[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 52 (Wednesday, April 14, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2257-S2258]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
UNEMPLOYMENT AND JOB CREATION
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, last Sunday at midnight thousands of
people in my home State of Washington, who have lost their jobs through
no fault of their own, had the rug pulled out from underneath them.
That is because these men and women, who wake up each day to scan the
classified ads and send out resumes and travel to interview after
interview, had the unemployment benefits they count on suddenly cut
off. In losing that critical support, they lost an important source of
security they need to help them stay in their homes or make rent and
the stability that allows them to continue to afford to look for work.
Over the last 2 weeks, I have traveled throughout my State, talking
to my constituents and discussing our economy and working to support
job-creation efforts, and I have to say the frustration is very clear.
It is written on the faces of so many in my State who just cannot seem
to get a break, who have come close to being hired but have been told
the time is just not right, they should come back next month or next
year. These are people who are struggling job seekers, and they do not
hold back when describing what they continue to face. It is an
emergency. It is an emergency that affects their ability to pay their
bills, their ability to put food on the table, and their ability to
keep their job search going. It is an emergency that time and again we
have worked hard here to respond to, but time and again we have faced
opposition to do that.
Before we left for the recess, we had an opportunity to pass an
extension of the unemployment benefits, to respond to that emergency in
our job market, and to avoid the uncertainty job seekers across the
country now face. Democrats put an unemployment extension out on the
table. It was a proposal that was similar to extensions we have done
routinely in difficult times, and, as we all know, times have seldom
been more difficult. But it has become an all too familiar story now:
Those on the other side of the aisle said no and put obstruction before
assistance, politics before people, and point-scoring before the needs
of those who have lost their jobs.
This week, we have a chance to make things right. The legislation we
are trying so hard now to pass this week is very straightforward. This
bill will get unemployment insurance to millions of struggling families
who rely on it to meet their basic needs, to pay their mortgage, and
afford school. It will restore the safety net that is critical to
keeping our economy stable. It will give those people who are looking
for jobs the means to afford to keep looking for them. And it will keep
our economic turnaround on course. It is aimed at helping real families
with the real problems they face every day.
But make no mistake, the consequences of not reaching a compromise
and passing this bill are just as real. Today, families in every single
one of our States are sitting around their kitchen table trying to
figure out how they are going to make it through the weeks and months
ahead without these payments. Oftentimes, they have spent their day
calling employers and going to job fairs with long lines and very few
opportunities, filling out more job applications. These families are
now looking to us for the help they need in a time of crisis. But every
evening these families are turning on the nightly news to hear another
story about gridlock in our Nation's Capital. They see this Senate
being forced to jump through procedural hoops and endure endless delay
tactics to get even emergency legislation passed. They see politics
clouding policy, obstruction impeding process, and, do you know what,
they are really getting sick of it.
So today I urge all of us to come together and move forward with the
same urgency those who have lost their unemployment have, that we join
together the way we did to pass the Children's Health Insurance Program
or fair pay for women in the workplace or small business tax cuts. We
need to restore the faith of the American people and pass this critical
extension.
But for those who are fighting to get back to work and support their
families once again, unemployment obviously is not enough. We need to
be taking every step we can to improve the job market unemployed
workers wake up to face every morning because while there certainly
have been signs of improvement, we have a lot of work left to do. I
certainly believe that work starts with helping our small businesses,
which are the heart and soul of our economy.
Growing up, my dad ran a five-and-ten-cent store on Main Street--
actually Main Street--in Bothell, WA. All six of my brothers and
sisters and I worked there. From an early age, we swept floors, we
stocked the shelves, we worked the register. And when small businesses
like ours struggled, we all knew the consequences. We saw it in the
till at the end of the day. We saw it in the families who were coming
to buy things from my dad. Small businesses really were the economic
engine of Main Street then, and, do you know what, they still are
today.
But what I hear time and again today is that while Wall Street is
doing a whole lot better, Main Street is still really struggling and
that the small community banks, which are a major source of capital in
all of our communities, are not lending. When small banks, which are
the lifelines of our small businesses, do not lend, then credit is not
flowing, businesses are not hiring, and recovery is not coming to Main
Street. That is exactly why I have introduced legislation that would
redirect TARP dollars to buy toxic assets such as bad mortgages off the
books of our community banks at home to help free up their credit and
get them lending to our small businesses again. We have done enough for
Wall Street. It is past time we concentrate on helping our small
businesses and local employers.
