Waiving a requirement of clause 6(a) of rule XIII with respect to consideration of certain resolutions reported from the Committee on Rules.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my good friend from Washington (Mr. Hastings) for yielding me the customary 30 minutes. I yield myself 5\1/2\ minutes.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this martial law rule. For weeks and weeks and weeks, this House has wasted valuable time. We have spent short workdays during short workweeks passing meaningless legislation without doing a thing to actually help the American people.

Today, the day before the August recess, this Republican leadership is bringing to the floor legislation that will actually be harmful to America's working families.

The martial law rule before us, passed last night by the Republicans in the Rules Committee, makes three bills in order: first, the pension conference report, which will lead to benefit cuts for millions of workers; second, a tax cut bill mostly for the rich, including an estate tax cut that affects only the very wealthiest in the country; and third, this is my favorite, ``a bill to provide economic security for all Americans, and for other purposes.'' Okay. Can anybody in this House tell me what that means? Of course not.

Apparently, the Republican leadership will be presenting a minimum wage bill that will be loaded down with sweetheart tax deals for the wealthy and the corporate special interests, the same special interests that call the shots in the Republican House.

So here we are voting on a rule to bring up bills that appeared literally just an hour ago which no one has read, 1,200 pages of legislation, Mr. Speaker, that the Members of this House have not had an opportunity to review, 1,200 pages.

This is what passes for the legislative process in the House these days, and it would be laughable if it were not so sad.

The Republican strategy is as apparent as it is cynical. They want to clutter the minimum wage bill with so many giveaways to the wealthiest Americans and to corporations that it will never actually become law. That way, the dozens and dozens of vulnerable Republican incumbents can claim that they voted to increase the minimum wage, while the corporate special interests can claim victory for killing it.

Senate tax writes have already rejected, on a bipartisan basis, proposals that combine the estate tax with a tax extenders package, which is exactly what the House Republican leadership has put forward today as an attachment to the minimum wage.

The losers in this mess are hardworking American families who deserve to make a wage that keeps them out of poverty.

No wonder the American people are so sick and tired of politics as usual in Washington. For months, years even, a clear bipartisan majority has existed in the House to support an increase in the minimum wage with no strings attached. The Republican leadership has been dragged kicking and screaming to this point. It is an amazing thing to watch.

I would ask my Republican colleagues, why is it so impossible for you to do anything good for working families? Why does it cause you such pain and anguish and hand-wringing?

Congress has not raised the minimum wage since 1997. That is 9 years. During that same period, Congress has raised its own salary eight times. Now, that is what I call out of touch.

A Republican House staffer told the Columbus, Ohio, Dispatch, ``Not too many people work at minimum wage anymore. I don't think it gets you anywhere politically.''

Mr. Speaker, maybe I missed it and Columbus, Ohio, is on a different planet these days because nearly 15 million Americans will benefit from a minimum wage increase, 6.6 million directly and 8.3 million indirectly. Almost 60 percent of these workers are women; 40 percent are people of color.

The average corporate CEO, who will benefit, of course, from the estate tax cut, earns more before lunchtime than a minimum wage worker earns all year.

Mr. Speaker, I cannot say it more plainly. The priorities of this Republican leadership are not the priorities of the American people. What the American people want and what they deserve is a clean up-or- down vote on increasing the minimum wage, period. They will not be getting it today.

I am sick and tired of the priorities of this Republican Congress being determined by who has the fattest checkbook, by who contributes the most money to their campaigns.

Low-income workers do not have high-priced lobbyists. They do not contribute huge amounts of money to politicians or political parties, but these are the people who make this country work, Mr. Speaker. These are the people who do the hard labor, each and

every day to keep this country running. They deserve a break. They deserve a raise. They deserve the ability to provide for their families.

For once, just once, I urge my Republican colleagues to do the right thing. Reject this martial law rule.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gene Green).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Let me just respond to the gentleman. What is frustrating to us here tonight is the fact that for months and months and months we have been trying to get a straight up-or-down vote on the minimum wage. We think it is an absolute disgrace that the minimum wage has not been raised since 1997, 9 years, and in those 9 years, Congress has given itself eight pay raises. We think there is something wrong with that, and we want to see passed and enacted into law an increase in the Federal minimum wage.

