Cecilie1200
Diamond Member
AZ is a right to work state anyways.Senator Kyrsten Sinema has expressed her opposition to raising the federal minimum wage to $15, dealing a blow to the Biden administrationās hopes of fulfilling a key campaign promise in the upcoming coronavirus relief package.
āWhatās important is whether or not itās directly related to short-term COVID relief. And if itās not, then I am not going to support it in this legislation,ā Sinema said in an interview with Politico.
āThe minimum wage provision is not appropriate for the reconciliation process. It is not a budget item. And it shouldnāt be in there,ā the Arizona Democrat added.
Democrats are hoping to push through a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package using budget reconciliation, a parliamentary procedure that allows them to approve the legislation with a simple majority of 51 votes rather than the 60 votes normally required.
The Senate is currently split evenly with 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans. If no Republican crosses party lines to vote for the relief bill, Democrats would need all Democrats to vote as a bloc, and Vice President Kamala Harris would cast the deciding vote in favor of the package.
Another moderate Democrat, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, has also added to his partyās travails regarding the relief billās passage, saying he would not support including a federal $15 minimum wage either.
Sinema, the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in Arizona in 30 years, is also reluctant to approve legislation with a simple majority of senators through the budget reconciliation process, rather than clearing the normal legislative hurdle.
āI want to restore the 60-vote threshold for all elements of the Senateās work,ā she said.
Kyrsten Sinema Says She Opposes $15 Minimum Wage in Coronavirus Relief Bill | National Review
āThe minimum wage provision is not appropriate for the reconciliation process. It is not a budget item. And it shouldnāt be in there,ā she said.www.nationalreview.com
The Senate parliamentarian is supposed to rule on whether the M-Wage increase can be included in a reconciliation bill, but has yet to do so. Doesn't sound like it would pass anyway though. And it doesn't sound like she or Manchin will support efforts to circumvent the 60-vote filibuster either, and that was my main worry. If I'm not mistaken, the Senate can only push through one reconciliation bill per year, according to their rules. So most of that weird Far Left Green New Deal crap isn't going to happen, unless Biden get creative with his EOs. Which I'm sure the Repubs will challenge in court, same as the Dems did for Trump's EOs. Good on her and Manchin, but they're going to face a lot of heat for not giving the Far Left what they want.
Biden says he'll push for the $15 M-Wage in a separate bill, which I doubt will get though the Senate either.
I don't know if that makes a difference to a federally-mandated minimum wage, although I guess it's going to be rather consequential to those who will suddenly be unemployed because of it.