Progressive Democrats renewed their effort to end the Senate obstructionist after a parliamentary decision on Thursday night dealt a major blow to their efforts to include a $ 15 hourly minimum wage increase in the US aid bill. coronavirus.
Elizabeth MacDonough, the non-partisan Senate judge, determined that raising the $ 7.25 hourly wage floor is not in line with budgetary reconciliation rules, the procedural tool that Democrats are using to pass the measure without any Republican support. .
The discovery marks a serious setback for the leftist faction of the Democratic Party, which has been pushing politics for more than a decade and sees Biden’s aid package as the best way to make it a reality.
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In the wake of the decision, progressive lawmakers began to suggest alternative ways to raise the minimum wage – including removing obstruction, which requires lawmakers to guarantee a 60-vote limit for most legislation unrelated to the budget.
“Democrats should not be held hostage by Mitch McConnell to help struggling families,” tweeted Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. “It is time to get rid of the obstruction to raise the minimum wage to $ 15 and approve the other bold policies that Americans voted for us to apply.”
That sentiment was echoed by other progressives, including Senator Alex Padilla, D-Calif., Who tweeted that it was time to “end the obstruction” and “raise the minimum wage”, Senator Ed Markey, D-Mass., Sen Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., As well as Rep. Jamaal Bowman, DN.Y., and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash.
Despite calls from some lawmakers, Senate Democrats will almost certainly be unable to prevent obstruction. This would require the support of all 50 members to invoke the “nuclear option” and end obstruction by a simple majority. Sens. Joe Manchin, DW.Va., and Krysten Sinema, D-Ariz., Have previously defended the obstruction, with Manchin saying that there is no scenario “whatsoever I will vote to get rid of the obstruction” in the next two years.
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Even though the congressman had allowed the minimum wage to rise, however, he has already faced an uphill battle in the Senate: Manchin and Sinema, two of the party’s more moderate members, signaled that they would not support raising the wage floor as part of a plan broader COVID-19 relief effort. Without the support of all 50 members, Democrats do not have the votes needed to pass the measure, even with the minimum majority possible.
The federal minimum wage has not increased in more than a decade, although an increasing number of states have voted to adopt their own wage increases. There are 29 states with salaries above the federal minimum, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. At $ 14 an hour, California currently has the highest minimum wage in the country.
Raising the minimum wage from $ 7.25 to $ 15 an hour by 2025 would cost the economy about 1.4 million jobs and lift 900,000 Americans out of poverty, according to a recent analysis by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.