Archive for June 30th, 2006
109th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 2725
To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide for an increase in the Federal minimum wage and to ensure that increases in the Federal minimum wage keep pace with any pay adjustments for Members of Congress.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
May 4, 2006
Mrs. CLINTON (for herself, Mr. KENNEDY, Mr. JEFFORDS, Mr. LEAHY, Mr. HARKIN, and Mr. OBAMA) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
A BILL
To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide for an increase in the Federal minimum wage and to ensure that increases in the Federal minimum wage keep pace with any pay adjustments for Members of Congress.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Standing with Minimum Wage Earners Act of 2006′.
SEC. 2. MINIMUM WAGE.
(a) In General- Section 6(a)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 206(a)(1)) is amended to read as follows:
`(1)(A) except as otherwise provided in this section, not less than–
`(i) $5.85 an hour, beginning on the 60th day after the date of enactment of the Standing with Minimum Wage Earners Act of 2006;
`(ii) $6.55 an hour, beginning 12 months after that 60th day, adjusted for that year as provided for in subparagraph (B); and
`(iii) $7.25 an hour, beginning 24 months after that 60th day, adjusted each year as provided for in subparagraph (B); and
`(B) the wage provided for under clauses (ii) and (iii) of subparagraph (A) shall be automatically increased for the year involved by a percentage equal to the percentage by which the annual rate of pay for Members of Congress increased for such year as provided for pursuant to the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 (2 U.S.C. 31).’.
(b) Effective Date- The amendment made by subsection (a) shall take effect 60 days after the date of enactment of this Act.
This piece of proposed legislation, if passed, will rank right up there with some of the most destructive acts ever, such as FDR’s New Deal programs and LBJ’s Great Society prograqms. The law of unintended consequences will come into play condemning more poor people to unemployment and failed social programs while simultaneously guaranteeing Congress periodic raises. The average taxpayer gets screwed twice, once to pay their representatives and again to take away people’s values, such as self-reliance and responsibility.
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This article is a bit lengthy, but well worth the read.
Supreme Court Invalidates Guantanamo Detainee Tribunals
In a remarkable repudiation of the Bush administration’s exercise of power in the war on terror, the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the military commissions established to try Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detainees violate both U.S. law and the Geneva Conventions.
Handed down on the final day of the Court’s term, the 5-3 decision could affect government policies beyond Guantanamo, jeopardizing U.S. interrogation techniques used on detainees and prisoners, which human rights groups say also violate the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of war prisoners.
Ruling in the long-awaited case of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the Court also rejected the Bush administration’s contention that Congress had stripped the Court of jurisdiction over detainee appeals in a law it passed last December. That law, the Detainee Treatment Act, does not apply to cases pending when it passed, the high court said.
The rest is here.
