Minimum Wage Increase

Floor Speech

MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE -- (Extensions of Remarks - July 24, 2007)

* Mr. UDALL of New Mexico. Madam Speaker, the last time Congress raised the minimum wage, gas prices hovered around $1.33 a gallon, Enron wasn't even in business and America had never heard of the iPod, much less the iPhone. Since then, the cost of living has risen 26 percent, while the real value of the minimum wage has been eroded by inflation to its lowest level since 1955.

* Thirteen million American workers will get a pay raise thanks to the minimum wage increase that begins today. That means an estimated six million children will see their parents' incomes rise, an increase of $2.10 an hour that will give families an additional $4,400 a year to meet critical needs. That's 15 months of groceries, over two years of health care, 19 months of utilities, or 20 months of child care.

* I wish I could say it took great political courage to back this wage increase. However, it did not. More than 85 percent of Americans support raising the minimum wage. The American people have been ready; what was missing was the Congressional leadership. For more than nine years, the Republican-controlled Congress refused to raise the minimum wage. The new Democratic leadership raised it in just seven months. For four years, the old Congressional leadership let Pell Grant values stagnate. Last week, Congress passed the biggest investment in college aid since the GI Bill. And for almost four years, Republicans in Congress gave President Bush a blank check to fight a misguided war in Iraq. Since January, Congress has told the President again and again that it's time for a change.

* The new Congressional leadership has shown that it will do what the old Congressional leadership would not; it will fight for America's working families. Today's wage increase is just one sign of changed priorities in Washington. Congress has begun to deliver real support to those who need it most.

* With all of the talk in Washington, we can lose track of what politics means in the everyday lives of Americans. Anybody who claims that it does not matter who controls Congress should go talk to a worker who just took home a larger paycheck. That larger paycheck was only possible because of a new Congressional leadership and a new Congress. I am proud to serve in that Congress.

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