In a statewide debate earlier this month between U.S. Senate candidates Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia) and Democratic Secretary of State Natalie Tennant, Capito said that she would “look favorably upon raising the minimum wage.”
If that is true, why won’t she sign a discharge petition to bring HR 1010 to the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote?
That was a question that Capito refused to answer yesterday at a campaign appearance in Romney, West Virginia.
When a reporter tried twice to ask the question, Capito just ignored it.
Capito has refused to answer a now 15-month old petition from 400 of her constituents asking for a public meeting in Capito’s Second Congressional district to discuss raising the minimum wage.
In a 2006 letter to then House Majority Leader John Boehner, Capito wrote that “Nobody working full time should have to live in poverty.”
But at the debate with Tennant earlier this month, Capito said that the minimum wage was “not meant to be a wage to raise your families and create a life for a family.”
H.R. 1010 would raise the minimum wage to $10.10 over three years.
Most Congressional observers believe that given the popularity of raising the minimum wage — it polls over 70 percent — it would pass into law if a vote were taken today.
But the Republican leadership in the House has blocked a minimum wage raise from coming to the floor for a vote.
Congressman Tim Bishop (D-NY) has been circulating a discharge petition, which, if signed by 218 House members, would force a vote on H.R. 1010.
One hundred and ninety five House members have signed the discharge petition, meaning only 23 more member signatures are required to bring H.R. 1010 to a vote and most likely pass it into law.