[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 106 (Monday, July 19, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5980-S5988]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SMALL BUSINESS LENDING FUND ACT OF 2010
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the
Senate will resume consideration of H.R. 5297, which the clerk will
report by title.
The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
A bill (H.R. 5297) to create the Small Business Lending
Fund Program to direct the Secretary of the Treasury to make
capital investments in eligible institutions in order to
increase the availability of credit for small businesses, to
amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide tax
incentives for small business job creation, and for other
purposes.
Pending:
Reid (for Baucus/Landrieu) amendment No. 4402, in the
nature of a substitute.
Reid amendment No. 4403 (to amendment No. 4402), of a
perfecting nature.
Reid amendment No. 4404 (to amendment No. 4403), of a
perfecting nature.
Reid amendment No. 4405 (to the language proposed to be
stricken by amendment No. 4402), to change the enactment
date.
Reid amendment No. 4406 (to amendment No. 4405), of a
perfecting nature.
Reid motion to commit the bill to the Committee on Finance
with instructions, Reid amendment No. 4407 (to the
instructions on the motion to commit), in the nature of a
substitute.
Reid amendment No. 4408 (to the instructions (amendment No.
4407) of the motion to commit), to change the enactment date.
Reid amendment No. 4409 (to amendment No. 4408), of a
perfecting nature.
Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be
allowed to speak as in morning business.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Kaufman.) Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Kagan Nomination
Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I wish to speak on a very serious issue
relating to the confirmation of Solicitor General Elena Kagan for the
Supreme Court of the United States. As I was preparing for her
hearings, I noted what struck me as a disturbing decision she had made
as Solicitor General shortly after taking that position, in a case
called Witt v. Department of the Air Force. In that case, a former
member of an Air Force Reserve unit in Washington State sued the
government to challenge the ``don't ask, don't tell'' law, which
essentially says openly homosexual persons may not serve in the U.S.
military. The case was dismissed by the district court, and the
military was allowed to proceed with its policy. But when it was
appealed to the Ninth Circuit, that very liberal court of appeals
overturned the district court and said the case should go to trial and
announced an unworkable legal test that the lower court must apply and
that the government would have to meet for the ``don't ask, don't
tell'' statute to survive constitutional challenge.
After that unprecedented ruling, the Solicitor General's Office, then
manned by the Bush administration personnel, immediately authorized an
appeal to the full Ninth Circuit, en banc, and the government asked the
full court to take a look at it and overturn the three-judge panel. The
full court of appeals declined to do so, over strong objections from
several judges on the Ninth Circuit who thought their colleagues had
clearly gotten the case wrong. In fact, the First Circuit in the
Northeast had already reached a different conclusion in a very similar
case, and had upheld the statute.
At that point, the government could have appealed the Ninth Circuit
decision to the Supreme Court, as I think the Solicitor General's
Office clearly was on track to do. First, they sought en banc review,
and then they would seek interlocutory appeal to the Supreme Court. But
as it happened, by
[[Page S5981]]
the time the case was ripe for appeal, the Obama administration had
come into office and Ms. Kagan had become Solicitor General. She was
now head of the office that makes this decision on whether to take
cases to the courts of appeals or, if necessary, to the Supreme Court;
the office that is charged with the great responsibility of defending
before the Supreme Court the statutes passed by the United States
Congress. Of course, don't ask, don't tell is a congressional statute,
not a policy of the military. So it fell to her to decide whether to
take the case to the Supreme Court. She refused.
I practiced law for 20 years--15 as part of the Department of
Justice, as a U.S. attorney for 12 years--and I think I can make some
commonsense evaluation of the judgments the lawyers made in this
litigation. Ms. Kagan, at the time she made this decision, had only
been Solicitor General--had only served in the Department of Justice--
for 6 weeks or so.
As I analyzed what I think happened, I asked some serious questions
about why this Solicitor General failed to follow through on what
appeared to be the direction of her predecessor. And I was struck by
the distinct possibility that Ms. Kagan did not fulfill this
fundamental responsibility of her office, which is to defend the
statutes of the United States regardless of her personal policy views.
So at the time of her confirmation hearing, just a couple of weeks ago,
I asked her about this case and the facts that led up to it. I asked
her to explain the decision, and I deliberately intended to give her
time to explain it. Well, she took time, using notes for about the only
time I saw in the hearing, and talked uninterrupted for about 10
minutes to explain how it was that she made the decision.
At the end of it, I thanked her for her answer and noted that I was
going to have to review this because what she had done did not make
good sense to me. I have to make a judgment. I am a Senator. I have to
know whether the person who is being considered to sit on the highest
Court of the land with a lifetime appointment--could serve 30, maybe 40
years on the Court--whether they understand that officeholders have
duties and responsibilities that they cannot just fail to discharge,
that they must do?
So I have conducted an examination, and I must say I am very troubled
by what I have found about this case. I think the record shows that Ms.
Kagan did not, in fact, fulfill her responsibilities in a good way and
in a faithful way as Solicitor General and that she, in effect,
violated a specific promise she made to the Judiciary Committee when
she testified under oath during the hearing on her nomination a year or
so ago to be Solicitor General. She had to be confirmed then and came
before the committee.
