[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 70 (Thursday, May 7, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H5378-H5381]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2009, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Ellison) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. ELLISON. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
  I am here to tonight to claim the time on behalf of the Progressive 
Caucus. The Progressive Caucus come to the floor every week to talk 
about a progressive vision for America, to discuss what America is and 
could be, to embrace the idea that everyone does better when everyone 
does better, to embrace the idea that we should look at the world with 
courage, not with fear, that we believe in dialogue, we believe in 
discussion. We believe in people doing well, and we believe in radical 
abundance, not fear of scarcity, a progressive vision; yes, even a 
liberal vision of an America which is doing well because everybody is 
working. We are promoting broad-based economic policies that allow for 
a higher quality of life for all Americans.
  Yes, the Progressive Caucus comes to the floor every week to talk to 
the American people and with our colleagues about these critical 
issues.
  Tonight we have a great topic, but before I announce tonight's topic, 
I just want to say we are very, very happy and pleased to be joined by 
a dynamic advocate for the cause of human justice, none other than 
Congresswoman Gwen Moore of the great State of Wisconsin.
  Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. Thank you, Mr. Ellison.
  I would start out by acknowledging all of the tremendous work that 
the 9 to 5 Organization, founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has done 
around the issue of the importance of providing sick pay to workers.
  People may not realize it, but workers nationwide have no sick pay. 
That is particularly relevant right now when you consider the beginning 
of this global pandemic, the swine flu. We had school closings all 
across the country. Parents were forced to take off work to take care 
of their children because of the quarantine conditions that were 
ordered by health departments. Not only did they do it because they 
were responding to a potential health crisis, but families living on a 
budget now have to deal with the decreased wages they are experiencing.
  And, of course, when children become ill, parents can't afford to 
miss work so they go to work anyway and infect other people at work. 
They send their kids to day-care and infect other children. And, of 
course, employers suffer, many of them who are small businesses because 
they find that there is a loss of productivity.
  One of the greatest losses of productivity for an employer are 
employees who are sick. And they become sick because other workers are 
unwilling to lose a day's pay because of a little cold that turns out 
to be either the swine flu or maybe even worse, the regular flu that is 
quite deadly and quite contagious.
  This drives up medical costs, and God forbid that a spouse or a child 
falls gravely ill or is seriously injured because that worker then has 
no choice but to immediately seek medical help and take the loved ones 
to a doctor or hospital, and more absenteeism occurs and they maybe end 
up losing their jobs because small businesses cannot really afford to 
have their businesses shuttered while people are ill.
  In my district, 51 percent of the African American male population is 
jobless, and it is the largest racial disparity in unemployment and 
poverty in the country. Forty-three percent of the city's workers earn 
less than $20,000 a year, and many are among the 122,230 Milwaukeeans, 
which make up 47 percent of the private workforce, who do not have sick 
days.
  Last year in my district, the city of Milwaukee approved a binding 
referendum on the 2008 ballot that called for private employers in the 
city to provide paid sick leave for all workers, and this was due in 
part to the diligent effort of the unions and the community groups led 
by the National Association of Working Women, 9 to 5. And so now, 
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is one of only three cities in the country to 
require private employers to provide paid sick days.
  It is smart economically because the lack of paid sick days is 
hurting Milwaukee's economic development.
  Mr. ELLISON. Congresswoman Moore, is that why it might be a good idea 
to support the Healthy Families Act, which is H.R. 1542, which is 
critical to guarantee workers up to 7 paid sick days a year?
  I yield to the gentlelady.
  Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. Thank you for yielding.
  This is a very important piece of legislation offered by the 
gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro). I am so proud to be an 
original cosponsor. This makes so much sense.
  Let me tell you what happens. The reality is when people don't have 
paid sick time, they cheat. They lie. When they are really sick, they 
don't come to work anyway. And worse, they neglect basic health care 
needs. They don't get their kids vaccinated. They don't take care of 
their teeth. They don't catch diseases and get basic health care like 
mammograms. They don't get them and catch these diseases early when 
they don't have built-in sick days. There is no employer on this planet 
that would wittingly deny someone basic health care knowing that an 
early detection of cancer would have saved their lives but for the fact 
that they didn't have paid sick days.
  Mr. ELLISON. I quite agree with the gentlelady from Wisconsin who 
pointed out that the Healthy Families Act is a great piece of 
legislation, something that is progressive, something that makes sense 
for America, much like legislation of the past which supported workers' 
rights. What this piece of legislation would do for Americans, it would 
allow Americans to recover from short-term illness, it would allow 
Americans to care for a sick family member, it would allow Americans to 
seek routine medical care, or to seek assistance related to domestic 
violence.
  Some people might think, ``Oh, my God, that's going to cost us a lot 
of money.'' If people are that sick or in serious dire straits, they're 
taking the time off anyway. You're not planning for it, it's not in the 
schedule and there's no accommodation. If somebody can come in and say, 
look, straight up, I've got to take the day off because I'm sick and I 
have 7 days I can take, then what happens is you have greater 
productivity because workers are taking the time off they need to get 
well; workers are taking their kids to get the immunizations they need; 
workers are now actually engaging in preventive health care which means 
that they are not going to have to take extended periods of time off 
and thereby cut productivity.
  By expending the money that it would take to provide the 7 sick days 
that are called for under the Healthy Families Act, businesses would 
save money. Businesses would be better off because we would have 
greater productivity and a healthier workforce over time. It's what my 
mother would call being penny wise and pound foolish to deny this 
legislation. But it would also be what my mother would call an ounce of 
prevention is worth a pound of cure if we were to have a great piece of 
legislation like the Healthy Families Act.
  As you pointed out, as fear of the missed and inaccurately called 
swine flu is going around, and it should be called the H1N1 virus--not 
as catchy but it's more accurate--the fact is that such legislation 
at this time, so people could get the flu shots and checkups that they 
need, in times like this would be a great idea.

