[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 145 (Friday, October 7, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: October 7, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
  RESPOND ACTIVELY TO THE FACTS AS THEY ARE: A PRAGMATIC APPROACH TO 
             CREATING JOBS AND OPPORTUNITY IN PENNSYLVANIA

  Mr. WOFFORD. Mr. President, as Congress prepares to adjourn, it is 
important to take stock of what we have accomplished and what more must 
be done to continue to build our economy and create jobs.
  We have had significant successes. To paraphrase Vice President Gore, 
what should be up and what should be down is down.''
  But we cannot be satisfied with the progress we have made. To many 
businesses are struggling, too many workers are underskilled, 
underemployed, or undereducated. Much work remains to be done.
  What worries people, what angers people most today is not just crime, 
or health care, or even jobs. It is the fact that Government seems 
incapable or unwilling to solve these problems. Petty, partisan 
bickering gets in the way.
  The crime bill was a welcome exception. It took 6 years, but Congress 
finally came up with a tough, smart law that reasonable people on both 
sides of the aisle could support, whatever their personal qualms about 
particular details. I was pleased to join moderate Republicans like 
Pennsylvania's senior Senator, Arlen Specter, to finally win passage of 
this bill, which will make a difference in every community.
  Now, it is time to apply that same bipartisanship and pragmatic 
action to America's economic needs. It is time to stop bickering, and 
start building.
  Before I got this job, I worked for 4\1/2\ years as Pennsylvania's 
Secretary of Labor and Industry. When Governor Casey first approached 
me about that job, I had my doubts. Pennsylvania had a reputation for 
poor labor-management relations. And the labor and industry job itself 
had long reflected the division.
  But Governor Casey made an offer I could not refuse. He told me that 
Republican Governors choose their Labor and Industry Secretaries from 
the House of Business and Democratic Governors choose theirs from the 
House of Labor. He wanted someone who was part of neither and could 
bring them together.
  It was the same point President Kennedy made when I had worked for 
him. Instead of being a liberal or a conservative, he said, be 
responsible in the sense of responding actively to the facts as they 
are.
  That is what I tried to do as Secretary of Labor and Industry. And 
that is what I have been doing since I came the Senate.
  We have made progress in the last 3 years. Business investment and 
job creation are up. The deficit and interest rates are down.
  But we cannot be satisfied. When leading Pennsylvania employers like 
Boeing and Scott Paper continue to announce major layoffs, there is a 
lot more we need to do. Not enough Pennsylvanians are seeing their own 
quality of life improve.
  Our challenge today is to position our economy where the jobs and 
opportunities are going to be in the future so that we can sustain our 
recent economic gains and expand them to more Pennsylvania companies 
and families.
  How do we do that?
  By investing in the fundamentals of our economy. By making sure 
businesses have the capital they need to grow and create good jobs. By 
investing in new technologies and in training and education so that 
people can use them. And by reaching out to tap emerging new markets 
around the globe.
  Government cannot achieve those goals by itself. But Government has a 
responsibility to be a good partner. It should help individuals and 
companies acquire the tools and the opportunities to succeed. It should 
invest in the basic building blocks of a strong, competitive economy. 
It should pursue trade policies that give American companies and 
workers the chance to compete fairly. And then, it should get out of 
the way.
  In other words, it should respond actively to the facts as they are.


