Senate Democrats Push Vote On Minimum Wage

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, March 27) -- Even as Sen. Robert Dole (R-Kan.) was amassing impressive victories out west, his Senate rivals were hoping to embarrass him with a sensitive vote on raising the minimum wage.

"We will continue to bring this up until we are satisfied that the Senate is on record," minority leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) told reporters, shortly after Dole successfully put off a vote to a later date.

Dole called the move a nod to the AFL-CIO, which endorsed President Bill Clinton Monday and announced a hefty spending campaign to push their agenda. "I assume with the AFL-CIO in town and their pledge of $35 million, this would be a fairly appropriate time to consider this measure," Dole said from the Senate floor.

There's probably truth to that, but raising the minimum wage is an issue Clinton frequently mentions on the stump, and it's a priority he listed during his State of the Union Address. So it could become a major campaign issue. "There are millions of people out there...who are trying to raise children on $4.25 an hour," the president said in Ohio last weekend. "You can't do that. That's not a family value. We ought to raise it instead of letting it go to a 40-year low."

During debate Tuesday, Senate Republicans reiterated the predominant objection to a minimum wage hike, saying it would hurt small businesses and those trying to get a foothold in the workforce. It would "pull up the economic ladder," Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.) predicted. "That's the heavy hand of the federal government coming in and saying, 'We know best.'"

That's an argument Dole will likely be forced to make again. The Kansan conceded Democrats would ultimately succeed in getting a vote, though "not today and not tomorrow and hopefully not this week."

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