Before I go further, I wish to provide some background. It is widely
known by many that Ms. Kagan is personally opposed to don't ask, don't
tell. She has been opposed to it for some time. While she was dean at
Harvard, she blocked the military recruiters from the campus career
services office because of her opposition to don't ask, don't tell. She
called don't ask, don't tell ``a moral injustice of the first order.''
She spoke at a protest of students who protested while a military
recruiter was in the next building, and she changed the Harvard policy
from admitting recruiters to the career services office to denying them
admittance, without legal authority, contrary to the law Congress
passed and on which I worked, to force universities to treat our
military men and women who come to recruit on their campus with the
same dignity and respect as they would treat anyone else from some law
firm who makes millions of dollars. At the recent hearing she openly
admitted to me that her views remain the same about this statute.
When she came before the committee for the position of Solicitor
General, she was specifically asked about this in written questions, in
light of her strong opposition to this law. Congress passed three or
four versions of the Solomon Amendment to finally require that colleges
and universities treat our military on an equal basis, and some were
forced to do so or lose Federal funding. She was specifically asked, in
light of her strong opposition to this law, whether she would be able
to defend it as the job of Solicitor General would require. This was
not a mystery. We knew this matter was coming up through the courts of
appeals and would be coming before the Solicitor General.
She was flatly asked: If you are going to take this job, as you have
been opposed to this statute, will you defend it as you are lawfully
required to do? Only the Solicitor General can represent the U.S. in
the Supreme Court. If the Solicitor General does not defend an act of
Congress, who will? There is no one else. So it was a good question.
She promised the committee under oath that she would, and she said
that her ``role as Solicitor General would be to advance not my own
views but the interests of the United States.'' Correctly stated.
She went on to say that she was fully convinced that she could
``represent all these interests with vigor, even when they conflict
with my own opinions.'' She said her general approach to suits
challenging a Federal law would be to make any ``reasonable arguments
that could be made in its defense,'' and this would include
``challenges to the statute involving the don't ask, don't tell
policy.''
A pretty specific promise. It was an important promise. I am sure had
she not made that promise, even more people would not have voted for
her confirmation.
She went on to say that she would ``apply the usual strong
presumption of constitutionality to that law as reinforced by the
doctrine of judicial deference to legislation involving military
matters.''
As I mentioned earlier, it just so happened that immediately after
she was confirmed it fell her lot to defend this very statute that she
personally strongly opposed but that she had promised she would
vigorously defend. She was given the opportunity to appeal to the
Supreme Court from that terrible decision out of the Ninth Circuit,
which refused to uphold don't ask, don't tell, and which ordered the
military to go to trial in the middle of a war to justify the law under
a newly-invented legal standard.
Faced with that choice, Ms. Kagan refused to appeal, decided to let
the Ninth Circuit decision stand, and allowed this case to be sent back
down to go through a trial. Clearly, to me, the military's interest was
to have the issue decided as a matter of law--that this is a lawful
policy and that they were empowered to carry it out in a lawful manner.
When I asked Ms. Kagan at her Supreme Court hearings recently why she
blocked the Supreme Court review of the Witt case, she gave three
reasons in her long answer. Some may have thought she gave a brilliant
dissertation. She had notes, and she went through a long discussion.
First, she said she concluded, after conferring with her colleagues,
that it would be better to wait to appeal to the Supreme Court until
after the trial, because a trial would build a better factual record of
the case. She said once the facts were better developed, the government
might be in a better position before the Supreme Court.
Second, she said that allowing the case to go back to the district
court would help the government in a future appeal because it would be
able to show the Supreme Court just how invasive and ``strange'' were
the demands of the Ninth Circuit that were being placed on the
government in defense of the law.
I will say one thing: The Ninth Circuit demands were, indeed, strange
and were utterly unworkable, as I will show.
Third, she said an appeal in the Witt case would have been
``interlocutory;'' that is, an appeal before the case had come to an
end and before a final judgment had been rendered in the case. The
Supreme Court prefers not to hear these kinds of appeals.
None of these explanations are credible. It is true that appellate
courts, including the Supreme Court, prefer to hear appeals at the end
of the case rather than in the middle, but that is a decision the Court
can make for itself. It is not something the Solicitor General has to
decide on the Court's behalf. And that consideration was clearly
outweighed in this case.
I will note parenthetically that when the Third Circuit ruled on the
Solomon Amendment, which required Harvard
[[Page S5982]]
and other law schools to allow the military equal access to recruit on
campus, they took that as an interlocutory appeal and reversed the
Third Circuit. That is exactly what should have been done here. The
government had asked for an interlocutory appeal to the Supreme Court
from the Third Circuit ruling that affected Harvard, and the Supreme
Court agreed. It was a legal question, ripe for decision, and they
decided the case. That is what should have happened.
