Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRAYSON. Mr. Chairman, this amendment is identical to other amendments that have been inserted by voice vote into every appropriations bill that has been considered under an open rule during this Congress. It is also identical to the amendment I offered to last week's Energy and Water bill, which was passed by voice vote.

My amendment expands the list of parties with whom the Federal Government is prohibited from contracting due to serious misconduct on the part of the contractors. It is my hope that this amendment will remain uncontroversial, as it has been, and will again be passed unanimously by this House.

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Mr. GRAYSON. Mr. Chairman, this amendment would end the Federal Government's practice of paying poverty wages to its workers and hopefully set an example for the private sector to stop paying poverty wages to its workers.

My metropolitan area of Florida has the lowest average wages of any of the 50 biggest cities in America. It is time to end this and to pay people fairly. A fair day's work should result in a fair day's pay.

The reason why we have to end poverty wages in America is simple. It is just too expensive to be poor in America. If you are poor, it is difficult to buy or rent a place to live, to buy or lease a car to drive, even to get electricity from a utility company, to save any money at all, or even open a bank account. It is just too expensive to be poor in America.

Journalist Barbara Ehrenreich put it best:

If you can't afford the first month's rent and security deposit you need in order to rent an apartment, you may get stuck in an overpriced residential motel.

If you don't have a kitchen or even a refrigerator and microwave, you will find yourself falling back on convenience store food, which--in addition to its nutritional deficits--is also alarmingly overpriced.

If you need a loan, as most poor people eventually do, you will end up paying an interest rate many times more than what a more affluent borrower would be charged.

To be poor--especially with children to support and care for--is a perpetual high-wire act.

Mr. Chairman, when I say ``it's too expensive to be poor in America,'' I am not just quoting a poverty advocate. I am quoting Noah Wintroub, an official for JPMorgan Chase. Yes, even the bankers are telling us that it is too expensive to be poor in America.

Right now, the Federal Government can pay as little as $8.62 an hour for a grade 1, step 1 worker. That is not enough. You get what you pay for. That is the capitalist way. If a government worker has to take another job just to get by, then that worker can't focus on doing a good job serving the public. If a Federal worker is working 80 hours a week instead of 40 just to survive, he is not going to do a good job at either job.

My amendment simply would not allow the government to pay anyone less than $10.10 an hour--still a very modest amount. According to CBO, it doesn't cost the government a single dime extra. It is supported by the American Federation of Government Employees. Paying Federal workers $10.10 an hour is still not enough, but at least it is a start.

Right now, the minimum wage gives you $1,200 a month to live on if you work a full-time job for 40 hours a week. From that $1,200 a month, you must pay your Social Security taxes, your Medicare taxes, pay for your food, your clothing, your housing, your transportation. You must also pay, by the way, for the food and clothing of your children.

That is not possible. It is simply not possible to live that way, and we can't expect people to do that. In fact, the taxpayers end up subsidizing them through food stamps, Medicaid, the earned income credit, and a dozen other ways that we make up for the shortfall when their employers are not paying them enough to keep them alive.

I think it is time that we take a stand. I hope this body sees the wisdom of paying at least Federal workers, to start, above poverty wages. I urge this body to accept this amendment and set a proper standard for labor in this country. Let's have $10.10, not $7.25. You can't survive on $7.25.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. GRAYSON. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the creativity of my colleague from Florida's argument, but no one is suggesting Federal employees have to work for free. All this amendment does is simply eliminate the poverty rates set forth in the General Schedule and replaces them with the existing higher rates.

All we are saying here is that grade 1, steps 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 are below poverty level; grade 2, steps 1 and 2 are below poverty level.

I don't see how this amendment could possibly lead to the scenario that the gentleman from Florida, the chairman, is describing. It simply would mean that these workers would no longer be paid poverty wages. They would be paid under the existing GSA schedule a proper day's pay for a proper day's work.

Therefore, and given the fact that the AFGE, which is responsible for representing these workers, supports this amendment and rejects the nightmare scenario described by the gentleman from Florida, I would hope to have the gentleman from Florida's consent and support for this amendment.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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