President Biden will not fight for the federal minimum wage to be raised to $15 per hour as part of a coronavirus relief package Democrats are preparing to push through Congress, a top aide said.
Biden is “firmly committed” to increasing the minimum wage, White House press secretary Jen Psaki insisted Monday, a day after the president told CBS he supported the proposal but does not believe it would “survive” the same special Senate rule he says he is willing to rely on to push his “American Rescue Plan” through Congress if talks with Republicans about a bipartisan alternative fail.
“We’ll see what the parliamentarian decides, and then we’ll see what additional options are, but we’re getting a little ahead of where we are at this point in the process,” Psaki said during her daily press briefing.
Reconciliation is a budgetary procedure that will allow Democrats to pass the proposal with a simple majority, or the 51 votes comprised of Senate Democrats, the independent senators who caucus with them, and Vice President Kamala Harris. But to qualify, provisions have to be ruled by the chamber’s parliamentarian as directly affecting the federal budget.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is working with Democratic lawyers on an argument that higher wages would reduce the amount of federal assistance needed by low-income individuals and that it would boost their taxable income. A Congressional Budget Office report published Monday also found hiking the minimum wage would lift 900,000 people out of poverty but that it would result in 1.4 million jobs being lost by 2025, complicating the Democrats’ argument.
One way around the hurdle is for Harris, as president of the Senate, to overrule an adverse decision by the parliamentarian.
“I’m not aware of that being allowed. I certainly take you at your word. I think our view is that the parliamentarian is who is chosen typically to make a decision in a nonpartisan manner,” Psaki said.
The other piece of the puzzle is the amount of stimulus checks and how the direct payments should be targeted. Psaki said parameters for the $1,400 checks were still being negotiated, but the White House endorsed a pitch by House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal to include $3,600 per child tax credits in the bill.
“The president supports the proposal that Rep. Neil and others have put forward to ensure that there is money in the package that helps bring relief to families, and the form of a child tax is something he certainly supports,” she said, noting that proposal calls for the use of “emergency” monies rather than a more permanent policy.
