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  • prospects for raising the U.

  • S minimum wage took a potentially fatal blow on Thursday as a Senate official ruled that Democratic lawmakers cannot fast track the proposal through Congress.

  • Democrats had hoped to include the minimum wage hike in there $1.9 trillion relief bill, which they intended to pass through the Democratic controlled Senate without Republican votes.

  • In a statement, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said President Joe Biden was disappointed in the decision.

  • The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and was last raised in 2000 and nine.

  • Biden and most of his fellow Democrats want to double the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025.

  • But Thursday's ruling means that Democrats will likely have to pass a separate bill and undertake the difficult task of garnering some Republican support for the measure.

  • Senator Lindsey Graham, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, welcome to the Senate parliamentarian's ruling on Twitter, writing that quote reconciliation cannot be used as a vehicle to pass major legislative change by either party on a simple majority vote.

  • Yet despite Thursday's decision, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that the Democratic controlled chamber would still include the minimum wage provisions before sending the relief bill to the Senate.

  • That would leave Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer with the consequential choice of either removing the provision or challenging Thursday's decision.

  • Convict Donald Trump.

prospects for raising the U.

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