Pelosi Remarks at Press Event Ahead of Vote on Raise The Wage Act
Washington, D.C. – Speaker Pelosi joined Members of Congress and advocates for a press event ahead of the House vote on H.R. 582, the Raise The Wage Act. Below are the Speaker's remarks:
Speaker Pelosi. Good morning. We have got to wake up every morning with a big smile on our face and show the world all the love in our hearts. And that love in our hearts is about fairness, and respect and valuing work.
House Democrats are here to deliver on the promise to the American people to give hard-working men and women a well-deserved raise.
[Applause]
We salute our Chairman Bobby Scott, who is managing the bill on the Floor. And some of us will come and go to speak on the Floor as we convey our message this morning. But his work was indispensable to getting us to this place, working with members to come to consensus.
But we would not be here without the outside mobilizing. So, thank you all for being here. You are –
[Applause]
And I, especially, want to salute President Mary Kay Henry of SEIU for her tremendous –
[Applause]
Ten years have passed since we passed an increase in the minimum wage. Democrats were in the Majority. President Bush signed the bill, and it was pretty exciting. It was, I have to say, when we passed the bill, House and Senate, and knew that the President was going to sign the bill, we went outside and had a big rally, and at that rally President – excuse me, Senator Ted Kennedy, who was an important part of this as the Chair of the Appropriations Committee in the Senate, after we had all of our conversations, speeches as now, he said, ‘You know what we have to do now? We have to raise the minimum wage.'
[Laughter and Applause]
Right away. We just had done that, but he knew, he knew that we had to do more. So, now we are in the Majority again and here we are.
In that ten years, while families struggled to make ends meet, their cost of living has surged, inflation has eaten at their wages and the GOP special interest agenda has left them behind.
America's workers deserve a raise.
[Applause]
Why we are so happy this morning is this: the Raise The Wage Act gives up to 33 million Americans a long-overdue raise. 33 million Americans.
[Applause]
And lifts so many people out of poverty.
This bill honors the dignity of work, grows the economy and upholds the bedrock idea of fairness in our country, that hard work deserves a decent wage.
[Applause]
Today, we are proud to pass this legislation 171 years to the day that the Seneca Falls Convention stated a simple proclamation: that all men and women are created equal. This is the anniversary of that statement.
This bill helps to achieve that equality by giving nearly 20 million working women, nearly one-third of all working women in our country, 20 million working women a raise. And that is an applause line.
[Applause]
It also helps narrow the gender wage gap that targets women of color, putting more money in the pockets of more than one-third of working women of color. So this is really important.
I mentioned Ted Kennedy's speech as soon as we finished one time after the other, now this one – long overdue, but substantial. We'll never stop fighting For The People and for the progress of working families across America.
Now, here's the thing, our agenda when we ran was For The People. Lower health care costs, bigger paychecks. Today, we're talking about bigger paychecks with this important legislation. We also passed, as you know, equal pay for equal work, so this is all in that space – keeping that promise.
Now, it is my pleasure – I want to again acknowledge the great work of our distinguished Chairman, Bobby Scott, who came into the Chairmanship in January, focused on this day. He will be joining us momentarily, but at the moment, I have the distinct pleasure of bringing to the podium our distinguished majority leader, Steny Hoyer of Maryland.
Have to get that Majority. I'm going to go to the Floor, I'll be right back.
***
Speaker Pelosi. We have a very special guest here. Will you come back up, darling?
This is Kassidy [Durham] – and this is what it's all about. It's about family, it's about our children. Kassidy, you're our VIP today: our very important person.
As I say to my grandchildren, do you want to go down the slide?
[Laughter]
This is about family. $7.25 an hour paid to workers, while the federal government has to subsidize food stamps, housing support, health care in different ways. Why should we be subsidizing businesses who are exploiting workers by paying $7.25 an hour?
That was twelve years ago when we passed it, when we were first in the Majority. As we've all said, the purchasing power of that money has gone down and the value of work has not – has increased.
So this is part of our bigger paychecks, part of our For The People agenda. We passed equal pay for equal work, under the leadership of Rosa DeLauro. Today, we pass this legislation to raise the minimum wage to $15 dollars an hour. So exciting! Yesterday we passed an order lowering health care costs, we passed a repeal of the Cadillac Tax, and next week we'll be passing legislation to support fairness in our pensions for workers.
So this is about workers, it's about their economic and financial security and today, today, is a bright day because it effects so many people in our country.
I want to thank our special, special guest, Fran Marion, not that our Members of Congress aren't our special guests, and we're very proud of all of them.
[Applause]
But Fran Marion and Alyssa Barron-Menza, and Trupti Patel, there she is, they really are – along with Kassidy – our VIPs, which speak for so many people. We're honored by your presence we want to honor your work by increasing the minimum wage. Thank you, all!