Congress got busy this week pushing forward with the Democratic agenda. The House on Wednesday passed 315-116 legislation to increase the Federal minimum wage to $7.25. This would be a 41 percent increase from $5.15 to $7.25/hr over 26 months. The increase would occur in three 70-cent phases ($5.85 -- 60 days after enactment, $6.55 -- 1 year later, $7.25 -- an additional year later). Voting in favor were all 233 Democrats and 82 Republicans. House Republicans sought to send the legislation back to Committee for further consideration and inclusion of offsets for small businesses, such as providing for a small business health plans. This effort was defeated on a party line vote 232-197.
The Senate seems more interested than did the House in negotiating some sort of small business offsets in their minimum wage bill, although small business health plans have been taken off the table. Senators continue to negotiate a variety of tax incentives that could help small business, but no resolution has yet been reached. There were reports that the House may simply accept whatever the Senate does, including any offsets, in order to streamline enactment of the legislation and avoid the delays of a conference between the two chambers.
The White House has weighed in with a Statement of Administration Policy that said it opposes the Democrat’s wage increase but it would support a wage measure that included tax and regulatory relief to help small businesses stay competitive and to help keep the economy growing.
Meanwhile, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, circulated a letter requesting cosponsors for legislation to make price gouging a federal offense. NACS assumes the legislation will mirror that which Rep. Stupak introduced last year that defines gouging as charging prices during any “energy emergency declared by the President” deemed “unconscionably excessive” or “indicates the seller is taking unfair advantage of the circumstances to increase prices unreasonably.” The legislation further defines gouging as prices that represent a “gross disparity” between the price charged prior to the energy emergency or “grossly exceeds” the price charged by others. Increases in the cost of goods sold can be mitigating factors.
The legislation would also establish civil and criminal penalties for violators of the law.
On the bright side, Rep. Stupak also announced that his subcommittee’s agenda would include hearings on petroleum pricing. NACS is hopeful that this process will provide sufficient opportunity to educate Rep. Stupak and his colleagues regarding the nature of the retail petroleum business and insert into the legislation additional “mitigating factors” that will better reflect the competitive market conditions that affect retailer pricing decisions. We’ll keep you posted.
Have a great weekend!
John Eichberger
Vice President, Government Relations