So we want a straight up-or-down vote because we think that is the best way you can get that.

Instead, what you do, you bring a minimum wage bill to floor to provide some of your more vulnerable Members cover, and you bring it in a package that you know probably is not going to go anywhere in the Senate because the previous combination of the estate tax and the tax extenders package has not gone anywhere in the Senate.

So this is about cover, political cover, and not about giving millions and millions of Americans, hardworking Americans who have been neglected by the Republican Congress for years, the raise that they deserve.

The minimum wage has not been raised since 1997, and adjusted for inflation, the current minimum wage is at its lowest level in more than 50 years. Minimum wage earners working 40 hours per week, 52 weeks per year, make $10,712. That is nearly $6,000 below the poverty line for a family of three. Thirty-five percent of those workers are their family's sole wage earners; 61 percent are women; and almost one-third of those women are raising children.

The average annual cost of family health insurance is more than a minimum wage worker's income for a whole year, and given the cost of gasoline, it takes a full day's pay for a minimum wage earner to fill just one tank of gas.

What we want is not political cover. What we want is to give these hardworking Americans, millions and millions and millions of Americans, who constantly get neglected by this Congress, who always get a cold shoulder when it comes to trying to provide them some help, what we want to do is give them a raise.

If Members of the House deserve a raise, these low-income wage earners also deserve a raise.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).

(Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey).

Mr. Speaker, I want to state for the record, just so there is no question as to where the Republican majority is coming from, let me read to you a quote that appeared in a June 22 story of the Associated Press entitled ``GOP-Run Senate Kills Minimum Wage.'' This is a quotation from our House Majority Leader.

He says, and I quote, ``I have been in this business for 25 years and I have never voted for an increase in the minimum wage. I am opposed to it, and I think a vast majority of our rank and file is opposed to it.''

That is what the other side thinks about the minimum wage, and that is why we need to demand an up-or-down vote.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Maryland, our distinguished whip, Mr. Hoyer.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/4\ minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank).

Mr. Speaker, at this time, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio).

Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Delahunt).

Mr. Speaker, at this time I would like to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott).

(Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Sherman).

(Mr. SHERMAN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

How much time do I have left, Mr. Speaker?

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, let me urge all my colleagues, both Republican and Democrat, to oppose this rule. This is a martial law rule. There are 1,200 pages of legislation that nobody has read. This is not the way this House should be run.

People who are watching this on TV are scratching their heads and wondering how in the world can Members of Congress vote on legislation that they have never seen, that they haven't had a chance to read. But that is exactly what we are being asked to do tonight, and that is wrong.

What is happening right now is a deliberate attempt to, essentially, give people cover on the minimum wage, on a bill that will die.

This is not going to be enacted into law. We know that because the Senate has already made it clear that they are not going to support this legislation. And so this is political cover for Republicans who are afraid that they are going to be criticized for not voting for the minimum wage.

If you want a minimum wage, then vote for it up or down. Don't clutter it up with tax breaks for millionaires and for special corporate interests.

The fact of the matter is that it takes a full day's pay for a minimum-wage earner to fill just one tank of gas. The average CEO earns 821 times more than a minimum-wage worker. The average CEO earns more before lunchtime than a minimum-wage worker earns all year.

Let's not be cynical. Let's defeat this martial law rule. Let's give the Members of this House an opportunity to vote on the minimum wage up or down. That is what the American people deserve. Vote ``no'' on this martial law rule.

Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 958 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purposes of debate only.

(Mr. HASTINGS of Washington asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I reserve my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute.

Mr. Speaker, in the bill that we will be considering later on that has the minimum wage provisions as my friend from Texas was talking about, it also has some very important tax, what we call tax extenders bills, that would otherwise expire.

One of those extenders is something I know is very important to the citizens of Texas in that it allows sales tax deductibility for those States that do not have a State income tax. The Speaker pro tempore is one of those, my State is one of those, and my friend from Texas also has that.

So I would hope that while we have the minimum wage in the same bill as the sales tax, it seems to me to be a pretty attractive package.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve my time.

Mr. Speaker, I feel a great deal of respect for my friend that just spoke, and I want to go on record as saying that I am one of those that is not in favor of raising the minimum wage. I have never voted for that. And my State, by the way, has, if not the highest, one of the highest minimum wages in the country.

