[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 105 (Wednesday, September 8, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8930-S8932]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SENATE SCHEDULE

  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. President, I certainly appreciate the comments of my 
friend from Oklahoma. There are some positive things that have resulted 
after a number of very difficult years. I certainly appreciate the 
leadership which he has given on the budget.
  I wanted to talk a moment about Senate business. Of course, I suppose 
we all have ideas about what we could do. We will be here for another 
month. Obviously, we can't do everything that is out there before us. 
Clearly, there were a lot of items we couldn't complete partly as a 
result of the fact that, frankly, we have not done as much over the 
last year as we should have and could have done. Some of that, of 
course, has been because of the Presidential election which is still 
looming before us. That has caused arguments on a lot of things which 
are more political than need to be. It is not unusual for the Congress 
to be political, of course. But I think to the extent it has been, it 
is more than usual. I hope we can move forward.
  I was encouraged about what our leadership said yesterday as we try 
to move forward and try to actually cooperate on some things. 
Unfortunately, before the day is over I think we are back into the same 
old routine of trying to put the blame on everyone, and so on. The fact 
is we have work to do. We have an opportunity to do it. As I said, we 
will not all agree on what they ought to be, but it seems to me the 
real challenge before us is to set some priorities. We have a certain 
amount of time. We can do a certain number of things. Admittedly, we 
will have different ideas about what those priorities ought to be. I 
wanted to share that.

  It seems to me it is important to do the things in a timely manner 
which have an impact on the economy--things Senator Nickles also talked 
about. One is appropriations. Appropriations were intended to be done 
in July and August at the end of the fiscal year--at the end of 
September. We are a little late on those. The Appropriations Committee 
has been dealing with them for a long time. It seems to me that we 
ought to be prepared to move forward within the budget. It is one of 
the most important things.
  I happen to believe energy is one of the most important things we 
have to deal with, to have an energy policy which gives us some idea as 
to the direction we are going to take when we deal with the obvious 
difficulties of energy. The cost of energy, the import percentages we 
have to expect from overseas, with all of the unrest in the Middle East 
where some of it comes from--those are the kinds of things we need to 
deal with. We have talked about it now for about 3 years. We have a 
policy. A policy has been on the floor. Unfortunately, as it moved to 
the floor the last time it was filibustered and we lacked the votes to 
get it passed. We need to pass it. In my view, that would have a great 
impact on the highway bill.

[[Page S8931]]

  Again, we have had a highway bill for some time. We had a 6-year 
bill. It expired a year ago. Now we are proceeding monthly. We need to 
get a longer term highway bill in place.
  As I traveled around my State of Wyoming last month, I probably heard 
as much about that as anything, how important the transportation system 
is to all of us. Coupled with that, of course, is the number of jobs 
developed by having the opportunity to move forward.
  I commend the chairman and his staff for working during the recess. 
We had differences on what the spending level ought to be, which should 
not have been that difficult because this spending is the result of 
transportation. That is what those taxes are for; to expend those on 
highway and related transportation is what it is all for. I understand 
we are reaching some agreements on what that ought to be. We have had 
differences with the Senate and the House and the White House. But we 
need to move forward.
  Certainly, our State of Wyoming is particularly dependent on 
transportation because the miles per capita are very large. We have 
lots of miles--not only used in Wyoming but used by others with a 
relatively small population. It is very important to us. The economic 
impact, of course, is very important. For every $1 billion spent, 
47,000 jobs are created--and created quickly.
  One of the problems, of course, is much of the highway construction 
is done by contracting. If the highway departments within the States do 
not know what their funds are going to be, it is impossible for them to 
go ahead and do contracting in the future. It is also very seasonable. 
Most of the work in the West and the mountain States has to be done in 
the good weather periods. We need to do something with that.
  The Energy bill, as I mentioned, is a total bill. It is not just one 
or two little things. It has to do with research and the alternative 
resources of energy in the future. Whether it is wind or conversion of 
coal to diesel or to hydrogen, it deals with alternative energy as well 
as renewable. It deals with efficiency and conservation and the use of 
energy. We can make great strides in that area. It also has to do with 
the encouragement--giving incentives to domestic production, which, of 
course, is very important.
  We need to make some changes. We need to utilize coal more, for 
example, because it is our largest resource of fossil fuel. It can be 
converted into other fuels--diesel, hydrogen, or whatever. We need to 
use coal to generate electricity rather than gas because gas is so 
flexible and it can be used for other things. Coal can be used 
economically in a clean way as well.
  There is nothing more important than to have an idea. This was one of 
the first things that was done at the White House, and we have done it 
here. I have been on that committee. Yet we have not been able to get 
it done. Now it is at the desk. All we need to do is bring it up and 
move forward.
  There are a lot of other things that are very important. We will have 
to decide whether we want to get things done or whether we want to 
continue to argue. There is nothing wrong with having different ideas, 
voting on them, and reaching a conclusion. We have great challenges 
ahead and only a short time in which to complete them. I certainly urge 
Members to put their energies into those priorities and complete them.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. ENZI. How much time remains for our side?
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. There is 8 minutes 45 seconds.


