House progressives may delay Congress in approving Joe Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion stimulus package – which includes the $ 1,400 highly anticipated relief checks – to maintain the $ 15 minimum wage increase in the expanding bill.
On Friday, progressive lawmakers warned the Democratic leadership that they could withhold their vote in favor of the legislation if the Senate removes the salary increase. The opposition could send the package back to be renegotiated, which would further delay the approval of the project.
“There are progressive Democrats who have that muscle in the House. If we, as a party, decide to renounce our promise to raise the minimum wage, I think that is extraordinarily spurious and something that, as a party, we could have a deeper conversation with. how to fight for it, “said deputy Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, after suggesting that progressives should pressure party leaders by withholding their votes in the same way that moderate Democrats did in opposing the package.
In the early hours of Saturday morning, the House of Representatives passed the relief bill largely along party lines in a 219-212 vote. Two Democrats – Jared Golden of Maine and Kurt Schrader of Oregon – broke with the party to oppose legislation that Republicans in the lower house were unanimous in voting against.
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Aid legislation now advances to the Senate, where the $ 15 minimum wage increase must be changed. Then you will be sent back to the Chamber for another vote.
The House bill includes raising the federal minimum wage until 2025, a measure strongly contested by Republicans and some moderate Democrats. However, Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, a non-partisan interpreter of the house rules, said recently that she did not meet reconciliation requirements.
Senate Democrats paved the way to use the budget process to pass legislation with a simple majority, as the House is divided equally with Vice President Kamala Harris having the tiebreaker vote. But with MacDonough’s decision, party members are now spending the weekend exploring other avenues to approve the measure.
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal of Washington, president of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told reporters that Democrats can lose the support of progressives if they can’t find a way to include the pay rise.
“I don’t think we can go back to the voters and say, ‘Look, I know that Republicans, Democrats and independents support this; we promised that, but because of an unelected MP who gave us a decision, we couldn’t do that,’ ” she said. “There are a lot of good things in the package, but if it’s diluted, that’s a totally different problem. So, we just have to see what will end.”
On Friday, Ocasio-Cortez also warned the Biden government that the debate over the minimum wage “sets the stage for the effectiveness of the remainder of the term.”
Jayapal pressured Harris to ignore MacDonough. Although the vice president has the authority to overturn the parliamentarian’s decision, she is not expected to do so.
On Thursday, Senator Bernie Sanders, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said he would introduce an amendment that “will take tax breaks from large, profitable corporations that do not pay workers at least $ 15 an hour and provide small businesses. incentives they need to raise wages. “
Newsweek contacted the Mayor’s office, Nancy Pelosi, for comment.