[[Page H5379]]

  As you pointed out in your original 5-minute, it would help moms out, 
wouldn't it?
  Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. Absolutely. There is also a class issue here. 
Seventy-nine percent of low-income workers, nearly half of our private 
sector workers, have no paid work sick leave. I think it is something 
that we take for granted as we move up the hierarchy that we can go to 
the dentist or we can have good prenatal care when we expand our 
families.
  A University of Chicago survey in 2008 found that one in six workers 
were fired for taking personal time off for illness for themselves or a 
sick relative. That is absolutely egregious. Like you said, it is penny 
wise and pound foolish. Say you own a small business, a small dry 
cleaners and someone has the flu and they come to work and infect 
everyone, then you have to shutter the business because you can't run a 
business like that yourself, instead of allowing that person to stay 
home during that infectious period of time. You are absolutely correct.
  Mr. ELLISON. I do thank the gentlelady for nailing this point. It is 
so important. It is part of the progressive vision that we would have 
an important piece of legislation that would really help Americans like 
the Healthy Families Act. At a time when we are concerned about illness 
and sickness, this kind of bill would be embraced by a progressive 
vision. A bill that says, hey, look, you guys, let's give 7 paid sick 
days to workers. This is not unusual when you compare it to what 
workers get in Europe, for example.

                              {time}  1700

  It actually makes a lot of sense. You would have healthy workers, 
more productive workers, and as you pointed out, the gentlelady from 
Wisconsin, Congresswoman Moore, we would have people who go to the 
doctor rather than come in while they're sick.
  Let me just point out a few other important facts; you already hit a 
number of them already. But according to that University of Chicago 
study that you referred to, one in six workers report that they or a 
family member have been fired, suspended, punished, or threatened with 
being fired for taking time off because of personal illness or to take 
care of a sick relative. The lack of paid sick days is a major public 
health concern.
  As we try to prevent the spread of the H1N1 virus, the Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC, has issued important 
guidelines that are sound and prudent: if you get sick, stay home; if 
you get sick, don't go to work or school; limit contact with other 
people. But how can you do this, I ask the gentlelady from the great 
State of Wisconsin, if it is going to cost you economically, if you are 
already close to the edge economically, if that job that you're on says 
that you don't have health insurance? You are paid by the hour, and you 
know that if you don't work, you don't get no money, you don't get 
paid. What, then, do you do if you do not have a bill like the Healthy 
Families Act? I think it is important that we get such legislation.
  I yield back to the gentlelady.
  Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. Well, you know, gentleman from Minnesota--
thank you for yielding--it's human nature: people make economic 
decisions and they prioritize, unfortunately, those economic decisions 
over health decisions.
  I think people feel lucky, that maybe they won't spread disease, that 
maybe if they give their kid a couple of aspirin they will feel better 
and they can just send them on to school anyway, because the 
consequences of taking off work are very imminent, that they won't be 
able to make this month's rent. Remember, I said 79 percent of those 
folks who have no paid sick time are low-wage workers, they can't risk 
losing that money, that $80 that day, that $65 that day, they can't 
afford to do it. They don't have a relative or a neighbor or a friend 
who can stay home with their children while they are sick so they can 
go to work. And so they just roll the dice, they roll the dice. And 
again, that lump that just didn't feel quite right in their breast, you 
know, they ignore it.
  And it shows up in so many other data in statistics. You find poor 
people who succumb to illnesses and die of diseases that could be 
cured, not because they are more susceptible to diseases, but because 
they don't catch them early enough. And of course that raises the cost 
of health care.
  We heard our colleagues talking about the high cost of health care 
earlier. Well, of course health care costs more once your kidneys fail 