But I am going to vote for this bill. And I am going to vote for this bill not because I embrace the minimum wage, I am going to vote for this bill because it has the estate tax provision in there. I am going to vote for this bill because it has the sales tax deduction for Washington State and other States that don't have sales tax deductibility. And my expectation is, my expectation is that the other body will vote accordingly and pass the bill, therefore, we will have the minimum wage increase that my friend from Massachusetts talked about.

It seems to me it is the best of all worlds in the give and take of the legislative process as we near a recess.

I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts.

Well, reclaiming my time, I am glad the gentleman told me that.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, how much time remains on both sides?

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no more speakers, if the gentleman is prepared to close.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of time.

Mr. Speaker, this rule allows for consideration of two very important bills, bills that have been worked on extremely hard on both sides of the aisle and on both sides of the rotunda. One of them is the pension reform bill that has been worked on by the respective committees for 5 or 6 years on a bipartisan basis. The bill that we will take up later on pension reform is the conference report. But because of the timing and some logistics, this is the best way to address this issue is to take the bill up and pass it so that the Senate can act on it next week.

The other bill is a minimum-wage increase bill. I don't know how many times this body, in the last several months, has had procedural motions regarding the minimum wage. So we are going to have a minimum-wage bill before us later on tonight. And with that bill, with the expectation that the other body will talk about it and will pass it favorably, will be something that this body has addressed several times.

The estate tax, or the death tax, has been addressed by this Congress on two occasions. The first occasion was to totally eliminate it. And it passed this body on a bipartisan basis. The second time was a cap that we will take up, very similar to what we will take up later on. It also passed on a bipartisan basis. So the issues that we are taking up and allowing to take up with this rule aren't new to this body.

So I urge my colleagues to vote for this same-day rule and to vote, later on, for the rule that will allow consideration of these two measures that I just talked about. They are important to our constituents; and the sooner we do it, the better off we will be.

And I must say too, Mr. Speaker, the expectation is that both of these measures that we will take up later on tonight will be passed by the other body next week and they will become law. And amongst that is the minimum-wage increase that my friends on the other side of the aisle have been talking about.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.

The previous question was ordered.

I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts. I agree with what the gentleman has just said. The Republican leadership is opposed to raising the minimum wage, opposed to lifting 6.6 million people out of poverty. No Member of the House should harbor any illusions about what the Republican leadership is doing, therefore.

Today, the Republican leadership is engaging in a political stunt, in my opinion; a cynical sham, a cruel ploy to undermine a long overdue increase in the Federal minimum wage, an increase that would benefit literally millions of American workers and their families. Democrats have continually fought for a clean up-or-down vote on increasing the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 per hour over 2 years, the first increase in 10 years.

Hear me: Groceries have not been frozen in price. Gasoline hasn't been frozen in price. Rents haven't been frozen in price. But wages of minimum-wage workers have been frozen for 10 years, and we continue to fight today about this.

The fact is, I believe a majority of the Members of this body support an increase in the minimum wage, even if the Speaker, the Majority Leader, and the majority of the House Republicans do not. But the will of the House will be thwarted today if this rule passes.

On June 12, the Appropriations Committee adopted on a bipartisan vote an amendment to the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriation bill that would increase the minimum wage by $2.10 per hour over 2 years. That bill has been languishing unconsidered for the last 2 months. In response, the Republican leadership has refused to bring that appropriation bill up for a vote.

On July 13, 64 Republicans joined all Democrats in indicating their support for an increase in the minimum wage by voting for a Democratic motion to instruct on the vocational education bill. But instead of providing for a fair up-and-down vote on the minimum wage, the Republican leadership today has combined an increase in the hourly rate with an estate tax cut that will benefit the heirs of the wealthiest estates in America and drive our Nation hundreds of billions, approximately $800 billion further into debt.

If nothing else, Mr. Speaker, this bill certainly tells the American people precisely where the Republican priorities lie. Their priorities lie with Paris Hilton and other heirs of the super wealthy, not the hard-working Americans who work 40 hours a week earning a minimum wage and are living in poverty in the richest Nation on the face of the earth.

Mr. Speaker, this Republican bill wreaks of cynicism. It is a political stunt designed to give vulnerable Republicans in tough elections the opportunity to say they voted to raise the minimum wage, even though they know this bill is a shell game. We will give with one hand and take with the other.

