With House voting on relief bill, Dems mull wage plan rescue
WASHINGTON — A $1.9 trillion package aimed at helping the country rebuild from the pandemic seemed headed toward House passage Friday, even as Democrats searched for a way to revive their derailed drive to boost the minimum wage.
A virtual party-line House vote was expected on the COVID- 1 9 relief measure, which embodies President Joe Biden's push to flush cash to individuals, businesses, states and cities. The White House issued a statement reinforcing its support for the new president's paramount initial goal.
“The bill would allow the administration to execute its plan to change the course of the COVID-19 pandemic,” it said. “And it would provide Americans and t heir communities an economic bridge through the crisis.”
Republicans have lined up against t he plan, call i ng i t an overpriced and wasteful attempt to help Democratic allies l i ke l abor unions and Democratic-run states.
The bill is“a partisan circus” designed to “quickly notch some wins for the president's buddies ,” said Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., top Republican on the House Budget Committee.
That' s making the fight a showdown over which party voters will reward for approving added federal spending to combat the coronavirus and revive the economy, on top of $4 trillion previously passed. The pandemic has killed a half-million Americans, thrown mill i ons out of work and reconfigured the daily lives of nearly everyone from coast to coast.
The battle is also emerging asa nearly test of Bid en' s a bility to hold together his party's fragile congressional majorities — just 10 votes in the House and an evenly divided 50-50 Senate.
At the same time, Democrats were trying to figure out how to respond to their jarring
setback Thursday in the Senate.
That ch amber' s non partisan parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, said Senate rules require that a federal minimum wage increase would have to be dropped from the COVID-19 bill, leaving the proposal on life support. The measure would gradually lift that minimum to $15 hourly by 2025, doubling the current $7.25 floor in effect since 2009.
Hoping to revive the effort in some form, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Sc hum er, D-N. Y ., is considering adding a provision to the Senate version of the COVID relief bill that would penalize large companies that don't pay workers at least $15 an hour, said a senior Democratic aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations.
That was in line with ideas floated Thursday night by Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a chief sponsor of the $15 plan, and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D- Ore. , to boost taxes on
corporations that don't hit certain minimum wage targets.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also weighed in, promising Democrats would continue fighting for a minimum wage increase and saying Congress would “absolutely” approve a final version of the bill even if it lacked progressives' treasured goal.
“If it doesn't prevail because of Senate rules, we will persist ,” said Pel osi , D- Cali f . “But we will not stop until we very soon pass the $15 minimum wage.”
She provided no details about how they would achieve that.
But though Democratic leaders were eager to signal to rankand-file progressives and liberal voters that they would not yield on that fight, the idea of prodding companies to boost pay with threatened tax increases faced an uncertain fate.
Some Democrats would likely be reluctant to back such tax hikes and give Republicans ammunition for their decades-old charge that Democrats love raising taxes.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass ., sidestepped a question on whether he'd support taxing companies that don't boost pay, saying of Senate Democrats, “I hesitate to to say anything until they decide on a strategy.”
But progressives were demanding t hat the Senate press ahead anyway on the minimum wage increase, even if it meant changing that chamber's rules and eliminating the filibuster, a tactic that requires 60 votes for a bill to move forward.
“We're going to have to reform the filibuster, because we have to be able to deliver,” said Rep. Pramila J ayapal, D-Wash ., a leader of House progressives.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., another high-profile progressive, also said that Senate rules must be changed, telling reporters that when Democrats meet with their constituents, “We can' t tell them that this didn' t get done because of an unelected parliamentarian.”