2 in Cabinet Push Minimum Wage Bill Veto
A House bill to raise the minimum wage by $1 over three years and cut taxes by $35 billion to ease the effect on business drew a veto threat Monday from Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and Labor Secretary Alexis M. Herman.
In a letter to House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), the two members of President Clinton’s Cabinet said they and “other senior advisors to the president” would recommend a veto of the bill.
No date has been set, but the legislation is expected to be debated soon by the House, possibly within the next few days.
Summers and Herman wrote that they prefer the two-year schedule for a $1 increase in the $5.15 hourly minimum wage, as proposed by the president. They also said they could not support the $35 billion in tax cuts, saying they were not supported by offsets in other programs.
The version headed for expected House consideration would raise the $5.15-an-hour minimum wage by 33 cents in April 2000 and 2001 and by 34 cents on April 1, 2002.
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