and you end up on dialysis because you didn't have a simple high blood 
pressure pill that could have been diagnosed earlier. Of course it 
costs more when you don't catch cancer at its earlier stages. Of course 
it costs more when diseases are allowed to fester to a point that you 
wind up in a very expensive ambulance and an emergency room instead of 
a sensible doctor's visit.
  We have had children in this country who have died from what started 
out to be an abscessed tooth, something that could have been prevented 
with regular visits to the dentist. We have so much proof that when you 
increase copayments, when there are any economic consequences of 
seeking health care--and not having paid sick days is an economic 
consequence--when there are economic consequences, people delay health 
care until it becomes a fire.
  Mr. ELLISON. If the gentlelady would yield.
  Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. I will yield.
  Mr. ELLISON. Well, I think what you are saying is so very important. 
It is part of a progressive vision for America. It is part of the idea 
that, hey, we all do better when we all do better. You are not a sucker 
or you are not a person who is gullible if you believe that it is a 
good idea to look out for your fellow Americans. You are a person who 
may be a very savvy business person because you know that by supporting 
the Healthy Families Act, it may cost you a little bit to give paid 
sick leave days for some of your low- and medium-income workers, but it 
will allow you to keep that dry cleaners going over the long term; it 
will allow you to keep your small business moving, your store, whatever 
it is that you may be doing, your lawn care business. You may be able 
to stay out there because you know you have workers who can take the 
day off and go get that checkup, who can take the day off and look 
after that child so that when they are at work, you have an alert, 
healthy worker. It makes so much sense.
  And as we began this health care debate, I noticed that one of our 
colleagues was doing a 5-minute speech, talking about how he is against 
a public plan. Well, I want to tell everybody, and I think it's 
important to note that when you talk about comprehensive health care 
reform, part of it has got to be giving low-income and medium- and 
moderate- workers paid sick days. Let's face it, if you are an 
executive, if you are at the top of the food chain economically and you 
are sick, you can take a day off. But what if you are a line worker, 
what if you are at the front desk, what if you are a low-wage worker, 
what if you are a minimum-wage worker? That's when you don't see many 
of the bennies going around. Or you could take a day off, but you're 
not getting paid for it. And in that case, you are forcing the worker 
into a terrible choice: lack of income or health. Which do you want to 
pick today? And that is something that people are too close to the edge 
to make a decision on.
  I yield back to the gentlelady.
  Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. All right. Thank you for yielding, gentleman.
  Senator Edward Kennedy and Rosa DeLauro have worked collaboratively 
on this bill, and they have actually calculated, through their studies, 
the cost of what they call ``presentee-ism''--I guess that's the 
opposite of absenteeism--at work.
  Mr. ELLISON. Will the gentlelady yield?
  Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. I will yield.
  Mr. ELLISON. What is presentee-ism? Is it anything like absenteeism? 
I yield back.
  Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. Presentee-ism is the opposite of absenteeism: 
when you show up to work sick, knowing you're sick--because of your own 
self-interests of not losing a day's pay--infecting everyone at work. 
This costs our national economy $180 billion annually. Showing up sick 
costs $180 billion annually. And so for employers, this cost averages 
$255 per employee

[[Page H5380]]

per year and exceeds the cost of absenteeism and medical and disability 
benefits.
  I yield back.
  Mr. ELLISON. Well, thank you for that important statistic because we 
have got to count up the bill.
  The real difficulty in a bill like the Healthy Families Act is that 
we know that some people who are just looking to the next quarter, the 
next minute, the next moment, and if they are going to have to spend a 
little bit of money in the short term, they are going to say, well, 
that is going to cost money. Well, you know what? Not doing it is going 
to cost way, way, way more money.

