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News & Analysis | REG•WATCH Blog | Press Room
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
How Sen. Lamar Alexander Killed the Effort to Raise the Min Wage
The Senate voted 52 to 46 to raise the minimum wage. But the minimum wage didn't get raised. How does that work? Since when is majority rule not good enough?
Because of something so wonky the press never bothered to report on it, even though it has just now come back to bite every minimum wage earner on his or her tired posterior. Called UMRA.
Shorthand about UMRA: if a bill would impose a certain amount of new costs for state and local governments, no matter how important that law, a member of Congress can raise a point of order against it. When UMRA passed, it was simple -- it just took a majority vote to overcome the point of order.
But Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) decided this harmless point of order should become a more substantial obstacle. He spearheaded the effort in last year's Senate budget resolution to change the requirement for overcoming the point of order, from a simple majority to a 60-vote supermajority.
Now, any bill that CBO declares will impose new costs on state and local governments of $62 million or more -- like a real increase in the minimum wage -- could very well take 60 votes to pass in the Senate.
What could perhaps be called "the Lamar Alexander rule" was used last November to kill a proposed increase in the minimum wage, and it was the reason that, despite a clear majority in the 52-46 vote, the Senate was barred today from trying to increase the minimum wage.
Posted by Robert Shull
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