Here we already had a split among the courts of appeals on this
question. The First Circuit had already ruled as a matter of law for
the government. The Ninth Circuit ruling squarely conflicted with the
First Circuit, and it was also at odds with decisions from four other
circuits on similar principles. Here we also had an opinion from the
Ninth Circuit that presented clean questions of law--an opinion that
had dramatically altered the legal landscape in 40 percent of the
United States, because the Ninth Circuit encompasses 40 percent of the
United States, and that was proposing to subject the military to an
invasive trial process, while fighting a war, to defend the application
of a nationwide military policy to an individual person.
Ms. Kagan's second explanation--that letting the case go to trial
would allow the government to show just how painful a trial would be--
cannot be given serious consideration. The Ninth Circuit opinion was
very clear about what the government would have to show in order for
the don't ask, don't tell law to survive this lawsuit. In other words,
one didn't have to go through all these steps at the lower court and
show how dramatically disruptive it would be. The Court had set forth
explicitly what would happen. It is easy to show the Supreme Court why
this is not a workable approach.
The Ninth Circuit made it very clear in their opinion that the
government was going to have to justify the application of don't ask,
don't tell to this specific plaintiff--not justify the law in general
but to justify its application to this specific plaintiff--to prove
that this specific plaintiff was going to harm the military if she were
allowed to remain in the Air Force. It was also clear that such a trial
was going to be disruptive to the military and that it would harm the
unit cohesion Congress had set out to protect when it passed the don't
ask, don't tell law in 1994.
I am not alone in reaching this conclusion. Her predecessors in the
Department of Justice and in the Solicitor General's Office, the office
she took over, also knew the court orders did not make sense. That is
why they immediately asked the full Ninth Circuit to reconsider en banc
the three-judge panel's ruling when it first came down in 2008.
They said in their brief that the Ninth Circuit decision ``creates an
inter-circuit split.'' That means the First Circuit had held
differently. The Ninth Circuit held a different way. We had a split of
circuits which is something the Supreme Court considers when they
decide to take a case.
They went on to say it created ``a conflict with Supreme Court
precedent, and an unworkable rule that cannot be implemented without
disrupting the military.''
The Ninth Circuit's decision, they went on to say, made the
constitutionality of a Federal law setting military policy for the
entire Nation ``depend on case-by-case surveys, taken by lawyers, of
the troops in a particular plaintiff's unit.'' They went on to say that
immediate review was ``needed now to prevent this unprecedented and
disruptive process.'' That is exactly correct. The lawyers who made
that argument were clearly correct.
Most importantly, Ms. Kagan's decision to send this case back for
trial and not appeal doesn't make any sense because she knew a trial
was going to be massively disruptive to the military. I have studied
the record of the case on remand to the district court, and I have seen
what has been going on since it was sent back to be tried on an
individual plaintiff basis. The lawyers for the government are
struggling to defend the law under these difficult circumstances. From
the very first hearing before the district court, these lawyers, career
lawyers, professionals in the Department of Justice, are asking the
court not to allow discovery, not to allow the plaintiff to depose the
soldiers and plow through all these issues in the military unit.
Here is what the career attorney for the Department of Justice said
at the first hearing before the district judge after the case went back
down for this trial:
If we commence with discovery into the specific facts of
this case by looking at what unit members think, we are
threatening--we are jeopardizing the unit morale and cohesion
. . . that the Ninth Circuit said the government--the
military--has an important government interest in.
So the military is in a bit of a catch-22. By proceeding to
discovery, we may well have to sacrifice our important
government interest.
Remember, Ms. Kagan told the Judiciary Committee--she told us just a
few weeks ago--that ``building a factual record'' would be good for the
government's case. Remember? I just went through that. That is what she
said--it would be good. We would have a better prospect on appeal
somehow. Here, the career lawyers trying to defend the military are
saying that building a factual record is bad for the government because
the discovery process will threaten the military's interest in unit
cohesion.
As a matter of fact, I will say as an aside that I think it is quite
clear that if the Ninth Circuit theory of law were to be upheld, the
``don't ask, don't tell'' policy would be put in the situation where it
would be difficult, if not impossible, to enforce because everybody
dismissed under that policy would then be able to have a big trial. It
could go on, as this one has, for months, and they would be able to
call all the unit members to ask their opinion about what they thought
about this, that, and the other, even about their personal sexual
activities, perhaps. This is not a practical solution. It is bad for
the government. How Ms. Kagan could now say it would be good for the
case, I do not know.
So clearly the career lawyer is right. The plaintiff in this case,
who is represented by lawyers from the ACLU, has asked for and received
access to the personnel records of the plaintiff's military unit. So
now the ACLU has the personnel records of the entire unit, it appears.
They have demanded depositions with other soldiers who served with the
plaintiff before she was separated from the military. They have
demanded the right to interview soldiers about their private lives,
their personal views of their former colleague, and their private
thoughts about sexuality.
The district court has wrongly, I believe--well, I will just say it
this way: The district court has allowed it at every turn because the
district court says this is the only way to answer the questions the
Ninth Circuit ordered them to answer before a person could be dismissed
under this provision of law.