  So the Healthy Families Act is a part of a progressive vision. It is 
just like the Wagner Act, which guaranteed workers the right to 
organize, just like Social Security, just like Workers' Compensation, 
just like a number of important programs and pieces of legislation 
passed in America that may have been considered liberal--or even 
radical at one time--but Americans have come to rely on and expect from 
our government. It is part of what we do as Americans together: we 
share. We allow in the marketplace that you can do your own thing, you 
are free to come up with your idea and make your money, but certain 
things we do together. We defend the Nation together. We defend our 
streets with the police together. We provide justice through our courts 
together. We make sure our elderly are not eating dog food through 
Social Security. We do this together. We make sure that people whose 
parents die have survivor benefits through Social Security. We build 
infrastructure together. And this is another thing we should do 
together. We should come together and say that 7 days of paid sick 
leave a year is a very modest request, particularly for low- and 
moderate-income workers. And it pays tremendous dividends down the 
line.
  If the gentlelady would allow me, I just want to share a couple of 
stories from my own State of Minnesota.
  Chrissy from Minnesota. Chrissy says, ``I am currently a stay-at-home 
mom''--happy Mother's Day, Chrissy--``however, prior to that I worked 
as a natural foods manager in a conventional grocery store for 6 years. 
This company offered no sick leave at all to any of its employees. Many 
people often work sick out of necessity.''
  Chrissy, we are trying to do something about it.
  Amanda from Minnesota: ``I am fortunate enough to have sick time at 
my job at the University of Minnesota. When I was in my early 30s, I 
was totally healthy, exercised regularly, was at a healthy weight, and 
suddenly developed a rare kidney disease requiring multiple trips to 
multiple clinics to get multiple diagnostics. This took a lot of time 
away from work. Thankfully, I was able to get paid for this time. If I 
didn't have any income, in addition to the stress of the condition, it 
would have been unbearable.
  ``I am not so naive to believe that this is a reality of every 
workplace. I am very much aware of the fact that many people face 
struggles similar to mine on a daily basis. It is time to guarantee 
workers paid time to care for themselves so they are able to get their 
work done efficiently at no risk to themselves or their coworkers.''
  Or what about the situation that Cindy is in. Cindy from Minnesota: 
``I work a part-time job for a university as a researcher. In my 
category, sick leave is all discretionary and flexible; however, no 
paid vacation days accrue ever for me. The only way I feel legit in 
scheduling a week's vacation is if I am never sick and make up those 
hours pre and post.'' That's from Cindy.
  I offer these stories because I think it is important to point out 
that the Healthy Families Act is going to help Americans all over the 
United States. Real people are suffering because of a lack of paid sick 
days. This is in keeping with the protection for workers' right to 
organize, Social Security, workers' compensation. This is right in line 
with every important and progressive step Americans have made in order 
to improve the quality of life for your average Americans. This is like 
the minimum wage; this is like workers' rights; this is like civil 
rights; this is like women's rights. This is what we should do at this 
time. It is part of a progressive vision that we are going to work to 
make a reality for Americans.
  I yield back to the gentlelady.
  Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. Thank you for yielding.
  Those are very compelling stories, and I have some here, too. But 
before I talk about individuals' testimonies from Wisconsin, I just 
want to make a point that this legislation recognizes the importance of 
not hamstringing small businesses. All businesses with under 15 
employees would be exempt. So perhaps my example of the dry cleaners 
wasn't appropriate, but certainly when you have under 15 employees, 
those employers are exempt from providing the 7 days of sick leave.
  Mr. ELLISON. Will the gentlelady yield for just a moment?
  Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. Yes.
  Mr. ELLISON. I just want to say that if we were to pass the Healthy 
Families Act, then the medium to larger businesses would provide these 
7 days. Now, Big Business has a way of setting a trend for small 
business. So if big businesses did this, perhaps small businesses with 
fewer than 15 employees would say, hey, it's working for them, it's the 
industry standard, it makes sense, we might just do it voluntarily.
  I yield back to the gentlelady.
  Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. Well, actually, data is conclusive that our 
national economy would experience a net savings of $8.1 billion a year 
with just providing employees with these 7 days of sick time. Because 
as you pointed out, gentleman, productivity is extremely important. I 
can remember at the time when my mother died, I was showing up at work 
and just staring at the wall. I was not well because of the extreme 
grief I was experiencing, and I was at work. And my bosses told me to 
get up and go home, please. And so when I came back, I was much more 
focused on my job. You know, that loss of productivity is not good.
  The other thing is that we are human beings. And employers experience 
a lot of turnover because they don't have employee loyalty because they 
don't have a basic sense of empathy in humanity. There is no way in the 
world that I would want to work for an employer who couldn't empathize 
with my grief over having lost my mother and wouldn't give me a day or 
two to pull myself together. So productivity is what is lost when we 
don't provide sick days.
  I yield back to the gentleman from Minnesota.
  Mr. ELLISON. I thank the gentlelady for yielding.
  Let me tell you about Leslie from Minnesota. Leslie says: ``I used to 
wait tables full time. And there are rare occasions where you can get 
paid sick days, like when I worked for a large chain hotel. However, 
most people don't realize that you will be paid your hourly minimum 
wage, but not any compensation for lost tips, which is the vast 
majority of your money earned as a wait person. In fact, most servers 
barely seek a paycheck; it is eaten up with taxes taken for declared 
tips--yes, you are required to declare tips. It is a myth that you can 
conceal this information.
  ``So even if you do get paid sick leave or paid vacation--which is 
unlikely--it is not in your interest to use it. Servers basically 
cannot get paid unless they are physically at work. And restaurants are 
such hectic places that if you are short staff, the quality of service 
suffers everywhere. Customers in restaurants are notoriously 
unsympathetic to details like this.''

