SkaroffBlog

Just back from the legislature’s February-March break, Pennsylvania’s Assembly Appropriations Committee unanamously approved sending the minimum wage bill (H.B. 2021) to the full House for a final vote. Then, after the Committee adjourned, Chairman Brett Feese pulled it back, using a maneuver to reconsider the bill. It’s now four consecutive legislative weeks that Committee Republicans have blocked a vote to raise the current pitiful minimum wage.

The Bill, sponsored by a whopping 87 Assemblymen, would help pull low-wage workers above the federal poverty level, raising the hourly rate to $6.25 this year and $7.15 in 2007, with annual cost-of-living raises thereafter.

Rep. Mark Cohen, a leading advocate of the bill and House Democratic Caucus Chairman, says he expects the Dems will make motions to bring the legislation up again next week. He calls Feese’s actions –moving to reconsider the bill and then accepting his own motion, all done after the Committee had adjourned– “an unprecedented parliamentary trick.”

Take action:
• Contact Brett Feese (717-787-5270 email), urging him to report the bill to the full Assembly for a final vote.
• Contact your own State Assemblyman to enlist support.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 11th, 2006 at 12:53 pm and is tagged as Democrats, Labor, Pennsylvania, Politics, Republicans, Work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.