But this is not just a case of bad--astonishingly bad--legal
judgment. I do not think Ms. Kagan accidentally sent her client, the
U.S. Air Force, into a litigator's lion's den. I do not think it was an
accident. I believe she understood this was going to happen and, for
some reason, she wanted it to happen.
In the very first hearing the district judge held after Ms. Kagan
refused to appeal to the Supreme Court and the case was sent back for
trial, the plaintiff's lawyers argued they needed to get all this
discovery in the case, and they made a very interesting statement to
the district judge. They said this:
[T]he government just doesn't want any discovery. I have
heard that message from the government clearly--loud and
clear. [We] were asked to meet with the Solicitor General of
the United States in April, and we heard that message loud
and clear that discovery is a big problem; but we never heard
any specifics as to why, and it boils down to they don't like
the Ninth Circuit's decision.
So apparently back in April 2009, Ms. Kagan acknowledged what I think
is indisputable: that discovery of this kind, where soldiers are
deposed and asked about their personal views and activities, would be
disruptive to the military and bad for her client, the Air Force. That
is just undisputable. She was the Solicitor General then and
acknowledged that.
Her decision to block an appeal to the Supreme Court was finalized in
May of 2009. So before she made that decision, it does appear Ms. Kagan
met with the opposing counsel in the case--the ACLU lawyers--and told
them that ``discovery is a big problem.'' In other words, she told
these ACLU lawyers for
[[Page S5983]]
the other side, who were trying to attack the military policy, that
developing a factual record in this case would be bad for the
government. But she told us at the committee that she thought it was
going to be good for the government.
She knew in April of 2009 that a trial would be harmful to the
interests of her client, but she made sure the case went back for a
trial anyway. She knew that discovery would be harmful to the
government's interests, but she told the Judiciary Committee, just 2
weeks ago, under oath, that she decided not to allow an appeal to the
Supreme Court because she thought ``it would be better to go to the
Supreme Court with a fuller record'' that would be developed at trial.
I do not know how to reconcile her testimony with the record in the
case. I do not think it can be reconciled.
During this nomination process, I have expressed my concern about Ms.
Kagan's record as a political lawyer--someone who has advanced a
specific agenda as an adviser in the White House and someone who says
she was ``channeling'' the Justice she clerked for on the Supreme Court
when she encouraged him not to hear certain cases because she did not
think a majority of the Court would rule the way she and her boss would
like. But I do think this big decision she made as Solicitor General
is, in many ways, more concrete proof--and from just a few months ago--
of the reason for our concerns that this nominee will have
difficulties, and maybe find it impossible, to set aside her political
views and decide cases objectively and fairly.
Faced with the hard task and the solemn responsibility of defending
the laws of the United States--after having promised the Judiciary
Committee under oath that she would be able to uphold that
responsibility, even as to this specific law she personally opposes--I
am forced to conclude that Ms. Kagan did not live up to that promise
and did not fulfill a solemn duty of the Solicitor General of the
United States.
This is not a statute, in my view, that is likely to be overturned by
the Supreme Court. In fact, we know the law's opponents, in another
case, did not want to see their case be appealed to the Supreme Court.
Why? They felt they would lose, in my opinion.
Let me talk about duty. Maybe that is a bit old-fashioned today. But
Ms. Kagan should not have had to make a promise before the committee
that she would defend this law. It is a duty of every Solicitor General
to defend the laws of the United States, whether they like them or not,
whether they think it is a good idea or not. Who cares what they think?
They have a responsibility. They are confirmed to a position high in
the Department of Justice--the position that empowers her to appear
before the Supreme Court and state the position of the United States.
Indeed, the Solicitor General's job has often been called the greatest
lawyer job in the world. Why? Because the Solicitor General has the
honor to stand before those Justices and say: I represent the United
States of America. What greater honor can someone have than that, to
represent this great Nation before the Nation's highest Court? Much is
expected of them.
So I say she did not have to make a promise to defend this statute.
It was her duty, whether she liked it or not. And it does appear--I do
not see how we can draw any other conclusion--that she did not like
this law and that her strategy in the case was to not get a definitive
Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of the statute and to
allow these proceedings to be dragged out in lower court and to maybe
influence Congress as to whether it repeals this act. I do not know.
Certainly, she despised this law. She opposed it. She wrote briefs at
Harvard attacking the Solomon amendment that said that Harvard Law
School had to give the military equal treatment on campus and that
access could not be denied simply because she did not agree with don't
ask, don't tell, which is what she was doing at Harvard.
The result of her decision showed she was willing to allow the ACLU
to prowl through the our airmen and soldiers in units throughout the
Ninth Circuit--covering over 40 percent of America--turning those units
upside down, harming the discipline and order of those units and
damaging to the military. I do not see how it can be considered
otherwise.
I think it was an abdication of her duty. We are Senators here. We
are elected. We have one vote. And I know our nominee was articulate
and had good humor and many thought she did very well with her
testimony. I was not so impressed. But I do believe you have to fulfill
your duty and your responsibility, particularly after you have
explicitly promised to do so with regard to this specific case, and
defend the law even when it runs contrary to one's own personal views.
