Mr. Miller: Thank you. Mr. Speaker, Members of the House, we're down to a very critical point. We're down to a point whether or not this chamber, the House of Representatives, the people's house, as it is known, whether or not we will represent the people or whether we will represent narrow special interests that have these huge economic interest in keeping the minimum wage at the 1997 level of $5.15 an hour. That's a decision we have to make.

We've been trying now for a number of years to force a vote on the minimum wage. I find it rather interesting that the Republicans who control the Senate, control the House, control the White House, cannot find the time and the place although apparently they're now sort of for it, to find the time and the place where we could have a vote on the minimum wage.

What's wrong with your leadership? Name the time, name the place, we'll be there with our votes. And if your leadership won't cooperate, come on down and sign the discharge petition. Mr. Boehlert, others who are supporting the minimum wage, come on down and sign the discharge petition and we'll be assured that the American people will get the vote that they strongly desire to have.

Over 80% of the American people believe that raising the minimum wage from 1997 wage levels of $5.15 to today of $7.25 an hour is in fact the right thing to do, the fair thing to do, and the moral thing to do. The only thing that prevents that from happening is the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives. Even the senate allowed a vote to take place. Only in the Senate can you pass something by a majority vote. It got 52 votes, a bipartisan vote, and it still doesn't pass because they say you've got to get 60 votes.

But in the House you can't even get that vote. You can't even get that vote. We had a vote in the appropriations committee on a bipartisan basis. The members of that committee voted to increase the minimum wage. Under the leadership of Mr. Hoyer and Mr. Obey, they voted to increase the minimum wage. Since that has happened, that bill has been prevented from coming to the Floor of the House of Representatives where we could vote up or down on increasing the minimum wage.

So apparently this time and place that the Republicans say they are prepared to go is a mystery to everyone. Maybe we could have a national contest like they are doing for the Johnny Depp pirates movie. We could bury the time and place somewhere in the United States and let people decide and play a game and try to figure out where it is. Where's that time and place? Is it in the gentleman's district in California? My district? We all know where that time and place is. The time is now and the place is the House of Representatives on the Floor of the Congress of the United States. That's where we are supposed to be doing the people's business.

There's nothing else in this country that is at 1997 levels. Not gasoline, not bread, not milk. You know what else is not at 1997 levels? Where the Congress found the time and the place. You know what else is not at 1997 levels? Congressional pay. Because we found six times and six places to give ourselves the cost of living in-- increase while we insisted the lowest paid people in this country could not have more than $5.15 an hour, the same wage they were making in 1997. Apparently it wasn't good enough for Congress so we increased our COLA. I agree with that increase, but think about the message and the morality that you are reflecting when you cannot reach back after we receive these COLAs and say to these people who are struggling to support their families, here, let us give you a hand. Let us help you.

You have made that decision to participate in the American economic system by going to work every day. Somehow this Congress just doesn't value their work. We give, we give tax breaks to CEO's. A guy walks out after several years at Exxon, walks out with $400 million in guaranteed pension benefits. $400 million. He made more money brushing his teeth than people make on the minimum wage all year long. What's the justice of this? What's the equity of this? What's the fairness of this?

It cannot be what America is about. About the intentional decision by the Republican leadership that 6 million American people will simply be poor and they will be relegated to the class of poverty. And they will be there by edict of the federal law. The federal law will keep them in poverty. We ought to also tell the taxpayers that when you make that decision you are also making the taxpayers of this country part of their employment. Because when they work at those poverty wages the taxpayers pay for the school lunches and they pay for the housing and they pay for the health care and they pay for the utility bills when it’s cold and when it’s hot.

We end up subsidizing those employers who insist that they can’t make a profit unless they pay 1997 wages. Let me tell you something about those employers. They’re not long for this world. Because there is something very wrong with their business plan that they can only succeed if they pay 1997 wages. Think about that. Think about what you are embracing. You are embracing an economic model that says that the success is dependant upon being able to pay forever 1997 wages to my employees. What the hell.

Have we lost our mind here? Do we understand the injustice of this? Again, these are people working 40 hours a week, everyday. They drive most of our old cars that consume more gas. It costs them more to commute to that job and they still do it. When is America going to say—America has already said it, it’s just the Congress—just the Republican leadership. America says, give these people a raise. They know that stuggle. They know it themselves. Middle class people know what it means to drive up to that station today and say fill it up. Most people don’t say fill it up, they say how much will I need to get to Friday? That’s what they say to themselves.

Well, think of what poor people are thinking. Poor people are saying we value the work we changed the welfare laws to encourage people to go to work. Shouldn’t we encourage them to get out of poverty? Shouldn’t we help them to get out of poverty instead of sticking them with 1997 wages? This is fundamental this is fundamental this vote is fundamental this debate is fundamental and the time and the place to have it is now. In the halls of the Congress of the United States. And we cannot continue to have Republican leadership that says this isn’t right that’s not right this isn’t the bill this isn’t the subject matter. Just bring us the bill let us vote up or down. You have the majority, you control it. Either you believe in the dignity of these people and the dignity of their children and the dignity of their work or you don’t. Because you cannot have that and insist upon these wages. I ask for an aye vote on the motion to instruct.