’s Memorial Day break.
Clinton, on a visit to Milwaukee, challenged Senate Majority
Leader Bob Dole to bring the issue to a Senate vote before he
leaves office next month to focus on the presidential election.
"That is the way to honor our values of work, family, opportunity
and responsibility," Clinton said.
The legislation provides for a 50-cent-an-hour increase in the
current $4.25-an-hour minimum wage, effective on July 1. A second,
40-cent increase would take effect a year later. The bill also
includes a series of small business tax breaks that Republicans
crafted to offset the impact of the higher wage on employers.
In debate that spilled over two days in a deeply polarized
House, Democrats and moderate Republicans said a minimum wage
increase was simple fairness.
"The people who cook our meals and sweep our floors and work in
our child care centers in this country deserve a raise," said Rep.
Robert Andrews, D-N.J. "If you want Mom off welfare, make the job
worth going to," added Democratic Rep. Pat Williams of Montana.
But many Republicans said raising the minimum wage would cost
jobs, particularly for disadvantaged workers who tend to hold
low-paying positions. "There’s a hate passion from the (Democrats)
in relationship to business and a tremendous hate passion in
relationship to small businesses," said Rep. William Goodling,
R-Pa. "Well it is those small businesses that are going to create
the jobs in this country."
The vote was a rare triumph for Democrats, who lost their House
majority in the 1994 elections and showed uncommon unity this
spring in pursuing the minimum wage increase. For his part, Clinton
threatened a veto of the bill on Wednesday if Republicans succeeded
in attaching their proposed exemptions for firms with annual
incomes of $500,000 or less.
Election-year politics played a role in the debate as well, as
Clinton challenged Dole, the GOP presidential nominee-in-waiting,
to join him in opposing the exemptions. And Rep. Martin Frost,
chairman of the Democratic campaign committee in the House, said
the day’s action marked a "defining moment in this election."
The vote was also a setback for the GOP leadership, which
attacked the proposal as a Democratic payoff to organized labor and
at first refused to schedule a floor vote. Confronted with the
rebellion by moderate Republicans, they eventually relented. But
they masked their surrender with several provisions to reduce the
sting for small businesses, who are among the GOP’s strongest
political supporters.
These provisions included the package of tax breaks that passed
overwhelmingly on Wednesday night. They also included a measure to
ease the impact of the wage hike on restaurant owners and to
implement a $4.25-an-hour "opportunity wage" Â a sort of
training wage for beginning workers.
The proposal to exempt all firms with incomes of under $500,000
from wage and overtime laws was the closest roll call of the day
and, in many respects, the pivotal one. The vote was 229-196 to
reject the proposal, and a lusty cheer went up on the Democratic
side of the House chamber when it was clear what the outcome would
be.
Democrats had said in advance they would turn against the entire
legislation if the exemption was approved. Several Republican
sources said the GOP leaders did not lobby wavering lawmakers on
behalf of the small business exemption. These officials said that
after weeks of being whipsawed between conservatives and moderates
in their own caucus and sharply attacked by Democrats, the high
command was more interested in having the measure clear the House
than in prevailing on every test vote.
Senate Democrats, who also have been demanding a minimum wage
vote from reluctant Republicans, said they would seek changes to
make the measure more generous to restaurant workers and ease the
"training wage" provisions.
The debate underscored the philosophical differences in the
House.
Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas, a former economics
professor, said he believed with "every fiber of my being" that
raising the wage floor would boomerang against the disadvantaged
young workers who need jobs the most. That effect is such a basic
principle of economics, he said, that Joseph E. Stiglitz, a top
economics adviser to the president, had included it in a textbook.
"If a college freshman doesn’t grasp this he’s not likely to pass
the course," said Armey.
But Democrats saw it differently.
"No wonder 60 percent of the American people say this Gingrich
Congress is too extreme," said Rep. David Bonior of Michigan, the
Democratic whip. "The American people don’t want to see a return to
sweatshops. They want us to raise wages, not roll them back."
Voting for the measure on final passage were 187 Democrats,
independent Bernard Sanders of Vermont and 93 Republicans. Opposed
were 138 Republicans and six Democrats.
On the closer vote on exempting small businesses, 185 Democrats
and Sanders joined with 43 Republicans in opposition, while 189
Republicans and seven Democrats were in favor.
On a third key vote  one that Democrats are likely to
highlight in their campaign advertising  156 Republicans
voted against a straightforward minimum wage increase on a test
vote.