Free Republic

The Senate parliamentarian ruled Thursday that the $15 per hour minimum wage cannot be included in the Democrats’ proposed $1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package. The controversial proposal in the House bill seeks to gradually raise the federal minimum wage, which has been at $7.25 an hour since 2009, to $15 by 2025. Elizabeth MacDonough, the chief Senate parliamentarian, has decided that the minimum wage increase cannot be included under the budget reconciliation process, according to multiple reports. Per the Byrd Rule—a procedural step for determining the eligibility of a provision to be included in a reconciliation bill—MacDonough and her team...