                          i. what we have done

  Expanding access to capital--the record:
  What does responding actively to the facts mean?
  For one thing, it means acknowledging that it takes more than hard 
work to turn a good idea into a business. It takes capital.
  In 1991, when I came to the Senate, however, it was often impossible 
for businesses to get the money they needed to grow, no matter how 
creditworthy they were. Years of increasingly unbalanced Federal 
budgets had quadrupled our national debt, forcing the Government to 
borrow heavily and eating up too much of the available capital.
  To free up capital for investment, I voted last year for the largest 
deficit reduction plan in our Nation's history. The plan is projected 
to reduce the deficit by $700 billion over 5 years. It will cut 272,000 
Government jobs, paring the Federal bureaucracy to its lowest levels 
since the Kennedy administration. And it makes cuts in 300 different 
programs, including every major entitlement program.
  The plan is working. Already, the deficit is $85 billion less than it 
would have been if we had done nothing. Unemployment is down nationally 
and in Pennsylvania. Corporate profits and investment in new plants and 
equipment are up. Interest rates--both short- and long-term--are the 
lowest they've been since the 1970's. And the Federal deficit is 
decreasing. If we stay on track--and indications are we will--next year 
will mark the first time since Harry Truman was in the White House that 
the deficit has gone down 3 years in a row. By 1999, the projected 
deficit will be cut in half.
  We are putting less money into the bureaucracy and more money into 
the hands of the people who create jobs.
  We are also working to target capital where it is often most needed, 
and where it will create the greatest number of jobs: small business.
  I voted to create a new 50-percent capital gains tax cut for people 
who make long-term investments in small businesses.
  I also worked closely with the administration to ease the credit 
crunch by eliminating unnecessary regulations that prevented banks from 
making loans to small businesses.
  And, as a member of the Senate Small Business Committee, I am 
fighting to make sure that Pennsylvania's small businesses get their 
fair share of Small Business Administration loans.
  After hearing from one after another Pennsylvania business owner who 
had been turned down for an SBA loan, I discovered that, despite 
ranking fifth nationally in the number of small businesses, 
Pennsylvania ranked only 14th in the number of SBA loans. And the 
percentage of Pennsylvania businesses approved for SBA loans had been 
less than half the national average.
  Now, with the help of a new SBA loan program called Low Doc, for low 
documents, I hope that will change. The program provides loans of up to 
$100,000 to creditworthy small businesses. Just as important, it 
replaces the endless loan application forms businesses used to fill out 
with one simple form, so that employers in Pennsylvania and across the 
country can spend less time filling out forms--and more time creating 
good jobs.
  Investing in competitiveness--the record:
  Responding actively to the facts also means acknowledging that we 
can't keep our economy moving if our roads, rails and waterways are 
falling apart.
  In 1991 Congress passed the Intermodal Surface Transportation 
Efficiency Act--ISTEA in Washington-speak, to rebuild America's 
crumbling roads and bridges--the backbone of our economy--and to 
improve our railways and ports.
  This Marshall plan for American transportation will pump billions of 
dollars into Pennsylvania over 6 years for highway and mass transit 
projects. Among the benefits: upgrading and maintaining all 5,388 miles 
of interstate highway in our State.
  I have worked to expand the Federal investment in Pennsylvania's 
basic infrastructure in a number of other key areas as well, including: 
dredging the Delaware River channel to keep Philadelphia's ports 
competitive; modernizing locks and dams along the Monongehela River 
outside Pittsburgh; and building a new Pittsburgh Airport Busway, just 
to name a few.
  We are also investing in America's technological infrastructure. 
Japan and Western Europe have already demonstrated the benefits of 
linking public and private resources to develop new technologies and 
target them to the marketplace.
  The National Competitiveness Act, which I worked to pass in the 
