Burgess Owens: “I would very much like to continue the discussion on the minimum wage. I serve as the ranking Democrat on the…”

“I would very much like to continue the discussion on the minimum wage. I serve as the ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, which is directly responsible for the minimum wage, and I am certainly delighted that I hear rumors that suddenly there are manifestations taking place within both the House and the Senate, which means that our great logjam on the minimum wage may soon be broken. I understand there are some Members of the Republican majority in this House who have begun developing a bill calling for an increase in the minimum wage, and this may lead to the call we hoped for for a long time. There are moments in this House when reason does prevail. There are times when parties lay aside their particular ideological bents and understand the best interests of the American people are served by a particular course of action and the two parties come together. I hope we are on the way to doing that. I hope the Republicans will recognize that there is a terrible injustice that has been done to working people over the last 20 years. We have a wage gap that is increasing. The value of the dollar has fallen, the minimum wage value has fallen, and we should take steps to do something about that as soon as possible.”