Democrats Move to Salvage Minimum Wage Hike - The New York Times

As the House prepared to pass President Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package as early as Friday night, Democrats were searching for a Plan B to raise the minimum wage.

WASHINGTON — Democrats sought on Friday to salvage their bid to push through a large increase in the federal minimum wage as part of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan, pressing to preserve a key liberal priority without imperiling the chances of an urgently needed pandemic aid package.

The effort faces long odds in the evenly divided Senate, where Republicans and some centrist Democrats are opposed to the idea of more than doubling the minimum wage as part of the stimulus plan.

But signaling the Democratic Party’s reluctance to abandon the effort, the House was poised to push through the stimulus package, with the wage increase included, by early Saturday.

The minimum wage increase “is a value, this is a priority, and we will get it done, but let’s not be distracted from what is happening in this legislation,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California.

But Elizabeth MacDonough, the Senate parliamentarian, advised senators on Thursday that their legislation to gradually increase the minimum wage to $15 by 2025 would violate the strict budgetary rules that limit what can be included in a reconciliation measure.

MacDonough, and demands for the elimination of the filibuster to allow Democrats to enact the wage increase and other marquee agenda items over Republican objections.

Biden has made clear he does not support any of those actions, sending top congressional Democrats searching for a wage proposal that could meet the stringent requirements of a reconciliation bill, which must have a direct effect on federal spending or revenues.

And liberal lawmakers said Democrats risked losing a crucial opportunity by not insisting on a large wage increase now, at the start of Mr.

If Democrats cannot find a way to include the wage increase in the stimulus measure, the bill could lose support from progressives, although Ms.

Pelosi said the House would “absolutely” pass the measure without the wage increase if needed.