What if the person is now confirmed to the bench for 30, 35 years? If
she were to serve as long as the judge she is replacing, I think she
would serve 38 years on the Supreme Court. We have to know before they
are launched forth on the Court that the nominee has the ability and
the character and the integrity to defend the legal system in a proper
and effective way.
This nomination is further complicated by the fact that our nominee
has no experience in the real practice of law. Our nominee has never
tried a case, never stood before a jury, to my knowledge, never cross-
examined a witness in a trial. She never had to deal with a judge who
is not feeling good, maybe irritable one day, or dealing with lawyers
on the other side who are clever and tough. That is something you
learn. She has never been a judge. Well, they say, that is not
necessary; some great judges haven't been judges. Of course, that is
true, but she has never been a judge or a real lawyer. That bothers me.
Then when I see the kinds of things I am seeing here, it makes me
pause, frankly. I hope all of my colleagues will look at this and take
it seriously.
There are other examples of positions taken by this nominee as
Solicitor General and at Harvard that are very troubling. I think the
evidence shows a lack of a clear understanding of the importance of the
rule of law in our country. President Obama has said he wants judges
with empathy. I don't know what he means by empathy. That is not a
legal standard. It is something other than law. It is more akin to
politics or bias than law. He has said he wants a nominee who will
demonstrate that they, in the course of their duties, will have a
broader vision for what America should be. Does that mean a judge gets
to manipulate the meanings of words in statutes and in our Constitution
to promote this vision that they have? Were they elected to promote any
vision? I don't think so. I think a judge should be a neutral umpire
who puts on that robe to evidence a commitment to impartiality and call
the facts of the case as they see them, faithfully following the law
and faithfully finding the facts of the case. That is what a judge is
all about.
I am very concerned that our nominee, whose background has been more
political. Her testimony to me was too much akin to White House spin
than to a clear and intellectually honest explanation of what the law
and facts are in complicated situations. I didn't feel good about it.
Maybe others did, but I did not.
So those are concerns I have. I hope my colleagues will specifically
look at the don't ask, don't tell matter. I think it raises questions
about whether the nominee should be confirmed.
I yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. REED. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Unemployment Insurance Benefits
Mr. REED. Mr. President, we are seeing over the last 12 months a slow
recovery in our job market. In the last 6 months, we have seen that
accelerate but not sufficiently to reduce unemployment to anything
comparable to a full employment economy. This year, so far, however, we
have generated 600,000 jobs in the private sector. That is in sharp
contrast to January of 2009 when President Obama took office and when
we were losing 700,000 jobs a month. But despite this improvement in
the job market, we have a long way to go.
It is particularly troubling to be, once again, anticipating the vote
tomorrow on the extension of unemployment benefits. These benefits
lapsed
[[Page S5984]]
weeks ago. Meanwhile, millions of Americans are without access to
unemployment funds--the insurance funds they paid each week out of
their daily wages for the time they hoped would never come but has
come--that they could rely upon for some support as they look for work.
In Rhode Island, the unemployment rate is 12 percent--absolutely
horrendous. We are seeing more and more of this unemployment being long
term, not a temporary situation. Nearly half--45.5 percent--of those
unemployed have been out of work for more than 6 months, and in those 6
months, the excess savings one might have, the ability to cut a few
corners to make it week by week, are less and less effective in simply
keeping the lights on and keeping the family together. Then when you
take away the unemployment compensation, people are, frankly, becoming
desperate.
Yet many on the other side are completely indifferent to this. They
say it is not their problem. Well, it is their problem. It is our
problem. If we cannot do this, then we are failing in a basic function
which is to provide support for Americans in crisis, and that is what
we must do. People are looking for work. The average individual has
been looking for work for 35 weeks. That is almost a year, or a big
part of a year. Yet, in the midst of this economic downturn--with 14.6
million unemployed Americans--my colleagues on the other side have
forced us to go through procedural hoops to get a vote on an
unemployment compensation extension.
The Senate has failed on three occasions to pass this extension. It
is not because there is not a majority of Senators who want to, but
because procedurally, we need 60 votes to end debate and vote on the
measure. We have let this program lapse for short periods and now it
has been lapsed since June 2, and that is unacceptable. There is no
other word for it other than obstruction--stopping something that has
been done routinely on a bipartisan basis in every major job recession
in this country in our lifetime. This should be a simple bipartisan
endeavor.
George W. Bush had a period of time where we had a recession in the
job market and we, on a bipartisan basis, extended unemployment
insurance. There were no repeated delays, stretching it out, only 2-
month extensions or 3-month extensions to be considered. It was done
because we had to help Americans who needed the help and who had
contributed to the fund through their unemployment compensation
insurance. We have never failed to extend unemployment compensation
while the unemployment rate was at least 7.4 percent. Today, if your
State has 7.4 percent, you are in recovery. You are in great shape. We
have 12 percent in Rhode Island. If I go around the country, there are
too many States such as Rhode Island, with 10, 11, 12 percent
unemployment. The national unemployment rate is 9.5 percent. So this is
an historical anomaly. We have routinely, on a bipartisan basis,
extended unemployment compensation as long as the unemployment rate has
been at least 7.4 percent. But now, in the midst of a much worse
national economic crisis, most of my colleagues are simply indifferent
to it. I am hopeful tomorrow we will rally at least two who recognize
the need to respond to the needs of their constituents.
