*By Christian Smith*
Congressman Ro Khanna wants to inspire companies to do better by their workers.
"It's absurd that you have multi-billion dollar companies, trillion-dollar companies that aren't able to pay their workers $15," Rep. Khanna said Friday in an interview on Cheddar.
That's why the prominent House progressive, who represents California's Silicon Valley, is teaming up with ex-presidential candidate and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to introduce legislation that would place a tax on large corporations ー money that is equivalent to the amount of federal benefits their low-income employees receive to make a livable wage.
Rep. Khanna's House bill is called the "Corporate Responsibility and Taxpayer Protection Act" and targets large companies across industries, including tech, retail, and fast food, he said.
Sanders was a little more pointed with his version, dubbed the "Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies Act." That's Stop BEZOS, if you didn't notice.
Rep. Khanna said that Amazon has responded to the Sanders bill, saying the company creates safe working spaces for employees and offers competitive benefits. But the Congressman said the point of benefits is a separate matter.
"They're still not addressing the fundamental point," Khanna said.
"Why can't they just come out and say they're going to pay every employee in our company at least a $15 wage so they can have a livable wage?"
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/congressman-ro-khanna-wants-major-corporations-to-improve-worker-pay-or-pay-more-in-taxes).
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds is urging lawmakers in Washington to ratify the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which she says will help bring stability to her state’s agriculture industry.
Twitter will begin posting notices on tweets from social media savvy politicians that break the platform’s rules but are in the public’s interest, the company announced Thursday.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Thursday, June 27, 2019.
The 2020 presidential hopefuls agreed that despite recent positive signs in the U.S. economy, not all Americans have benefited from the boom equally.
Democratic candidates were asked about the climate crisis during the first presidential primary debates on Wednesday and Thursday in Miami, a city that is currently experiencing its hottest week in more than three decades.
Julián Castro, 2020 presidential hopeful, believes the deaths of Andrés Manuel Lopez Óbrador and his 23-month-old daughter Valeria, were avoidable if not for a Trump policy that limits the number of asylum seekers per day
San Francisco's board of supervisors has voted a final time to effectively ban the sale of e-cigarettes in the city until the products are reviewed and approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Wednesday, June 29, 2019.
As immigration officials return unaccompanied minors to a controversial Border Patrol facility, Deputy Secretary of the HHS Eric Hargan tells Cheddar, "We are running out of money in our program, and we really need to get the money so that we can provide services for these children."
As the recent push to legalize recreational cannabis in the Empire State failed in the legislature, state Sen. Diane Savino is putting forward the approach of expanding New York's medical marijuana program in order to further normalize the issue.
