[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 177 (Thursday, November 20, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10701-S10702]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION EXTENSION ACT OF 2008--MOTION TO PROCEED

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
resume consideration of the motion to proceed to H.R. 6867, which the 
clerk will now report.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       Motion to proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 
     1123, H.R. 6867, an act to provide for additional emergency 
     unemployment compensation.


                             Cloture Motion

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, pursuant to rule 
XXII, the Chair lays before the Senate the pending cloture motion, 
which the clerk will report.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to 
     proceed to Calendar No. 1123, H.R. 6867, the Unemployment 
     Compensation Extension Act of 2008.
         Harry Reid, Max Baucus, Patrick J. Leahy, Bernard 
           Sanders, Kent Conrad, E. Benjamin Nelson, John D. 
           Rockefeller, IV, Dianne Feinstein, Robert P. Casey, 
           Jr., Patty Murray, Richard Durbin, Sheldon Whitehouse, 
           Barbara A. Mikulski, Barbara Boxer, Carl Levin, Daniel 
           K. Akaka, Mark L. Pryor.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum 
call has been waived.
  The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the 
motion to proceed to H.R. 6867, an act to provide for additional 
emergency unemployment compensation, shall be brought to a close?
  The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Biden) and 
the Senator from Arkansas (Mrs. Lincoln) are necessarily absent.
  Mr. KYL. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Georgia (Mr. Chambliss) and the Senator from New Hampshire (Mr. 
Sununu).
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Klobuchar). Are there any other Senators 
in the Chamber desiring to vote?
  The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 89, nays 6, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 214 Leg.]

                                YEAS--89

     Akaka
     Alexander
     Allard
     Baucus
     Bayh
     Bennett
     Bingaman
     Bond
     Boxer
     Brown
     Brownback
     Bunning
     Burr
     Byrd
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Clinton
     Cochran
     Coleman
     Collins
     Conrad
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Craig
     Crapo
     Dodd
     Dole
     Domenici
     Dorgan
     Durbin
     Ensign
     Feingold
     Feinstein
     Graham
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hagel
     Harkin
     Hutchison
     Inouye
     Isakson
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Kerry
     Klobuchar
     Kohl
     Kyl
     Landrieu
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lugar
     Martinez
     McCain
     McCaskill
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Mikulski
     Murkowski
     Murray
     Nelson (FL)
     Nelson (NE)
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Roberts
     Rockefeller
     Salazar
     Sanders
     Schumer
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Smith
     Snowe
     Specter
     Stabenow
     Stevens
     Tester
     Thune
     Vitter
     Voinovich
     Warner
     Webb
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
     Wyden