The estate tax will not pass. It has not passed. We have already passed it. We don't need to pass it again. But it is put on this bill as a poison pill to kill it because the Republican leadership opposes raising the minimum wage. What a shame.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman for his leadership.

Wars are raging on the borders of Israel and Lebanon; wars are raging in Iraq; our soldiers are being redeployed not once, not two times and three times. I met with a young lady just recently. She has relatives who have been redeployed three times or more. Funds for the war are increasing, and my good friends on the other side, rather than stay here and work on the issues of the day, will put forward legislation that will have no place and go nowhere in the other body.

Frankly, the package that is being put through today under this martial rule will cost $800 billion. Right now, I filed legislation to provide humanitarian aid to Lebanon to help those who are noncombatants get out safely, to find a way to help Americans who are stranded in Lebanon to get safely home, and we are addressing legislation that makes no sense.

I voted for a sales tax relief for the State of Texas. I am a Texan, and I sure believe in helping home and many other States that suffer under the burden of excessive taxes. But you cannot give an $800 billion tax relief that no one is going to address, in the Senate, in regular order. It has to pass in the Senate and then the President signs it. And at the same time, we fail to entertain livable wages for Americans, a minimum wage increase for Americans, while we, of course, have increases.

So when you look at this package and you see this, this is going nowhere. This is to put Members on the line to be embarrassed or to go home and say why did you vote against the sales tax. I voted for it many times. I want it to pass, but it is not going to pass this way. It is going to have to pass in negotiation between the House and the Senate because Texas does deserve relief, but so do the millions of those who are not being able to make ends meet.

What about your soldiers that are on food stamps, the very soldiers who are on the front lines in Iraq? The privates are on food stamps, and we have got $800 billion in tax relief to the richest of Americans who do not even need it.

That is what the problem is with this legislation. We waited here all day. I do not have a problem. We can be here all night. We can be here until tomorrow. We can pass H.R. 945, the Lebanon Humanitarian Relief, so we can protect

those noncombatants who are being bombed and who cannot even defend themselves. I am not concerned about protecting Hezbollah, but I am concerned about mothers and children and babies who cannot even get out because they are on the road and they are being bombed. We need a corridor that gives us that kind of separation.

But Mr. Speaker, this is no explanation. Let us get an up-or-down vote on minimum wage. Let us try to address the crisis in the Mideast. Let us help by getting real pension reform. Let us speak to the American people. Let us not play jokes here in the Congress of the United States of America.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding to me.

Mr. Speaker, this is Keystone Cops legislation. I fully expect to see the Marx Brothers, Larry, Curly and Moe, as Members of Congress here today.

Today, or tonight, we do not know if are going to vote on pension reform, associated health plans, repealing of the estate tax, tax extensions, or a minimum wage increase, or any combination or all of the above. It will be late on Friday night before we vote on any of these vital issues. Our constituents cannot be fooled by this late night flim-flam.

We should have an up-and-down vote on a minimum wage increase, not a vote on minimum wage increase and the estate tax at the same time or pension reform or whatever else the leadership feels convenient to add to this bill.

It is hard to hit a moving target, and rather than playing games, we should remember that there are people in this country who make $5.10 an hour. This is a real issue that impacts real people.

We have not raised the minimum wage since 1997. When adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage is the lowest it has been in 50 years. When it takes a full day's pay to fill up your gas tank, something is wrong.

A minimum wage earner makes only $10,700 a year. This is well below the poverty threshold for a family of three which is $16,600 a year.

We need to lift these hardworking Americans out of poverty and have a true vote on the minimum wage.

The estate tax may be part of the package. It is clear that my Republican colleagues do not really want to pass a minimum wage bill. The Senate has not been able to muster the 60 votes to pass the estate tax bill in years. I do not know why we want to create an illusion that we are passing the minimum wage law when we know that this law is going to fail in the Senate.

Let us stop playing games with people's lives. Let us have a straight up-and-down vote on the minimum wage so hardworking Americans can see who stands with them and who stands against them.

I urge my colleagues to vote against this martial law legislation, but also against any flim-flam or Larry, Curly and Moe legislation that they may want to bring up in the middle of the night.