We have extended it for much longer periods of time than the current
period. In the 1970s, under Presidents Ford and Carter--again, through
two Presidents, one Republican, one Democrat--3 years and 1 month of
extended unemployment benefits. In the 1980s under President Reagan,
yes, we extended unemployment compensation benefits without paying for
it under Ronald Reagan on a bipartisan basis to help Americans for 2
years and 10 months. In the 1990s, under President Bush, George Herbert
Walker Bush and President Clinton, 2 years and 6 months. So we are
hardly at the point where these benefits have gone on so long that they
are intolerable.
Again, routinely we have done this on a bipartisan basis, Republican
Presidents, Democratic Presidents, Republican Congresses, Democratic
Congresses. What I would argue has changed is our colleagues on the
other side. Now we are going through another procedural vote and at the
end of the day, on the final merits, this could pass by 75, 80, 90
votes, because no one wants to be accused of not extending unemployment
benefits. But this whole procedural strategy of delay after delay after
delay effectively has denied millions of people not just the dollars,
which are important, but the small sense of security that they can rely
on these funds, that there is someplace they can get help. In Rhode
Island, the average weekly benefit is $360. They can get roughly $360 a
week to feed their family, to provide for the essentials in life. When
that is stripped away, they lose more than just $360; they lose the
sense that there is anything out there that is going to help.
Beyond this procedural delay, some of my colleagues are arguing:
Well, the reason we don't want to give unemployment compensation is it
is a disincentive to work. I say $360 a week is not a disincentive for
people to work who have worked all of their lives, making much more
than that, who are desperate to work. The reality is that for every
worker unemployed today who is out there looking around, there are not
the jobs. In fact, there are five unemployed workers for every
available job. This is not a situation where they are sort of sifting
through and saying, Well, I don't like that work; that is too far for
me to go. Talk to your neighbors, as we all do. They will take almost
anything to get back in the workforce, and just to make more than, in
Rhode Island, $360 a week. So that argument is disingenuous, but it has
been raised here as if it is the gospel. It is not.
We are in a deep economic crisis. Most of it is the result of
policies that my colleagues enthusiastically supported: deep tax cuts
to benefit, because of the nature of the income tax, the wealthiest
Americans; more than low-income Americans. Two wars unfunded. In fact,
I think this is probably the first time in the history of this country
where we cut taxes in a time of war rather than trying to pay for these
wars. The largest expansion of an entitlement program--Medicare Part
D--in the history of the country since the 1960s, unpaid for. I could
go on and on and on. That has led to a myriad of other policies--lax
regulation; inattention to the lack of innovation in our country; the
looking on as other countries such as China and others have taken bold
steps in terms of infrastructure construction; the development of new
technologies, including alternate energy and high-speed electric rail
transportation--the Bush administration sort of casually tended to
ignore it.
I don't think anything indicates clearly the priorities of that side
and this side. We have been struggling for months to try to pass an
extension of unemployment compensation, but being told we have to pay
for it. In the same breath, our colleagues say, But we have to extend
the Bush tax cuts, including the estate tax cuts, without paying for
them. We can't help people struggling to find work with $360 a week,
but we can help multibillionaires with their estate taxes. I would
argue that if you want to invest in productivity in America, help
working people get jobs and work, and they will pay their taxes, they
will work hard, they will contribute to the community.
Now we have to deal with the deficit, but the notion that the $34
billion we are talking about today in unemployment compensation is
going to rank with the $3.28 trillion that these Bush tax extensions
will cost the country it is not even apples and oranges. Literally and
ideologically we can't pay for tax cuts, yet the deficit is the most
important problem we face. It doesn't make sense, and it particularly
doesn't make sense to Americans who are out there desperately looking
for work.
Again, when you look at where this deficit came from, I remember in
the 1990s when we stood up as Democrats without any Republican help and
passed an economic program that resulted in not only deficit reduction
but a $236 billion surplus. It resulted in not only economic growth but
strong employment growth through the nineties.
When President George W. Bush took office, he was looking at a
significant projected surplus. He was looking at solid employment
numbers and a growing, expanding economy. In the 8 years he was in
office, he took that surplus and not only turned it into a deficit, but
he increased the national debt more in 8 years than had been done in
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the previous history of the country. Then, again, to have my colleagues
on the other side suddenly discover that deficits are important--it
wasn't important enough for them in the nineties to stand with us and
vote to reduce the deficit, balance the budget, and raise the surplus.
It wasn't important enough for them in the Bush administration, which
adopted programs and policies to undercut that fiscal stability and put
us into a precipitous economic collapse--and now it is important.
