As Senators prepared to vote on a budget bill funding the government, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) introduced an amendment to raise the federal minimum wage to $17 an hour. But the federal minimum wage is the minimum wage in the other 21 states, which include Idaho, several Great Plains and Midwest states, and most of the South. Josh Hawley of Missouri was the only Republican in favor of increasing the minimum wage, joining Sanders and all Democrats except Patty Murray of Washington, who was absent.