                                NAYS--6

     Barrasso
     Coburn
     DeMint
     Enzi
     Hatch
     Inhofe

                             NOT VOTING--4

     Biden
     Chambliss
     Lincoln
     Sununu
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 89, the nays are 6. 
Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn having voted in the 
affirmative, the motion is agreed to.
  Under the previous order, all postcloture time is yielded back and 
the motion to proceed is agreed to.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, next week we will celebrate 
Thanksgiving--a holiday to be with family and to give thanks for the 
many blessings we enjoy. But this year, American families gathering 
around the Thanksgiving table are burdened with serious worries: Are we 
going to lose our home? Can we afford to retire when our savings have 
been wiped out? Will we have to choose between sending our children to 
college and paying our medical bills?
  One of the greatest hardships millions of Americans are facing is the 
loss of their jobs. The current job market is the worst in the past 
quarter century. Over 1 million people have lost their jobs this year--
half a million in September and October alone. Last week, more workers 
filed for unemployment benefits than at any time since the tragedy of 
September 11, 2001. Economists predict the unemployment rate will 
continue to climb from its current 14-year high of 6.5 percent to well 
over 8 percent in the coming year.
  Earlier this year, Congress approved additional unemployment benefits 
for workers. That was an important step, but families need additional 
support. Unemployment benefits have expired for many workers, and 
finding a new job is far more difficult as the recession deepens. More 
than 2 million Americans have been unable to find work for more than 6 
months. If Congress fails to extend benefits again this year, nearly 
1.2 million Americans will have exhausted their benefits by the end of 
the year.
  That's why this legislation is so essential. It provides 7 additional 
weeks of unemployment assistance to workers whose benefits have 
expired, and an additional 13 weeks for jobless workers in high-
unemployment states. This bill has already passed the House 
overwhelmingly, with strong bipartisan support. By acting today, we 
will deliver immediate aid to many of the neediest Americans who are 
unable to find work.
  Not only does the extension of unemployment benefits provide a 
lifeline for struggling families, it also serves as a needed and 
immediate stimulus for the economy--each dollar of unemployment 
benefits generates $1.64 in economic growth. I urge my colleagues to 
join me in supporting this critical extension of unemployment 
assistance.
  Providing these additional unemployment benefits, however, is not the 
only step we must take to help working families meet the tough 
challenges that lie ahead. Jumpstarting our economy and restoring 
American prosperity will take bolder vision and more decisive action. 
We need to create good jobs for the millions of Americans who want to 
work. That means investing in our workers, investing in our 
infrastructure, and investing in technology for the future. It also 
means repairing the broken safety nets, so that more families who are 
being hurt by this downturn can get back on their feet.
  I wish we could have done more in this lame-duck, but at least we are 
taking an important step. I look forward to working with our new 
President and the new Congress in January

[[Page S10702]]