It is important, but when we talk about this issue of unemployment
compensation, it is central to this debate. Robert Bixby, president of
the Concord Coalition, which has been, throughout the years, one of the
most consistent in terms of fiscal responsibility, put it well when he
said:
As a deficit hawk, I wouldn't worry about extending
unemployment benefits. It is not going to add to the long-
term structural deficit, and it does address a serious need.
I just feel like unemployment benefits wandered onto the
wrong street corner at the wrong time, and now they are
getting mugged.
That is what is going on. They are mugging a program the American
people need. It is close at hand. It can invoke this notion of
responsible deficit reduction. Where was all this responsible deficit
reduction talk when they were proposing Medicare Part D, which is a
huge benefit to the pharmaceutical industry--without any payments, a
lot of expensive entitlement, which adds to the structural deficit,
because year in and year out, when you get to be 65 years old, you
qualify for Part D.
Unemployment benefits are countercyclical--people pay into it, it
builds up the trust funds in the States, and then when you meet a point
at which you need it, it should be there. It should be there now.
The other point that is important to make is, for every dollar of
unemployment benefits there is $1.90 of economic activity. This is a
stimulus measure too. At a time when we are seeing a fragile recovery,
we need to put more muscle behind the recovery. Not only are we giving
people a chance to make ends meet, when they take their unemployment
compensation and other resources and go into the marketplace, it
provides an increase in economic activity.
In fact, if we don't have increased economic activity, there is a
danger this recovery will be very slow--painfully slow--and that would
be unfortunate, because what we measure in terms of economic recovery
is measured in American families by the opportunities to send their
children to school, the opportunities to provide more for their
families. If that is inhibited over months and months, then those who
suffer are the American families.
There are other aspects of this. For example, the Joint Economic
Committee estimated that by the end of 2010--this year--290,000
unemployed disabled workers--these are people who work but have a
disability--will exhaust their benefits. If these individuals choose to
drop out of the labor market and go onto the Social Security disability
rolls, go through the process of being qualified and approved for
disability, over the lifetime, this could result in $24.2 billion in
costs, contrasted to the $721 million this year that this group would
receive in extended benefits.
It is a simple sort of issue. Do we want to keep people in the
workforce--at least keep them looking for work with unemployment
benefits--or do we want them to say: I will give up and declare that I
can't work again, and I will go see if my disability can be covered by
Social Security disability insurance and, for the rest of my life, I
will collect my Social Security disability, even though I would really
like to work. That is another aspect of this problem.
We have a challenge tomorrow, when we greet our new colleague from
West Virginia, to stand and extend unemployment benefits. Once again,
if we look at history, this should have been done weeks ago on a
strong, bipartisan basis, putting aside the relative politics of the
moment and concentrating on what we should do for the American people.
Tomorrow we will have a chance to do that, and I hope we do.
With that, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from Louisiana.
Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I wish to speak for about 5 or 10
minutes--not very long--about an important matter before the Senate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I am joined by my colleague from Oregon,
Mr. Merkley, who has been a wonderful supporter of the small business
package and as a member of the Banking Committee has been very
instrumental in the shaping of the jobs bill 3, the small business
package, that we will be debating and hopefully voting on this week.
I wish to say first that I appreciate all the work the members of the
Small Business Committee have done, both Ranking Member Snowe and all
the members of the committee, as well as the members of the Finance
Committee who worked very hard to put a package together and the work
that has come from the White House and Treasury to build a package that
is paid for, fiscally responsible, and meaningful for small business in
America.
There are many important pieces of the package, but one of the most
significant in this very tough time for small businesses, Mr.
President, which you know because I am sure you hear from your small
businesses in Delaware, is that they would like some tax relief, if
possible. They understand we are in a deficit. They understand it is
difficult to provide tax relief, it is also difficult to cut spending,
but they would like to see us respond with some targeted tax cuts to
small business.
This package, I am happy to say, that Leader Reid will be presenting
in the next 24 to 48 hours has $12 billion in targeted, specific tax
cuts for small businesses in America, from accelerated depreciation to
zero capital gains for investments made in small businesses in the next
year, incentives to invest, not in the big businesses, not in the
businesses on Wall Street but in the businesses that are on Main Street
in all our States and all our towns, whether they be large cities or
smaller cities or tiny villages throughout, whether it is Delaware or
Louisiana, Texas or New York I am pleased a centerpiece of this
legislation is targeted, substantial tax cuts for business.
The other very interesting piece of this bill is a whole series of
things on which the small business community has worked together in a
very bipartisan fashion for strengthening programs within the SBA, the
Small Business Administration; it is not a very big agency, it is a
small agency, but it can be muscular. If it is provided the right tools
and with the right shaping of those muscles, it can be actually very
effective in lifting small businesses to a better place.
With Senator Snowe's help and support, we have managed to come out
with several provisions, one of which is the doubling of the loan
limits for the 504 and 7(a) programs, which together have the potential
to leverage about $30 billion in lending. We have reduced the fees--
eliminated the fees, actually, for banks. We have increased the
guarantee from 75 percent to 90 percent. We have expanded the amount of
loans, the limit, people can ask for to provide greater access to
capital. It is widely popular with the small business associations, and
we have their broad support.