Another way to help improve local job markets and all those who are
looking for work is to, of course, lessen the tax burden on our small
businesses so they can afford to hire new workers. Over the recess, I
had the opportunity to talk to owners of local bakeries and motels and
marketing companies and a lot more throughout my entire State, and, do
you know what, they all told me the same thing. They want to hire and
they want to expand. They even see new opportunities. But the risks for
them now are just too great. What they need from us is certainty and
security. I told them we are working to provide them with just that. I
told them the health care reform bill we just passed includes a 35-
percent tax credit that small business owners can receive immediately
to help them cover their workers. I encouraged them to hire unemployed
workers who have been out of work for more than 60 days because we now
are giving them an exemption from their payroll taxes for those new
employees. I told them now is the time to make big purchases they want
because we have worked to pass legislation that will allow them to
write those purchases off immediately. I told them we have worked to
ensure that the Small Business Administration is increasing its local
lending efforts. But
[[Page S2258]]
I also told them, of course, that we have more to accomplish and they,
the small businesses, need to be the focus of recovery efforts from
this point on.
Another central tenet of improving the job market is included in the
historic health care reform legislation we passed into law last month.
As we all know, that bill greatly expands access to care in communities
across the Nation, but what has gone less noticed is that the bill also
greatly expands access to health care careers to help meet that new
demand.
I was the Senator in the HELP Committee who was responsible for the
health care workforce section of the bill we passed, and I worked to
make sure we made numerous investments to create and sustain good-
paying health care jobs. Our bill that is now signed into law
includes incentives such as loan repayment programs, scholarships, and
grants, all to help encourage students to go into high-need fields and
to work in underserved areas. It invests in education, training, and
retention efforts, not just for new health care workers but for those
who are already working to provide quality care in our country.
Investments in our health care workforce create jobs. They ease the
strain on overworked health care professionals. And it is going to keep
Americans healthy so they can be productive on the job.
Finally, I believe we need to pay particular attention to our efforts
to hire our Nation's heroes, and they, of course, are our veterans.
Right now, the unemployment rate for veterans who are returning from
Iraq and Afghanistan is over 21 percent. More than one in five of the
men and women who went and fought for our country are returning home
only to have to fight to find work. These are disciplined, technically
skilled, determined workers who nonetheless have been left to stand at
the back of the line or have their resumes lost in a stack somewhere.
Over the last 2 weeks, I talked to many unemployed veterans in my
home State of Washington about just what it is that is keeping them
from finding work, and, frankly, what they told me was shocking. Many
veterans told me they sometimes leave off the fact they are veterans
from their resume because employers are looking at it as a negative
rather than a positive because of the stigma of the invisible wounds of
war. National Guard members talked of coming home to find they have
been laid off because their job no longer existed at the company they
left behind when they went to serve our country. Other veterans told me
the Pentagon and VA transition programs just are not working for today.
And they struggle to have employers understand how the technical skills
they learned in the military will translate to help them in the
civilian working world.
What I heard is unacceptable, and it has to change immediately. So
next week I am going to be introducing a bill on the Senate floor that
will take a look at why our military skills are not translating into
skills that get them jobs when they come home. It will help our
veterans get into apprenticeship programs and careers where I know they
will excel. It will improve the military and civilian transition
process. And we are going to set up a veterans business center within
the Small Business Administration to help our veterans get the skills
and resources to start their own businesses.
This week on the Senate floor, we have a chance to keep our
unemployed workers afloat. It is an unemployment extension that is a
lifeline. It is a lifeline that will help allow unemployed workers to
continue looking for every job opportunity and to support their
families in that process. But ultimately we need to get these workers
into the boat. We need them to get good, stable jobs. That means
supporting our community banks, reducing the tax burden on small
businesses, and expanding opportunities for health care workers and our
returning heroes--our veterans.
As I said earlier, the American people are watching us. They want us
to have the same urgency they feel in their lives every day. They want
to know their dinner table debates are our floor debates. They want to
know that creating jobs is our No. 1 priority and that we will be at
the back of those who are trying so hard to get back to work.
So I come to the floor to urge everyone to come together to pass this
important extension of unemployment benefits, put politics aside for a
couple weeks and months, and help us all work together to create job
opportunities and get Americans back to work.
Thank you. I yield the floor, and 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.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Connecticut.
Mr. DODD. 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.
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