[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 55 (Monday, May 6, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3889-S3891]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            JUDGES AND JOBS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, there have been a lot of rumors around here 
in the Senate--and I hope this is just a rumor--but I have heard that 
the Senate minority, the Senate Republicans, are threatening to shut 
down the Senate on Thursday or some time this week. The reason given is 
that the President, this past Friday, talked about there being 11 
vacancies in the circuit courts.
  Now, that is interesting. I have spoken on the Senate floor for long 
periods of time, in effect, defending the Judiciary Committee because 
these same vacancies they cry about are vacancies they created. They 
would not fill the vacancies during the 8 years President Clinton was 
in office, and now they are complaining because there are vacancies.
  As we have spoken about on a number of occasions, Chairman Leahy has 
done his very best to move these along. In the Senate, we have been led 
by Senator Daschle, as majority leader, and the various Democratic 
chairmen for less than a year. During that period of time, we have had 
one Senate office building closed for months, we have had September 11, 
and lots of problems. But in spite of that, we have approved 52 judges 
already.
  But if they do decide they want to interrupt this very busy schedule, 
I think

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they will reveal just how out of touch they are with the American 
people.
  They want to focus attention on judicial nominations and what they 
portray as a delay in reviewing nominations. In fact, under Democratic 
leadership, the Senate has dramatically and rapidly accelerated the 
pace of reviewing and confirming judicial nominations.
  We have confirmed more judges in the past 10 months than were 
confirmed in the first 10 months of 1995, when Republicans controlled 
the Senate, and more than during the 12 months of 1996, 1997, 1999, and 
2000.
  As you can see from this chart I have in the Chamber, it is not even 
a close call. We have done extremely well. The Judiciary Committee 
should be complimented for the work they have done.
  We have acted to confirm these nominees quickly. The average number 
of days needed to confirm circuit court nominees has dropped from well 
over 300 days--that is almost a year; the levels when the Republicans 
in the Senate delayed action on President Clinton's nominations--to 
just over 100 days since the Democrats have controlled the Senate.
  I think that is something Chairman Leahy and the Judiciary Committee 
should feel good about. I think we, as Senators, should feel good about 
this.
  I think the work that has been done is exemplary. So if they focus on 
this issue, I think we can easily make a convincing case for how much 
improvement the Senate has made under the leadership of Senator Daschle 
and Senator Leahy as it relates to judges.
  But it gives one pause to think that they are pushing these 11 
vacancies on the same day there was an announcement that the 
unemployment rate is the highest it has been in 8 years. We have not 
had an unemployment rate this high since the O.J. Simpson trial. It is 
at 6 percent now.
  The President is shifting attention to a handful of jobs for judicial 
nominees instead of speaking about jobs for millions of unemployed 
Americans.
  There are now almost 9 million people in America who are unemployed. 
There are 8.6 million Americans who are desperately seeking a job and 
are unable to find one.
  We have a high unemployment rate in Nevada. I have heard the 
Presiding Officer talk about the jobs that have been lost in South 
Carolina, for example, in the textile industry, over the last several 
years. When I heard the junior Senator from South Carolina talk about 
the job loss in South Carolina, and the number being in the tens of 
thousands of people, I thought there was a mistake made. I could not 
believe that one industry could lose that many people in such a short 
period of time. But those facts are absolutely right. They have been 
verified many times.
  So there are 8.6 million unemployed people all over the country. Many 
predict that unemployment will continue to rise. Unemployment seems to 
affect everyone, but some groups get hit hardest.
  Women, for example, suffered most of the increase in joblessness last 
month. Their unemployment rate rose another four-tenths of 1 percent to 
5.4 percent. The unemployment rate for Blacks climbed to 11.2 percent. 
More than 1 out of every 10 Black American men and women are out of 
work. For Hispanics, the unemployment rate is 8 percent. So it would 
seem to me that we want to do a good job in filling these 11 vacancies 
for circuit court judges, but it would also seem that we should focus 
on the 8.6 million--almost 9 million--people out of work in this 
country and spend a little bit of time on that.
