Important Legislative Updates from NPA:

• California Parking Operators Should Be Aware of Potential for
  'Meal and Break Period' Lawsuits
• Update on H.R. 800, "The Employee Free Choice Act" [June 27, 2007]
• H.R. 800, "The Employee Free Choice Act" [June 18, 2007]
• Access Board Releases Draft Revisions to Guidelines for Buses and Vans
  [April 28, 2007]
• Maryland Legislature Approves Living Wage Mandate for Employees
  on State Contracts
• H.R. 800, "The Employee Free Choice Act"
• Minimum Wage Update

Minimum Wage Update

House Democrats Attach Wage Measure To War Spending Bill In Bid for Swift Action

Legislation to increase the minimum wage by $2.10 per hour over two years will be attached the week of March 12 to a fiscal year 2007 emergency war supplemental spending bill in an effort to move the wage measure rapidly through Congress. The bill, a priority of congressional Democrats, would raise the minimum wage to $7.25 per hour from $5.15 per hour. The wage increase already passed both houses of Congress as separate legislation (H.R. 2). However, the Senate included in its version of H.R. 2 an $8.3 billion package of small business tax breaks while the House separately passed a $1.3 billion package (H.R. 976) of small business tax breaks to move along with the wage increase bill.

The legislation became stuck in the Senate where Republicans sought a formal conference. According to news sources, the legislation being attached to the spending bill will be the same as what already has passed the House.

Miller Hopes Maneuver Speeds Passage

House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) told reporters March 9 the maneuver to attach the bill could help move it through Congress. "We want to get it done," he said. "This helps."

Miller added that the wage hike legislation received a "huge bipartisan vote" in both the House and Senate. When asked if Democrats were on board with the move, House Appropriations Committee's Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha (D-Pa.) said , "We're going to get it through committee, that's one thing for sure."

"You take it a step at a time," Murtha said. The spending bill is scheduled to be marked up March 15 in the House Appropriations Committee, Murtha said.

Republican Questions Relevance

Meanwhile, House Education and Labor Committee Ranking Member Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-Calif.), who voted against the minimum wage legislation, said that Democrats are simply attaching additional items to the emergency spending bill in an effort to get it passed.

"I don't see how it's relevant to funding the troops," he said about the addition of the minimum wage bill to the spending bill. The minimum wage legislation should move on its own through the conference committee process, he said.