No Compromise: Dems To Ax Minimum Wage Bill Should Republicans Add Anything
Far-left Democratic lawmakers issued a warning to their more moderate Democratic counterparts on Wednesday and said they would ax a minimum wage bill if Republicans tried to amend it ahead of the vote.
Reps. Pramila Jayapal from Washington state and Mark Pocan from Wisconsin said that progressive Democrats are ready to vote against the legislation en masse to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour if the Republicans’ procedural motion is adopted beforehand, The Hill reported.
The warning appears to be directed at more moderate Democrats who previously joined with Republicans in a motion to recommit.
Such a motion allows the minority party to alter the legislation at the midnight hour before the final vote is cast.
“We have no doubt that Congressional Republicans will try to divide the Democratic Caucus with a disingenuous Motion to Recommit. It’s up to all of us to stand unified and reject their bad faith effort to undermine this bill,” Pocan and Jayapal said in their statement.
“After consulting with our Members this week, we are confident that any bill that includes a poison pill Republican Motion to Recommit will lack the votes to pass on the House Floor,” they added.
While the content of the Republicans’ motion to recommit was not known, according to progressives, it doesn’t matter.
They want the bill to pass as is, without any additions.
“The Progressive Caucus is eager for a strong floor vote raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. We are deeply grateful to the organizers, activists and working people across the country who fought for years to make this vote a reality,” Pocan and Jayapal said in their statement.
“It would be a disservice to these families — who put their paychecks on the line to fight for dignity in the workplace — to do anything less than what we’ve promised: a clean vote to raise the minimum wage, for all workers across the country.”
The bill’s sponsor, Bobby Scott from Virginia, urged his colleagues to just “get this done.”
“Tomorrow, Congress can vote to raise wages for more than 33 million people with the first minimum wage increase in a decade. We can vote to end poverty wages and give families the dignity of a livable paycheck,” he said.
The debate between the party’s far-left progressive movement has been at odds with the more moderate Democrats, especially after the recent passage of legislation regarding the crisis at the U.S. southern border.
While more progressive Democrats wanted the legislation to include more language that added specific protections for illegal immigrants detained at the border, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed the legislation to the floor without those provisions.
Afterward, the fallout went public with a bitter round of bickering between the progressives and the moderates.
The vote on the minimum wage bill is scheduled for Thursday and is expected to pass unless the Republicans’ motion to commit is adopted.
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