                                  jobs

  Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, the economy is getting stronger. The economy 
has shown 12 straight months of job gains. Last month, payroll 
employment increased by 144,000 jobs. Nearly 1.7 million new jobs have 
been created over the past year. The unemployment fell to 5.4 percent--
the lowest rate since October, 2001. We have laid the groundwork for 
the economic recovery we are experiencing today. We have ensured the 
presence of more capital in our economy which has led to the creation 
of more jobs for our workers.
  President Bush's economic policies continue to create new jobs and 
move the economy forward. This all adds up to good news for the 
American people. We have weathered the storm and are poised to enter a 
new period of prosperity.
  However, I have to caution you about some roadblocks that stand in 
the way of prosperity for our workers and businesses alike. The first 
roadblock is a gap between the skills our workforce has and the skills 
our employers need. The second roadblock is the Democrats' obstruction 
of legislation that will help close this skills gap. First, I will talk 
about the skills gap so you can understand just how damaging the 
Democrats' obstruction is to our workers and our economy.
  It may surprise you to learn that many good jobs in this country 
remain unfilled because employers can't find workers with the skills 
they need. According to a 2003 survey by the Center for Workforce 
Preparation, an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, half of the 
employers reported difficulty in finding qualified workers. The problem 
is greatest for small employers. Small business--our greatest source of 
economic growth--can't create jobs if they don't have the skilled 
workers to fill the jobs.
  The gap between the demand for high-skilled workers and the supply 
will only widen in the future. Looking ahead 2 years, only 30 percent 
of the employers surveyed by the Center for Workforce Preparation 
believe the skills of their workers will keep pace. This skills gap 
blocks the pathway to better jobs and better lives for American workers 
and their families.
  This skills gap also threatens the ability of American businesses to 
compete in a more complex, global economy. When Federal Reserve 
Chairman Alan Greenspan testified before the Senate Banking Committee, 
he said that ``what will ultimately determine the standard of living in 
this country is the skill of the people.'' Why is effective workforce 
training so important? Because in an increasingly knowledge-based 
economy, people--their talent and their ideas--make the difference. 
Human capital is a company's most important resource. The skills and 
ingenuity of the American workforce will drive our economy in the 21st 
century and beyond. If we want to keep high-paying jobs in America, our 
challenge is to equip our workers with skills the global economy 
demands. We used to manufacture buggy whips. We do not make them 
anymore. People had to have new skills.
  Unfortunately, the current workforce development system is not 
effectively equipping workers with the relevant skills. Without any 
action, technology and other advances will outpace the ability of 
American workers and business to update skills needed to compete. We 
must improve the Nation's job-training system created under the 
Workforce Investment Act to better prepare American workers for the 
good jobs of today and tomorrow. Only a systematic reform of our 
Nation's job-training system will enable American workers and 
businesses to compete--and succeed--in the global economy.
  There is good news. We have a bill that does this. It is a bipartisan 
bill that reauthorizes and improves the Nation's job-training system. 
It will help retrain workers to fill the jobs needed in this country 
now and in the future. It will link workforce development with economic 
development, recognizing that job training and job creation go hand in 
hand. It will partner the public workforce system with private sector 
employers--including small businesses--and with training providers to 
better prepare workers for high-wage, high-growth jobs. And this 
legislation will improve access to job training and employment services 
in all parts of the country. It will help an estimated 900,000 
unemployed workers a year get back to work.
  The good news is we have bipartisan legislation that does all of 
this--legislation that passed out of the Health, Education, Labor, and 
Pensions Committee unanimously, legislation that passed on the Senate 
Floor unanimously. Where is the bill now? Here is the bad news. Here is 
the roadblock. The Democrats won't let us send this important job-
training bill to conference. They are stopping progress by refusing to 
appoint a conference committee, which is a committee made up of 
Republicans and Democrats who would meet with the House to work out the 
differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill, and it 
would not be the last action on the bill.

