Bernie Sanders says ‘full room of lawyers’ is working to defend $ 15 minimum wage

Bernie Sanders says ‘full room of lawyers’ is working to defend $ 15 minimum wage

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The comments were made at a time when Biden raised doubts about whether the salary increase was in the final bill, telling CBS in an interview that aired on Friday that he did not think “it will survive”.
Democrats are considering using a procedural shortcut known as budgetary reconciliation to pass the big piece of legislation by Congress in the face of the Republican opposition. Although the minimum wage increase was included in Biden’s proposal, questions have arisen in recent days as to whether it would be possible for lawmakers to use reconciliation to approve the package with it included. The procedural movement is intended for expense, tax and debt accounts.

“I can tell you, as chairman of the (Senate Budget Committee), we have a room full of lawyers working as hard as we can to defend the parliamentarian that, in fact, raising the minimum wage will have significant budgetary implications and, In fact, it must be consistent with the reconciliation rules, “said Sanders, a Vermont independent who joins the Democrats, to CNN’s Jake Tapper in the” State of the Union. ”

Cedric Richmond, a senior adviser to Biden, told MSNBC on Sunday that the government still supports a $ 15 minimum wage and that it supports Sanders’ efforts to keep him on the president’s plan.

Richmond said Biden’s comment about the increase not surviving “was just his prediction of what he thought the Senate would do,” adding: “Sanders assembled a team to present a very convincing argument that he should remain on the bill under the Senate rules. “

Sanders also emphasized the importance of approving a Covid aid package as soon as possible, without falling back on Democratic priorities, including raising the federal minimum wage and a higher income limit for individuals receiving stimulus checks.

The Vermont senator did not say whether he thinks Vice President Kamala Harris should ignore the congresswoman in her role as Senate president to help pass legislation that includes the provision of the minimum wage, as he argued earlier during his presidential campaign.
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“Before we get to what the vice president is going to do, I have to go through the parliamentary and then I have to get 50 votes in favor of raising the minimum wage to $ 15 an hour. I’m working as hard as I can to make that happen. “, he said.

Pressed by Tapper on whether he would be willing to lower the dollar increase amount to ensure he has all the Democratic votes he needs, including that of Senator Joe Manchin, a moderate member of the West Virginia party, Sanders noted that he does not think that a $ 15 federal minimum wage is a “radical idea”. He added that he believes that “at the end of the day” Democrats understand that the provision needs to be approved.

Sanders also doubled his belief that Democrats should not lower the eligibility limit for direct payments to the level that Republicans want. He said he agrees with lawmakers saying they don’t want wealthy individuals to receive the proposed $ 1,400 payments, saying that “what we need to do is have a strong cliff so that it doesn’t spread to people who earn $ 300,000.”

However, he called the desire of some to set the limit on payments for individuals earning $ 50,000 or less “absurd”, noting that he disagrees with this position for political and policy-related reasons.

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