Sen. Bernie Sanders' last-ditch effort to reattach a $15 minimum wage provision to the Senate coronavirus relief package failed Friday morning after 8 members of the Democratic caucus joined all 50 Republicans in voting down the Vermont senator's amendment.
"If any Senator believes this is the last time they will cast a vote on whether or not to give a raise to 32 million Americans, they are sorely mistaken."
--Sen. Bernie Sanders
Those who voted against advancing Sanders' amendment were Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), Angus King (I-Maine.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.).
"Every single Dem who voted against a $15 minimum wage should be primaried," declared Krystal Ball, host of HillTV's "Rising."
In a statement following Friday's vote, Sanders said that "at a time when millions of people are working for starvation wages, when the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour has not been raised by Congress since 2007, when the president of the United States and the House of Representatives support it, it is absolutely imperative that the Senate approve an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour."
"If any senator believes this is the last time they will cast a vote on whether or not to give a raise to 32 million Americans, they are sorely mistaken," Sanders continued. "We're going to keep bringing it up, and we're going to get it done because it is what the American people demand and need."
Sanders' attempt to add an overwhelmingly popular federal minimum wage increase to the coronavirus relief package via the amendment process came after the Senate parliamentarian--an unelected official with zero constitutional authority--issued an advisory opinion that deemed the proposed pay hike a violation of budget reconciliation rules.
After the White House made clear that Vice President Kamala Harris would not be willing to exercise her authority to override the parliamentarian's advice, Senate Democrats removed the $15 minimum wage provision from their version of the coronavirus relief bill.
"Because of an unfortunate and misguided decision by the parliamentarian, this reconciliation bill does not include an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour," Sanders said on the Senate floor Friday. "In my view, an unelected staffer in the Senate should not be in charge of determining whether 32 million workers in America receive a raise."
Pennsylvania Lt. Governor John Fetterman, a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, said in a statement Friday that "every single senator who voted against a $15 minimum wage today should be forced to live on $7.25 an hour so that they can demonstrate to all of us how it's possible."
"While these senators sit comfortably in Washington making $174,000 a year, millions of Americans are struggling every day to get by, and they cannot wait any longer," Fetterman added. "They need a living wage now. All work has dignity, and all paychecks must too. If the Senate were to pass a $15 minimum wage, 24 million people would see their wages rise. Instead, 58 deeply out of touch senators decided to turn their backs on working people."
