[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 47 (Tuesday, April 6, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3738-S3740]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
JOBS
Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I want to talk about the approach being
taken by the other side of the aisle toward a lot of issues in the
Senate but specifically two dealing with jobs; that is, this attitude
of obstruction for the purpose of basically stopping legislation and
not allowing this body to move forward and do the business of the
people.
There are two bills pending in this body. One is the JOBS bill, which
deals with correcting the tax structure of the United States so we are
no longer out of compliance with a ruling made by the WTO, which
ruling, if it is allowed to stand, will have the practical effect of
raising duties on American products sold overseas rather significantly.
In fact, they could raise as high as 18 percent, as I understand it.
The effect of those duties, of course, which have now been ruled
legal under this international tribunal that we subscribe to as a
member state, will be that those American goods are not as competitive
as they should be, and therefore those American goods will not be able
to be effectively sold into
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those markets overseas. The practical effect of that will be that jobs
will be lost here in the U.S.
The other side of the aisle continues to filibuster that bill. The
effect of the filibuster will be that these duties will go into place
and jobs will be lost. This bill which is called the JOBS bill is just
that, a jobs bill. Yet we hear from the other side of the aisle what
appears to be and must be crocodile tears on the issue of creating more
jobs, because they have the opportunity to pass a piece of legislation
that will clearly impact the creation and maintenance of jobs in the
United States, and they are obstructing it and filibustering it.
We hear from the other side a great deal about outsourcing, American
jobs being moved overseas. The practical effect of objecting to this
bill, obstructing this bill and of filibustering this bill, is that
those jobs will probably move overseas because those manufacturers, in
order to avoid the duty, are going to have to move overseas in order to
be competitive with the products in those nations where they are
selling them. So the effect of the filibuster and obstruction we are
seeing on the other side on the issue of the JOBS bill is to basically
energize the loss of jobs in the U.S. and the outsourcing of jobs
overseas.
Therefore, when we hear all this discussion and concern about the
creation of jobs in this country today from the other side of the aisle
in the context of the Presidential election, one wonders how serious
they are, because clearly if they are serious they would pass this
bill which, by the way, is supported by a majority of the Senate. The
objection to this bill is not the underlying law. It is not the
correction to the tax law which will allow these jobs to be retained in
the United States. It is, rather, they wish to bring forward extraneous
legislation and put it on this bill, legislation which we voted on a
couple of times before in committee and which we voted on at least once
on the floor of the Senate.
Therefore, it is a tangential idea and a desire to make a political
point, and their willingness to pursue that tangential idea and desire
at the expense of these jobs, I find, is cynical and clearly
inappropriate. That is the first bill being stopped.
The second bill is a bill I managed and which just came out of
conference, and it is the pension reform bill. It did not have
everything in it that I wanted. It did not have everything in it the
House wanted. But it has key pieces of legislation in it which will
have a direct impact on jobs. I called this pensions bill the ultimate
jobs bill because, quite honestly, that is exactly what it is.
If this pensions bill is not passed and passed promptly, the
practical effect is there will be a misallocation of up to $80 billion
of resources within the investment community and in the small and large
business communities of this country. What has happened today is that
companies fund what is known as a defined benefits plan under rules
which they say, in order to determine how much they are going to pay to
the plan each year, they have to look at the rate of return on the 30-
year Treasury bond.
The 30-year Treasury bond is a vehicle which does not exist anymore.
We do not sell it, basically, as a country. Therefore, the price of a
30-year Treasury bond has been moved to an artificially low number, and
the practical effect of that is that companies, businesses, and unions
which must see their pension funds funded for these defined benefits
plans are going to see those payments to those defined benefits plans
increased at an arbitrary rate based on a nonexistent bond vehicle, the
30-year bond. It is technical, but it is an important point.
This pensions bill corrects that situation. It sets up a new
structure for defining how much must be contributed to a defined
benefits plan for a period of 2 years based on a bond rate which does
actually exist, which is a market basket of corporate bonds. The
practical effect of that will be an appropriate allocation of money
into these defined benefits plans, leaving dollars available to invest
in new plant, new equipment, and expansion of business in the United
States, which leads directly to jobs.
Thus, if this pensions bill is not enacted in the next week, we will
have these arbitrary reallocations of funds occurring by April 15. This
pensions bill will have a direct and proximate effect on the ability of
business in the United States to be competitive, to create investment,
and, in return, to create jobs.
Yet, once again, we were told by the leadership on the other side of
the aisle--at least the leadership in the committees, Senator Kennedy
and Senator Baucus--that they oppose this bill and they are going to
use all their means available to them to stop it.
They can stop this bill. There is no question about it. They can stop
it for at least 2 or 3 weeks, and the practical effect of that will be
that we will go beyond the April 15 funding date, and this rather
horrific misallocation of resources will kick in, the practical effect
of which will be instead of investing to create jobs, they will be
investing arbitrarily in these defined benefits funds at a rate which
is not reflective of what the actual return rate on those funds would
be if they had an appropriate market basket of corporate bonds on which
they were basing their yield rates.
Yes, they can hold this bill up. And, yes, I guess they intend to
hold this bill up. What is the effect of that? It is going to cost
Americans jobs. It is going to mean jobs will not be created. It is
going to mean investment will not be made. It will mean dollars will be
arbitrarily allocated rather than flowing where they can most
effectively be used through investment in new plant and equipment and
the resulting jobs that occur from that.