Senate, is designed to level the playing field and restore U.S. 
leadership in manufacturing and technology. Modeled after the 
Industrial Resource Centers, the Ben Franklin Partnership, and other 
market-driven, public-private partnerships we created in Pennsylvania, 
the act helps manufacturers develop and market new technologies and cut 
costs.
  Another way to make Pennsylvania companies competitive is by making 
Pennsylvania communities competitive.
  That is why I voted to establish 9 empowerment zones and 95 
enterprise communities to attract new jobs where they are most needed 
by combining tax benefits, social service grants and improved program 
coordination.
  Training a skilled work force--the record:
  Responding actively to the facts means overhauling our education and 
training systems so that workers and companies can remain competitive 
in a rapidly changing economy.
  A top executive at Bell of Pennsylvania once told me his company had 
to interview thousands of applicants just to find a few hundred entry-
level workers with the most basic reading, math, and social skills. And 
they are not alone.
  As Secretary of Labor and Industry, I worked with Bell and other 
leading Pennsylvania employers and unions to make sure that workers had 
the skills to get good jobs, and keep them, in today's work place.
  In the Senate, I used that experience to fight for the Nation's new 
School-to-Work Opportunities Act. Modeled largely after the Youth 
Apprenticeship Program we started in Pennsylvania, the School-to-Work 
Opportunities Act helps States develop apprenticeship programs and 
tech-prep programs for the more than 50 percent of young people who do 
not go on to college. By linking high schools with local employers and 
combining classroom study with hands-on learning-by-doing, the school-
to-work bill will help give employers the skilled workers they need, 
and give many more young Americans the chance to succeed in the world 
of work.
  At the same time, we helped make college more affordable for middle-
class families by changing the rules governing financial aid and 
reforming the Direct Student Loan Program. The result is a major 
savings to taxpayers and lower cost loans for students.
  And I am proud to have played a leading role in enabling students to 
pay for college with their own ``sweat equity,'' by serving their 
communities for a year or more in demanding, well-organized youth 
corps. AmeriCorps brings the spirit of the Peace Corps home to deal 
with problems facing American communities. It is a goal I have fought 
for over 30 years, since I helped Sargent Shriver found the original 
Peace Corps during the Kennedy administration. Now it is a reality.
  Reaching new markets--the record:
  Responding actively to the facts means answering the challenges--and 
seizing the opportunities--in today's rapidly changing global 
marketplace. That means first, ensuring that other nations do not 
employ unfair trading practices, and second, helping U.S. firms 
identify and reach new export markets.
  As chairman of the Senate Small Business Subcommittee on Export 
Expansion, I'm committed to opening more foreign markets to American 
products--through negotiation if possible, through our own trade laws 
if necessary.
  Last year, Rhom & Haas, the Philadelphia chemical giant, ran into a 
major problem when the Government of Honduras wrongly blocked the 
company from shipping products into that country and collecting payment 
on a timely basis. I went to work with our Ambassador and the U.S. 
trade representative, and we quickly put an end to the illegal 
obstructionism.
  Right now, trade with Chile--mostly fruit shipped through 
Philadelphia ports--pumps $100 million a year into southeastern 
Pennsylvania's economy and is responsible for about 1,000 jobs.
  I coauthored a bill with Representative Gephart to boost those 
numbers by authorizing the President to negotiate a free-trade 
agreement with Chile. Because expanding trade on a level playing field 
with other countries can benefit all of us.
  But where the playing field is not level, where there has been unfair 
foreign competition, I have been fighting for Pennsylvania's workers 
and industries. The steel industry is just one example. I have worked 
closely with USX, Bethlehem Steel, and other domestic manufacturers to 
stop illegal foreign dumping, open new markets, and enforce our trade 
laws. Given the chance, American steelmakers can not only survive, but 
thrive in a global economy.