                              {time}  1715

  Just another quick one, Kari from Minnesota: ``My kids are ages 2 and 
3, and the child care center doesn't take them when they're sick. 
Neither my husband nor I have paid sick days. Please pass the Healthy 
Families Act.''
  And I yield to the gentlewoman.
  Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. I can tell you, gentleman from Minnesota, I 
have to wonder what the legal ramifications are of folks coming to work 
knowingly, knowing that they are sick. I mean, there's a chorus of 
public officials who give directives to people, saying that if you have 
symptoms of a pandemic, for example, the H1N1 flu virus, that you 
should stay at home. We hear the Centers for Disease Control say that 
if you're sick, if you have symptoms, stay home. We hear Dr. Richard 
Besser, the Acting Director of the Centers for Disease Control 
elaborate that you don't go to school, you shouldn't get on airplanes 
or other large public transportation systems if you're ill. We hear

[[Page H5381]]

from the White House, the Press Secretary's saying clearly we all have 
individual responsibility for dealing with this situation, and we 
should all be practicing good hygiene practices and stay at home. We 
hear the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Janet 
Napolitano, telling us, again, the government can't solve this alone. 
We need everybody in the United States to take some responsibility. If 
you are sick, stay at home. We hear President Barack Obama in his 100 
Days press conference saying that the key now is to make sure that we 
maintain good vigilance and that everybody responds appropriately and 
stays at home. If your child is sick, keep them out of school. We hear 
this over and over and over again.
  So in my final words here, I would just ask you, as an attorney, as a 
member of the Judiciary Committee, what are the implications of knowing 
that you're ill and showing up at work because you don't have a paid 
sick day?
  Mr. ELLISON. Well, you might end up being charged with negligence. 
Knowing that you're sick, knowing that you're contagious and still 
going to work, potentially some smart lawyer might figure out a way to 
sue you for negligence because you exposed them to an illness. Of 
course, it could be taken up by workers' compensation, but somebody's 
going to have to pay something somewhere. And the fact is, clearly, if 
you've got an on-the-job illness or injury, it would be a workers' comp 
claim. So the bottom line is it is something that we all need to be 
concerned about.
  I want to thank the gentlewoman from Wisconsin. As she knows, she is 
one of my very favorite Members of this House of Representatives, and I 
want to wish the gentlewoman, Gwen Moore, a Happy Mother's Day, and I 
also want to thank her for her very important presentation on global 
health for mothers.
  I just want to say that we have a duty and obligation to present a 
progressive vision for America. Which way forward? Well, the way 
forward is to be more inclusive, to bring more people into the warm 
embrace of the American people's generosity. The way forward is peace 
and dialogue. The way forward is to have a better America, a higher 
quality of life for everybody because everybody does better when 
everybody does better, as the late great Senator Paul Wellstone said.
  So, with that, it has been another progressive message, and I want to 
thank the gentlewoman.

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