Biden says the $ 15 minimal wage will not survive Covid’s reduction talks

President Joe Biden will deliver a foreign policy address during a visit to the State Department in Washington on February 4, 2021.

Tom Brenner | Reuters

President Joe Biden said a $ 15 minimum wage scheme was unlikely to make it into Covid-19’s next bailout package and paused on a major election promise when Democrats in Congress pushed for it without Republican support 1 To adopt $ 9 trillion in incentives.

Biden said he will push for a separate bill to raise the minimum wage.

“I set it up, but I don’t think it will survive,” Biden said in an interview with CBS’s Norah O’Donnell, the clip of which was released on Friday. “I guess it won’t be in there [the stimulus bill]. “

Democrats in Congress have decided to pass the $ 1.9 trillion stimulus package without Republican support in the Senate, following a parliamentary process known as reconciliation. House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Said Friday that the lower chamber intends to pass the tax break package within two weeks.

According to the rules of voting, only measures that have an impact on the budget can be adopted. Biden stated in the interview that these rules would likely not allow a minimum wage regulation to be included in the final bill.

However, Senator Bernie Sanders, chairman of the Budget Committee, said he was still working to include the minimum wage hike in the stimulus package. Sanders, I-Vt., Said a wage increase would have budget implications.

“We have a room full of lawyers who are working as hard as possible to make it clear to the MP that raising the minimum wage has a significant budgetary impact and should actually be compatible with the reconciliation rules,” Sanders told CNN on Sunday.

Republicans are refusing to include a wage increase in Covid-19’s bailout package to warn that it could put an extra strain on companies already grappling with the economic fallout from the pandemic. And West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin is also against the wage increase, which means that even with a simple majority under reconciliation, Democrats would not have the votes to pass it.

While Biden said the $ 15 hourly wage regulation is unlikely to be included in the Covid relief bill, he vowed to prioritize passing the wage increase in separate legislation.

“As President of the United States, I am prepared for a separate minimum wage negotiation to work my way up from what it is now,” said Biden. “Nobody should work 40 hours a week living below poverty wages, and you make less than $ 15 an hour, you are living below poverty wages.”

As part of the Covid stimulus package, Democrats plan to pass provisions such as $ 1,400 direct payments, $ 400 weekly unemployment benefits, $ 350 billion state, local and tribal government, $ 20 billion national Covid immunization program, and $ 50 billion virus testing by September .

The bill is also likely to include $ 170 billion for K-12 schools and colleges, and $ 30 billion for rent and utility support.

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