  In addition, I cowrote the new law requiring the Department of 
Commerce to step up its efforts to increase the sales of American-made 
auto parts to Japanese car manufacturers--a measure that is especially 
important to the 17,000 Pennsylvania workers who are employed in auto-
related manufacturing.


                             ii. next steps

  Most importantly, responding actively to the facts as they are means 
accepting that our work is never finished. In a time when new 
technologies can become obsolete in a year and new markets are 
appearing around the globe, rebuilding Pennsylvania's economy must be 
an ongoing business.
  Again, Government's role is limited--but important. Here are some 
steps I believe Government must now take to sustain the progress we've 
made and expand the benefits of the current recovery to more people.
  Expanding access to capital--next steps:
  Congress was right in 1993 to extend the Federal research and 
development tax credit. Now we need to go further and make the tax 
credit permanent.
  We should also pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. 
Congress ought to have the fiscal discipline to balance its books 
without, in effect, holding a gun to its head. But experience has shown 
that it does not. A balanced budget amendment may force Washington to 
develop the habit of discipline. At the very least, it will force 
Government to live within its means and prevent it from borrowing 
heavily and driving up interest rates.
  Most importantly, we need to stop the ruinous inflation of health 
care costs. A report by the National Governor's Association makes the 
case starkly: Unless Washington and the States bring Medicaid costs 
under control, everything else we do to control the deficit will fail.
  Health care reform ought to make it possible for other Americans to 
have the same kind of affordable coverage and choice of private health 
plan that members of Congress have arranged for themselves. Indeed, the 
Federal Employees Health Benefits plan--which covers some 9 million 
people--provides a good model for our efforts. It is a private, 
employer-based, consumer-choice system that uses its bargaining power 
to actually bring costs down.
  While bitter partisanship inside Congress and powerful special 
interests outside have so far succeeded in blocking health care reform, 
there are a number of commonsense steps Congress can take now toward 
bipartisan health reform. These steps include opening up the Federal 
employees plan to small businesses and individuals, as well as 
children; reforming the insurance market to end unfair and 
discriminatory insurance practices such as exclusions for preexisting 
conditions; 100 percent deductibility of insurance premiums for the 
self-employed and other sole proprietors; administrative simplification 
that uses the private sector--rather than a Government bureaucracy--to 
computerize and streamline today's mass of health care paperwork. These 
are steps we can and should take sooner rather than later. The cost of 
doing nothing is too high for families and companies alike.
  Investing in competitiveness--next steps:
  ISTEA is the road map America needs to create the best transportation 
network in the world--better than Germany, better than Japan, better 
than anyone. A critical piece of the plan is the proposed National 
Highway System linking economically important highways coast-to-coast.
  A map of the proposed system has already been drawn up. Congress 
should sign off on that map now. If it does not do so by October, 1995, 
Pennsylvania will lose $211 million a year in Federal highway funds, 
and the Nation will lose a total of $6.5 billion a year.
  The 1995 farm bill provides a different--but equally important--map, 
a map that will guide agriculture and rural development into the next 
century. The farm bill will provide farmers with access to the latest 
in agricultural research and technology, and help in marketing their 
goods.
  In Pennsylvania, where agriculture is the No. 1 industry and 
agriculture processing is No. 2, that kind of planning and assistance 
is essential to a healthy economy. I want to see the farm bill on the 
top of the Senate's agenda next year.
  Sometimes the most effective thing Government can do to encourage 
competition is just to get out of the way.
  Congress should pass the National Cooperative Production Act. That 
act builds on the 1984 National Cooperative Research Act, which relaxed 
antitrust regulations and encouraged United States and foreign 
companies to cooperate on research and development projects. Together, 
the two acts will increase U.S. competitiveness by allowing American 
companies to share the risks and costs of developing new products and 
bringing them to market.
  I want to see Congress pass the Superfund reform bill I helped draft 
as a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The 
bill includes a responsible brownfields propose that encourages the 
reuse of old industrial sites by protecting new owners from liability 
for contamination by past owners and setting new clean-up standards 
that are predictable, flexible, and tailored to the intended new use of 
the property.
  Beyond that, we need to expand the Industrial Development Bond 
Program to help communities finance critical building and 
infrastructure projects, and encourage flexibility and innovation in 
Federal economic development programs. One-size-fits-all approaches 
aren't nearly as effective as solutions that are tailored to fit 
communities' specific needs.
  Training a skilled workforce--next steps:
  As Secretary of Labor and Industry I helped turn Pennsylvania's 
unemployment offices into one-stop job centers. In 1992, the job 
centers were hailed as one of the 75 top innovations in State and local 
government by the Ford Foundation and Harvard's Kennedy School of 
Government.
  It's time to apply that same kind of common sense to the way the 
Federal Government supports worker training. We can fill gaps, 
eliminate costly duplication of services, and develop accurate new ways 
to measure results by coordinating the current patchwork of 154 Federal 
employment and training programs. The programs are now spread out over 
14 departments and independent agencies, with a combined budget of $25 
billion. As it was in Pennsylvania, cutting out this overlapping 
bureaucracy and improving the effectiveness of these programs will be 
among my high priorities in the next Congress.
  Reaching new markets--next steps:
  The benefits of the recovery are coming perhaps most slowly to those 
connected to exporting. The United States racked up the second-worst 
merchandise trade deficit in history in July, 1994.
  As chairman of the Senate Small Business Subcommittee on Export 
Expansion, I have seen how Government can get in the way and prevent 
business from seizing opportunities in the new global marketplace. I 
want to change that.
  We need to modernize and simplify our whole system of controls over 
the export of technology. The current system is a cold war relic that's 
often irrelevant and counterproductive.
  The United States also needs to be more vigilant about monitoring 
foreign countries' compliance with trade agreements and, if violations 
are found, imposing penalties on the offending nation's exports to the 
United States.


                      iii. changing with the times

  We live in a time of unprecedented change. At the same time, 
political forces are redrawing the world's map, technological and 
economic changes are dramatically reshaping the world marketplace.
  I believe Pennsylvanians cannot only compete in this new world 
economy, but lead it--if we respond actively to the facts as they are. 
I am pleased that Washington has begun to apply so many of the 
commonsense lessons we pioneered in job training and other fields in 
Pennsylvania.
  But whats more important than what we are giving to Washington is 
what Pennsylvanians are finally starting to get from Washington--a fair 
return on our investment of tax dollars.
  I want to continue to work with business leaders to invest in the 
fundamentals of Pennsylvania's economy and respond actively to the 
facts as they are. Because the goals of business and Government are the 
same; creating good jobs for our people and new opportunities for our 
companies, now and in the future. Let us pursue those goals by turning 
away from the partisanship and division that has characterized far too 
much of our public discussion, and build on the common ground of 
commonsense action on the challenges facing our Commonwealth and our 
country.

                          ____________________