[[Page S8932]]

If people do not like what happened in conference, it can be 
filibustered.
  An important jobs bill--a bill that will help American workers and 
businesses--is being held hostage to election year politics. If we 
really care about keeping good jobs in this country, we need to send 
the job training legislation to conference--and then to the President 
to become law.
  I owe my constituents more than this. I think we all do. We owe the 
American people an open legislative process, a process they expect and 
deserve from us. This is not just an academic question of Senate rules 
and procedures. A bill that would help put Americans back to work or 
find better jobs now lies in legislative limbo.
  I was reminded just how important job training is to the lives of our 
workers and the strength of our businesses and communities during a 
conference held in Wyoming this summer. In June, I attended the Wyoming 
Summit on Workforce Development. This was a conference designed to 
teach people how to bring business and jobs to Wyoming. In Wyoming, a 
lot of our people are leaving the State to find better jobs elsewhere. 
We know that we have to create the kind of good jobs with good futures 
that will keep our people in Wyoming. To do that, Wyoming needs workers 
with skills the new, global economy calls for.
  One of the speakers at the summit was a consultant, Robert Ady, who 
advises companies where they should relocate or open new operations. 
According to Mr. Ady, a key location factor for a light manufacturing 
business is the presence of a qualified workforce. Whether a company 
decides to open a plant in Cheyenne or China depends upon a qualified 
local workforce. A skilled workforce can make the difference between 
success and failure in the new, global economy. It makes the difference 
for our workers, for our companies, for Wyoming and for the United 
States as a whole.
  Almost 200 business participants from around the State attended the 
Wyoming Summit on Workforce Development. For Wyoming, having 200 
business people in one place at one time is a real accomplishment. It 
showed the need and commitment our businesses have to workforce 
development. These 200 business participants--most from small 
companies--represented at least 200 opportunities for Wyoming workers 
and communities. They are looking to us to put the tools in place to 
keep the American dream alive in communities across Wyoming and the 
rest of the country.
  There is an American dream. It is to have a family, have a nice home, 
and have a good job to support that home and family. Prior to my coming 
to the Senate, my wife and I owned a small chain of shoe stores. As a 
small business owner, I saw firsthand the impact that job training can 
have on achieving the dream. We had an employee--a Vietnam veteran--who 
went through a workforce training course and ended up managing and then 
buying two stores from us. He's an example of what you can do with 
effective job training if you teach workers to dream at the same time.
  We have to give workers--and businesses--the tools to turn the dream 
into reality. Job training under the Workforce Investment Act can turn 
the dream into reality for millions of American workers. By blocking 
legislation that improves job training, my colleagues on the other side 
of the aisle are blocking the pathway to new and better jobs for 
American workers. They are blocking the pathway to prosperity for 
American families and American businesses.
  The job-training bill, known as the Workforce Investment Act, is a 
central part of a combination of federal education and training 
programs that provide lifelong learning for the workforce of today and 
tomorrow. The job-training bill, together with the Carl D. Perkins 
Vocational and Technical Education Improvement Act when I recently 
introduced, and the Higher Education Act offer the resources that are 
needed to help prepare students of all ages for jobs in high-wage and 
high-skill occupations. In this technology driven global economy, 
everyone is a student who must adapt to changing workforce needs by 
continuing to pursue their education. In turn, Congress must ensure 
that education and job training are connected to the needs of business, 
including small businesses, now and into the future.
  I conclude by urging my colleagues on the other side of the aisle--in 
fact, I urge the Democratic leader to lead--to allow the appointment of 
conferees to the job training legislation known as the Workforce 
Investment Act. The cost of this obstruction is the loss of important 
legislative efforts that will be felt by American people as it harms 
the integrity of the legislative process itself.
  I hope our bipartisan efforts on the bill can continue. I hope 
regular order is restored to the appointment of conferees so we can 
craft the final version of this legislation and get 900,000 people back 
to work. If we really want to keep good jobs in this country, the 
Democrats would agree to send this important bill to conference. Our 
workers and our businesses deserve this bill. They deserve more than 
this election year political obstruction. They deserve the tools needed 
to keep American workers and businesses the best in the world.
  Mr. President, how much time is left before the next action?
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. There is 7 seconds.
  Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DORGAN. 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.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, are we in morning business?
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The time has expired for morning 
business.
  Mr. DORGAN. I ask unanimous consent to speak for 8 minutes in morning 
business.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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