So, once again, we see from the other side of the aisle an attitude
that says: We are going to obstruct you; we are going to stop business
in the Senate. We don't care that in the process of doing that we are
going to create an atmosphere where jobs are lost, as in the case of
the JOBS bill where the duties are increased against American
manufacturers and maybe as a result jobs have to be outsourced. In any
event, we will certainly have our products being less competitive,
which means probably fewer jobs will be created in those businesses and
maybe jobs will be lost in those businesses in the area of the pensions
bill. They do not care. They are going to obstruct, and they are going
to stop this bill because they are tweaked about the issue of how far
it went and, as a result, what is going to be the impact. Jobs will be
lost because the dollars for investing in plant and equipment will not
be available. It is a rather cynical strategy from the other side of
the aisle. First, they go out to the public in the Presidential
campaign and say: Why don't we have more jobs? Then, on the floor of
the Senate, they are aggressively pursuing strategies which stop us
from creating more jobs. It is a lot like the kids who killed their
parents and then go to the court and claim they should receive special
treatment because they are orphans.
These folks on the other side of the aisle are shooting the programs
which would create jobs, and then they are going out in the
Presidential politics arena and saying: Why aren't we creating more
jobs?
The cynicism of it is rather extreme. From my standpoint, I certainly
hope they are not going to continue this practice because, in the end,
it means people in America will not have jobs and will have fewer
opportunities to work. For me, that is not right.
I hope we can pass this pensions bill this week, and I hope we can
pass this JOBS bill this week, but it certainly doesn't look like that
is going to occur.
I yield back the remainder of my time. I yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator's time has expired. The
Senator from North Dakota.
Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I listened with great interest to comments
of some of my colleagues, especially on this issue of obstructionism as
it relates to jobs. It is true there is a JOBS bill, as it is called,
on the floor of the Senate that has been delayed. This JOBS bill is a
bill that gives tax breaks to U.S. manufacturers, and it has, in fact,
been delayed. Let me explain why it has been delayed and why the
obstructionism on the part of the majority party in Congress exists.
When that bill came to the floor of the Senate, someone on this side
of the aisle offered a very important amendment. It also had to do with
jobs, so it had to do with the subject of the bill.
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Because the majority party did not want to vote on the amendment, they
took all their marbles, walked off the floor, and went home and accused
our side of being obstructionist. Let me describe the circumstances.
Senator Harkin offered an amendment on overtime pay. Why did he do
that? Because the Department of Labor is about to produce new
regulations that, for the first time in 60 years, will obliterate the
40-hour workweek and tell workers, Oh, by the way, if your employer
decides to work you more than 40 hours, anywhere from 6 to 8 million
Americans who now receive overtime will not be able to receive overtime
pay. The employer will be able to say: You work overtime, you work 50
hours; if you don't like it, tough luck, and I am not going to pay you
overtime. For the first time in 60 years, the 40-hour workweek will be
gone for about 6 to 8 million people.
These new rules are touted as worker-friendly rules, but, of course,
we know that is not the case at all because there are consulting
companies--and the Department of Labor itself--putting out information
to businesses to say: Here is the way you structure your company to
avoid paying your workers overtime under these new rules.
Senator Harkin offered an amendment on this important JOBS bill. Why
is it germane to this JOBS bill? Because if employers are able to say
to workers, You work overtime for no extra pay, instead of creating new
jobs which ought to be created, they will say to existing workers: You
work overtime; we are not going to pay you extra.
This new rule from the Department of Labor is an approach that will
diminish jobs, that will retard the creation of new jobs. Yet, when
Senator Harkin offered that amendment, the majority party had some kind
of an apoplectic seizure.
According to the majority party, Senator Harkin is apparently
obstructing things because he offers an amendment dealing directly with
jobs. No, it is not Senator Harkin who is obstructing. What is
obstructing the business of this Chamber is the majority party. Senator
Harkin offered an amendment that deals directly with jobs and they
refused to have a vote on it, and they are going to take their marbles
and just go home. They are going to go home and accuse someone else of
obstructing.
The obstruction in this Chamber is by the majority party that refuses
to allow votes on issues that are important and that are relevant to
the matters at hand. That is the obstruction. It is a curious strategy
to know the majority party would obstruct its own agenda, but obstruct
they do. Then they rush out to the microphones to accuse others of
obstructing.
There is a very simple way to remove all of these issues. We do not
have to have any obstruction by anybody. Bring the bills to the floor
and let us try to deal with them in a thoughtful way. When someone
offers an amendment, like Senator Harkin, give us an opportunity to
have a vote on it. Let's move ahead. That is not the case these days.
It is just a little bizarre to hear these charges of obstructionism.
I would also say to those who came to the floor this morning to say
what they really want to see is a positive campaign for the Presidency,
I say amen to that. But there is a large, well-oiled attack machine in
this town. In fact, I watched the television commercials last evening
by the administration, which represent Senator Kerry's position on
taxation. It is a wholly negative television commercial.
I agree with my colleague who said, let's be positive. How about
maybe we see the other side, maybe see the White House take some of
those commercials off the air and then let us talk about being
positive.
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