Posted 3 years ago
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) - the government's official budget scorekeeper - has said that the Raise the Wage Act of 2021 would have a sizeable impact on the budget. That means it may be able to clear the hurdle of the Byrd Rule and be passed through reconciliation.
The letter came in response to Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) request for more information on the "breadth" of budgetary impacts from the legislation, which would raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2025, and how it stacks up to other legislation passed by reconciliation.
Sanders has made clear that reconciliation - which can pass with only Democratic votes in the Senate - is how he wants to make this a reality. "It's gonna be in reconciliation if I have anything to say about it - it's the only way we're gonna get it passed," he told Insider's Joseph Zeballos-Roig.
The CBO compared the Raise the Wage Act to two different provisions from the Republican-authored 2017 tax act - one that allowed for oil and gas leasing in the Arctic, and another that got rid of penalties for not complying with the individual mandate - and found it impacts more budget functions than either.
That means that the minimum wage raise may not be struck down by the Byrd Rule, one of the greatest threats to it passing through reconciliation. Under the Byrd Rule, measures that are "extraneous" or "incidental" to the budget aren't permitted in reconciliation.
Topic: Politics
Tags: Congress Bernie Sanders Raise The Wage Act Senate