to meet these difficult challenges and to restore the vitality of our 
economy.
  Mr. KYL. Madam President, I support H.R. 6867, the Unemployment 
Compensation Act of 2008. The unemployment level is high, it is 
increasing, and it is likely that this condition will prevail for many 
months. Thus, the need for this extension.
  According to the Labor Department, claims for unemployment benefits 
have increased dramatically, last week reaching a 16-year high. The 
unemployment rate in October was 6.5 percent; last year the rate 
averaged 4.6 percent. The Federal Reserve also released estimates 
Wednesday that project the jobless rate will climb to between 7.1 
percent and 7.6 percent next year.
  As everyone knows, the economy has slowed dramatically. Retail and 
business spending has decreased. The next several months are projected 
to be a period of contraction. As long as the economy continues to 
struggle, the people of Arizona and the rest of our country will face 
difficult job prospects, given the limited number and types of jobs 
available.
  This dramatic downturn in the economy and surge in unemployment 
convinced me to support this extension of unemployment coverage. But 
this step simply treats a symptom of the bad economy; it is not a 
solution. We must try to take steps to improve the economy and, thus, 
create new jobs. As I have said in the past, I do not believe an 
extension or expansion of Federal unemployment benefits stimulates the 
economy. In fact, most economists believe that continual, temporary 
extension of unemployment benefits has little effect on the economy, 
and, in some circumstances, actually lengthens the time individuals 
remain unemployed because of the incentive to remain on unemployment 
insurance.
  Accordingly, I support this extension with a steadfast commitment to 
work to pass pro-growth measures that will actually help the economy 
recover and create new jobs. In the long run, people would rather have 
a job than have to take unemployment insurance; and, at some point, it 
will have to end.
  What can we do immediately to help Americans get back to work? First, 
we must maintain existing tax rates. During an economic downturn, the 
last thing Government should do is take more money out of the economy 
by increasing taxes. Everyone benefits when lower tax rates enable 
businesses and entrepreneurs to expand and create more jobs.
  When Congress returns to Washington, its first priority should be to 
reassure taxpayers that taxes will remain low by maintaining existing 
income-tax rates, marriage penalty relief, current rates on capital 
gains and dividend income, and relief from the death tax. Under 
existing law, the tax relief enacted in 2001 and 2003 will expire after 
2010. Extending current tax rates now would give individuals and small 
businesses the certainty they need to plan their family budgets and 
permit small businesses to make critical long-term investments in our 
Nation's economy that will increase job growth now and in the future.
  Unless the tax relief is extended, 43 million working families with 
children will face a $2,300 tax increase. Small businesses will see 
their taxes increase by an average of $4,100. The death tax will 
rebound from zero in 2010 to a whopping 55 percent. The tax on capital 
gains will increase 33 percent, and the dividend tax rate will increase 
an astounding 164 percent, affecting 18 million senior citizens who 
will see their taxes rise by an average of $2,200. We shouldn't be 
asking Americans to pay out more of their hard-earned money at a time 
when they need it most; but if Congress doesn't act, we will be asking 
exactly that.
  The current economic downturn has also affected the Nation's 
investors, especially seniors who rely on their investments for their 
income. We need to continue to encourage responsible savings and 
investment, and one of the things we should do to ensure savings is to 
allow unlimited contributions to retirement accounts such as 401(k)s 
and IRAs. We should also raise the age at which holders of tax-deferred 
retirement savings accounts must begin making minimum required annual 
withdrawals. I believe that Congress will likely suspend the mandatory 
withdrawal rules for one year. While that is a positive step, a more 
permanent measure would provide certainty to seniors.
  The United States also needs to improve its competitiveness. We need 
to encourage trade between our country and others, and we need to 
enact, as soon as possible, the Colombia, Panama, and South Korea free 
trade agreements. We also need to stop taxing overseas corporate income 
and decrease our corporate tax rate--let's not provide additional 
reasons for valuable companies here in the U.S. to move all their 
operations overseas.
  The United States has the second highest corporate tax rate in the 
world. We can make the United States more attractive to foreign 
investment by reducing our own corporate tax rate, perhaps from its 
current rate of 35 percent to 25 percent.
  I will vote for the unemployment extension today. But I am also 
calling on the President-elect and Congress to quickly pass measures 
that will actually help the economy to maintain and create jobs. I look 
forward to working with my colleagues toward such an end in the coming 
weeks.
  Mr. LEVIN. Madam President, passing an unemployment insurance 
extension today is urgent. More than a million people have lost their 
jobs this year alone, and there are 10.1 million unemployed 
individuals. We must ensure that these individuals who have lost jobs 
and are looking for work, during a time when industries are cutting 
jobs and the price of food and other necessities is rising, are not 
also struggling to put food on their table, pay their utility bills, 
and provide shelter for their families.
  During economic downturns in the past, we have always provided longer 
periods of unemployment benefits. The bill that I hope we pass today 
will provide a much needed unemployment insurance extension. This 
extension would ensure that out of work Americans in high unemployment 
States like Michigan will receive an additional 20 weeks of insurance, 
for a total of up to 59 weeks.
  In October, Michigan's unemployment rate increased from 8.7 percent 
to 9.3 percent, the highest unemployment rate since July 1992. The 
Nation's unemployment rate also increased to 6.5 percent. These are 
very hard economic times. Unemployment rates are rising dramatically, 
and since January 2001 we have lost 3.7 million manufacturing jobs 
nationally and more than 250,000 manufacturing jobs in Michigan. There 
are currently 429,000 unemployed people in Michigan. Between August 
2007 and July 2008, the long-term unemployed--those who have been 
unemployed and looking for a job for 27 weeks or more--comprise about 
27 percent of the total unemployed in Michigan. This is approximately, 
100,000 unemployed persons.
  The numbers of unemployed are rising all over the country. We must do 
something now to protect American workers and their families.
 Mrs. LINCOLN. Madam President, I regret that I will be unable 
to be present for today's vote on the Unemployment Compensation 
Extension Act, H.R. 6867, due to a hunger awareness event previously 
scheduled in Arkansas. If I were present for the vote, I would vote to 
support this important piece of legislation as I did in June when the 
Senate passed a 13-week unemployment insurance extension as part of the 
Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2008, Public Law 110-252.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the question is on 
third reading and passage of the bill.
  The bill (H.R. 6867) was ordered to a third reading, was read the 
third time, and passed.

                          ____________________