The House on Friday began debating a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 aid package that includes a $15 minimum wage mandate that is likely to be removed in the Senate.
House and Senate Democrats scrambled to find a way to include the minimum wage provision in the bill after the Senate parliamentarian ruled Thursday night that it could not be included under special rules permitting the coronavirus spending measure to pass with only 51 votes.
House Democrats on Friday afternoon brought up the measure with the wage increase intact, creating a conflict with fellow Democratic leaders in the Senate. Democrats called on the Senate to overrule the decision by parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, who determined the provision does not directly affect the federal budget and thus does not qualify for special rules enabling passage by a simple majority.
“House Democrats believe that the minimum wage hike is necessary,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat. “Therefore, this provision will remain in the American Rescue Plan. Democrats in the House are determined to pursue every possible path in the Fight For 15.”
The minimum wage increase is just one provision in a massive spending package proposed by President Biden that would provide a new round of $1,400 stimulus checks, $400 in additional weekly jobless pay, $350 billion to state and local governments, $130 billion to schools, and nearly $50 billion in aid to businesses, including airlines and restaurants.
Few, if any, Republicans are expected to support the measure due to the cost and the minimum wage provision.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, said Democrats are leaving in the mandate to raise the minimum wage to appease their liberal base.
“This is for the progressive wing of the party who say they won’t vote for the bill unless they have that in there,” McCarthy said. “Otherwise, the bill will fail.”
Republicans are opposed to a $15 minimum wage, he said, arguing that it will hurt businesses, particularly as they struggle to survive coronavirus lockdowns.
“All the studies show you are going to actually lose more jobs,” McCarthy said.
Many Democrats are determined to try to keep the wage increase in the bill despite the ruling by MacDonough.
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat who heads the Finance Committee, offered a backup proposal that would leave out the wage increase and instead tax businesses that do not offer workers $15 an hour.
Republicans rejected the idea outright, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, is weighing Wyden’s proposal.
The tax proposal may raise objections from centrist Senate Democrats who are opposed to a $15 minimum wage mandate, including Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
Manchin’s press team did not respond to a request for comment about the Wyden proposal.
The Senate is poised to take up the bill as early as next week.
House Republicans testified at a panel hearing on the bill on Friday that the measure is wasteful and fails to address the most critical needs related to the virus.
Pennsylvania Rep. Glenn Thompson, the top Republican on the House Agriculture Committee, called the bill “a grab bag of partisan priorities, many of them completely unrelated to the pandemic.”
