Ilhan Omar: Biden team’s weak signals hurt $15 minimum wage effort

Rep. Ilhan Omar, Minnesota Democrat, said Tuesday that the Biden administration’s signaling an increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour was unlikely to pass muster with Senate rules was not helpful to the progressive cause of muscling the wage hike through Congress.

“We know that [Budget Committee] Chairman Bernie Sanders fought really hard to try to make sure everything stayed intact,” Ms. Omar said. “But it certainly didn’t, and it wasn’t helpful that there was a signaling from the administration that $15 might not stay in there. I think that set the pace.”

Ms. Omar said there will be a meeting with the administration soon to strategize on how to raise the wage through other legislation.

President Biden pushed for an increase in the minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 per hour as part of his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package.

But Mr. Biden, who spent more than three decades in the Senate, also said repeatedly he didn’t think it would pass muster with the chamber’s rules under the fast-track budget process Democrats used to thwart a possible filibuster.

In the end, the Senate parliamentarian agreed with him and senators axed it from the House-passed relief bill.

Both the White House and congressional Democrats say the fight isn’t over, though a straight increase would likely be subject to the 60-vote filibuster threshold in a 50-50 split Senate.

“Our position is the minimum wage should be $15,” White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said Tuesday evening at an event hosted by Punchbowl News. “Obviously we had a procedural problem doing it on this bill. Now we need to go back to the drawing board, come up with a legislative strategy that moves that forward.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, said she’d have more to say about the push on Thursday.

House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth said the House might vote on standalone legislation to increase the wage next week.

Mr. Yarmuth suggested that increasing the wage in a forthcoming infrastructure package by tying it to certain projects could be one way to get around the parliamentarian.

“I mean, those are all worth trying,” the Kentucky Democrat said.

Republicans consistently said that increasing the wage would likely deal a final death blow to small businesses still struggling through the coronavirus pandemic.

The Congressional Budget Office concluded that Mr. Sanders’ bill to increase the wage to $15 per hour by 2025 would kill 1.4 million jobs, though it would also lift 900,000 people out of poverty.