[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 31 (Friday, March 5, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Page S1212]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              JOB CREATION

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I wish to talk a little bit about the House 
of Representatives yesterday passing our jobs bill. That was very 
important. We had a bipartisan jobs bill here. They have already sent 
us a message. We can work on that. Even though there may be people 
objecting to it, we can do that with one cloture vote. We will do that 
and interrupt the work we are doing when that message gets here. It is 
important because even though we have a short-term extension of the 
highway bill, this would extend it for 1 year, saving 1 million jobs. 
It is very important.
  Build America Bonds--the Governors I met with, as I mentioned, a few 
days ago also really love our Build America Bonds, which is part of the 
American Recovery Act. The money is gone there. We are going to 
replenish that. This is important to Governors and local officials 
because it has done great things for creating jobs.
  We also have a provision to allow people to be hired by employers if 
they are out of work for 60 days. They hire them for 30 hours a week. 
They do not have to pay their FICA tax, and at the end of the year they 
get a $1,000 tax credit. This is going to create thousands and 
thousands of jobs across America.
  One of the reasons I wanted to mention this specifically, the House 
voted this bill out yesterday. Virtually every Republican in the House 
voted against it.
  I heard interviews on National Public Radio this morning. One 
Republican Congressman said this bill was so bad because we need small 
businesses to be able to write off purchases they make. I suggest to 
the man--whose name I know, but I will not try to embarrass him here--
that he read the bill because if he read the bill he would understand 
that is one of the paramount provisions we have in this legislation. If 
a small business purchases something, they don't have to depreciate it. 
They can write it off up to $250,000. That is terrific.
  I had a telephonic conference call late last week explaining it to 
them. I had quite a few small businesses on the telephone. They love 
this. They are waiting to buy things. As soon as this is signed into 
law, they will run out that day and buy stuff. They need stuff. This 
will give them an incentive to do so.
  I suggest to the person, who I guess rushed to the microphones to 
talk about how bad the bill was, that he should try reading it first. 
Maybe if he did that, he wouldn't be making a fool of himself across 
America by talking about small businesses being able to write things 
off, when that is really in the bill.

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