  We have to take action to provide assistance for workers who have 
been displaced and help them find jobs--full-time jobs. Not only are 
millions of Americans unemployed, but there are also millions who are 
underemployed. They have jobs, but they are not very good jobs. This is 
especially true of workers being paid the minimum wage.
  So on Friday, the President talked about 11 circuit court vacancies, 
but not a single word about the almost 9 million people who are 
unemployed, and not a single word about the minimum wage.
  It seems to me those two issues may be a little more important than 
these 11 judicial vacancies which they created.
  Millions of Americans are being paid the minimum wage. In Nevada, and 
throughout the country, many working families struggle to make ends 
meet. The minimum wage remains at $5.15 an hour. It hasn't been raised 
in 5 years. The low minimum wage is a key reason why poverty has 
doubled for full-time year-round workers since the late 1970s--from 
about 1.3 million to 2.4 million in 2000--and it has contributed to 
Nevada's 9.7 percent poverty rate. There are 2.4 million people who 
work full time and are in poverty. A minimum-wage employee working 40 
hours a week, 52 weeks a year earns $10,700. This is $4,000 below the 
poverty level for a family of three.
  The majority of people drawing the minimum wage are women. Sixty 
percent of the people who draw the minimum wage are women. People think 
these minimum-wage employees are at McDonald's flipping hamburgers, a 
bunch of teenagers. They are not. Sixty percent of the people who draw 
the minimum wage are women. For 40 percent of these women, that is the 
only money they get for themselves or their families.
  Every day the minimum wage is not increased, it continues to lose 
value and workers fall further and further behind. Minimum-wage workers 
have lost all their gains since they last raised the minimum wage in 
1997. The current purchasing power of the minimum wage remains more 
than 32 percent below the 1968 level. If the minimum wage had kept up 
with inflation, it would be up to about $8 an hour. No one is asking it 
be kept up with inflation. We are just asking for a modest increase.
  According to a survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, 38 percent of 
those seeking emergency food in the United States are employed, 
compared with 23 percent in 1994. Local government officials cite low-
paying jobs as the most common cause of hunger in their communities. 
Many people wrongly think of the typical minimum-wage worker as being 
some teenage kid working to earn extra money to buy compact disks or to 
go snowboarding. In fact, many minimum-wage workers struggle to care 
for their families.
  The Fair Minimum Wage Act would increase the Federal minimum wage by 
$1.50 over 2 years. We are not asking it be kept up with inflation from 
when it was first established. About 80,000 Nevadans and about 9 
million Americans would get a raise up to $6.65 during the next 2 
years. This modest proposal would bring the real value of the minimum 
wage within a penny of the value it had in the 1980s.
  This raise is critical to the economy of people all over America who 
are low-wage earners. A worker earning the minimum wage would have to 
work 114 hours per week in order to afford a two-bedroom apartment in 
Las Vegas, NV. That would be the equivalent of almost three full-time 
jobs.
  America is a great country, the land of opportunity. One of our core 
values has been a strong work ethic. Workers have been responsible for 
our great economic success. Americans who work full time should not 
live in poverty.
  Going back to Friday when the President gave his plaintive plea for 
filling the 11 vacancies on the circuit court of appeals, the rumor 
is--rumors usually have some basis in fact--that they are going to shut 
this place down to get those 11 circuit court judges. They should get 
to shutting then.
  The business we have to do is not for Democrats. It is for 
Republicans and Democrats and Independents. It is for the executive 
branch of Government, the judicial branch, and the legislative branch. 
We can only do what we can do. If they want to shut down the Senate, 
that is the power they have because this is the Senate of the United 
States. If they believe 11 circuit court judges are worth more than the 
8.6 million unemployed and worth more than the minimum wage that has 
not been increased in over 5 years, let them go to it.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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