Senate awaits parliamentarian’s decision on minimum wage

“We are waiting, as we all are, to hear from the Senate parliamentarian on what will happen with the minimum wage bill,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) Said Thursday. . “I think we have a very, very strong argument and that we have a very great need in our country to raise the minimum wage.”

Raising the minimum wage is the most divisive issue in the aid package, which Democrats widely support. The package would also provide a payment of $ 1,400 to many Americans; expand and improve federal unemployment assistance; send $ 350 billion in aid to states and local governments; and pour new funds into vaccine distribution, food stamps and schools.

Democratic and Republican staff made their arguments to parliamentarians on Wednesday morning over the minimum wage provision and have been waiting since then to hear their recommendation.

“I know we’re all on pins and needles,” said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, a member of the GOP Senate leadership. “I think the right decision would be to say that the budget process cannot be used to pass substantive legislation.”

Democrats use a process called reconciliation to pass the aid package by a simple majority, rather than the 60 votes required for most laws. But reconciliation also comes with Senate rules on what proposals can be approved under the special procedure, including whether the provision is directly tied to the budget. It must be determined that the measure has a significant budgetary impact which cannot be incidental to the policy proposal.

If Ms MacDonough decides the minimum wage increase qualifies for inclusion in the package, Democrats will need to come to a consensus among themselves on how to structure it.

While many Democrats, including the progressive wing of the party, have agreed to raise the minimum wage to $ 15 an hour, several senators have qualms about the plan. Some are concerned about the impact the increase could have on small businesses and restaurants. Senator Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.), the party’s most prominent moderate, has said he will try to change the pay hike to $ 11 an hour. Other lawmakers have considered offering tax relief for small businesses or phasing in wage increases more slowly for small businesses.

“Putting $ 15 in there right now makes it very difficult in rural America, we have small businesses,” Mr. Manchin said.

Mr Biden has said he expects the parliamentarian to say that increasing the minimum wage cannot be part of the bill.

Winking at the possibility, Pelosi said the House would look at minimum wage legislation separately if it is not included in the relief bill.

“We will pass a minimum wage law,” she said. However, legislation outside the reconciliation process would require 60 votes in the Senate, where Republicans criticized the $ 15 proposal as harmful to business.

If Democrats get the green light from the parliamentarian, they will have a few weeks to reach a compromise among their ranks and pass the bill again before federal unemployment programs expire in mid-March. With Senate control split 50-50, Vice President Kamala Harris can sever ties, but Democrats cannot lose a single lawmaker.

If the parliamentarian says the minimum wage provision falls short of expectations, Democrats face a different set of decisions. Some progressives have said they will press the White House and Senate lawmakers to ignore his decision. Several senators have said they would not be comfortable bending chamber rules to raise the minimum wage, as did White House chief of staff Ron Klain on Wednesday night.

Ignoring the parliamentarian is “not something we will do,” Klain told MSNBC. “We will work by the rules of the Senate and get the bill passed.”

Republicans have argued that the package provides aid that is neither necessary nor related to the pandemic.

“This bill is actually too costly, too corrupt and too liberal,” Minority Parliamentary Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) Told Fox News on Thursday.

Republicans have said they support raising the minimum wage, but have their own differences on how to do it.

On Thursday, GOP Senses Susan Collins of Maine, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Rob Portman of Ohio signed on to GOP Sense legislation. Mitt Romney of Utah and Tom Cotton of Arkansas who would raise the minimum wage to $ 10 an hour over four years. , from the end of the pandemic, and require all employers to use E-Verify, which allows them to verify the immigration status of potential workers.

“This framework balances the needs of employers with opportunities for employees,” Ms. Capito said in a statement, saying that the GOP bill demonstrates that “there are long-term solutions that can be proposed and debated outside. of a partisan process that has been questionable. merit of its implementation on behalf of Covid Relief. “

Earlier this week, Sen. Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) said he planned to introduce legislation that would grant a quarterly tax credit to workers who earn below the median wage of $ 16.50 from the hour, which would be indexed to inflation. The credit would be worth 50% of the difference between the worker’s hourly rate and the median wage for up to 40 hours of work per week.

Health care subsidies and multi-employer pension support are among the other issues on which the parliamentarian could also vote soon. The bill subsidizes 85% of the cost of premiums for health insurance coverage through Cobra, which most employers are required to offer to employees they have recently made redundant, and provides relief to multi-pension plans. struggling employers.

Beyond removing the measures facing procedural issues, Democrats also plan to amend the bill by adding new tax measures to increase revenue and keep its overall price tag at $ 1.9 trillion, according to a assistant.

The debate over raising the minimum wage has put Ms. MacDonough back in the spotlight. A former Senate librarian and trial lawyer, she has worked in the parliamentarian’s office since 1999. With both sides relying on the reconciliation process to pass laws by simple majority, the parliamentarian’s decisions played a major role in the efforts. key legislative bodies, particularly Republicans. efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Write to Kristina Peterson at [email protected] and Andrew Duehren at [email protected]