Again, small businesses in America have seen their credit lines
shrinking or evaporated. They have seen their credit card companies
charging higher interest rates and demanding full payment on
outstanding balances.
It is important for us to recognize that this recession is not going
to end without some businesses hiring again. They do not hire on wishes
and prayers. They hire on bottom-line finances and the hope that things
will get better. Both are important--bottom line finances, access to
capital, and the hope that things will be better. That is what this
bill brings--bottom line support and hope that things can be better.
That is a big portion of our bill. Included in that is a very
important component of increasing exports. When
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people say in the surveys: We need to increase demand, I agree. One way
we can increase demand is to open exporting opportunities for our small
businesses.
I do not have it with me, but I have used it many times, a chart that
shows only a small sliver that represents small businesses that export.
Most of our products are exported and services sold by big companies.
When people say to me: Senator, what can the Federal Government do to
help open markets or to give us more customers, one thing we can do is
to strengthen programs at the Federal level and the State level that
give technical assistance and support for our small businesses to
export. It is very important to Senator Snowe. It is very important to
Senator LeMieux from Florida. It is very important to Senator Klobuchar
from Minnesota, who has been a great advocate for this provision for
exports, and others as well. That is in the bill.
The final piece I am going to speak about--and then I will turn it
over to the Senator from Oregon, who has worked so hard on this
particular proposal--is, in addition to the $12 billion in tax cuts
targeted for small businesses in America, in addition to the
strengthening of the SBA direct lending programs that are so important
to so many colleagues on both sides of the aisle, there is a $30
billion lending program to small businesses. It is not a government
program but a private sector-based lending program, using the great and
powerful network of our community bankers. Not our big banks, not the
Wall Street banks, not the hedge fund managers about whom we have heard
so much--usually bad--but our own very familiar partners at the local
level, our community banks.
This program would take $30 billion and basically pass it through to
small businesses that are looking for capital. I have people come into
my office, representing hundreds of small businesses, saying: Senator,
we don't have the capital we need to expand, and we have been in
business X number of years. If I could just get a loan for $5 million
or $10 million or get a capital line for $20 million, I could expand my
business.
If we do not find a way to get more money into the hands of small
businesses--this is not a banking program. It is not like the old
bailout program we did for banks. This is about a liftup, a helping
hand to small businesses in America.
With that program, amazingly, it encourages more lending to small
businesses, it is voluntary, and it actually makes money for the
Federal Treasury. Again, it is voluntary. It is available to all small
banks in good standing to encourage them to use this capital to lend to
small businesses.
I am going to turn it over to the Senator from Oregon. Before I do, I
would like to call attention to the many strong endorsements we have
gotten, starting with the Conference of State Bank Supervisors:
The proposals--the Small Business Lending Fund and the
State Small Business Credit Initiative--will provide much-
needed access to capital support small business lending, the
lifeblood of our national economy.
That is Neil Milner, president and CEO of that organization.
I will read another one from John Arensmeyer, founder and CEO of
Small Business Majority:
The Small Business Lending Fund will create a program that
will provide up to $30 billion in capital to smaller banks to
spur lending to small businesses and help create new jobs.
There's no ``silver bullet'' that will put small business
owners out of the financial hole . . . but these initiatives
are an important piece of the overall plan to help revive our
struggling economy. . . .
Finally, from Michael Grant, president of the National Bankers
Association:
The Obama Administration--continuing its efforts to lift
the country out of a two-year recession--has hit a home run
with its proposed $30 billion Small Business Lending Fund.
This is not a bailout to small business and medium-sized
banks; it is, instead, a true investment in a brighter future
for America's working class.
Again, I turn it over to the Senator from Oregon. I thank him very
much for his help in shaping this proposal, expanding it, and promoting
it. It promotes itself based on its merits. We are always happy to have
his voice enter this debate.
I yield the floor for my colleague.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I am delighted to partner with my
colleague from Louisiana. Senator Landrieu has been a passionate and
effective advocate for small business across this country. She has
worked incredibly hard to drive through this small business jobs
legislation, recognizing that the success of our economy is going to
rise or fall on the success of our small businesses.
That is what brings us together tonight. We have come to talk about
the small business lending fund, which is an essential component of
assisting our small businesses.
Small businesses employ one-half of our Nation's workforce. However,
less than one-third of small businesses today are reporting their
credit needs are being met. Indeed, 59 percent now rely on credit cards
to finance their daily operations. That is an increase of about 15
percent from where we were at the end of 2009.
I can tell my colleagues that at every townhall meeting I hold, folks
stand to talk about how their credit lines have been cut or they have a
business opportunity for which they normally could easily get a loan
from a longstanding banking partner, but they are not able to get that
loan. Often, the reason the banks cannot make the loan is because they
are at their leverage limit. There are legal limits for every dollar
they hold, how many can they lend out. If they are at that limit, they
cannot make a new loan no matter how good the opportunity.
This is a losing situation because our community banks are right on
Main Street. They see and know the opportunities. They understand the
capabilities of individual entrepreneurs and managers, so putting that
expertise to work is going to fuel job growth in this Nation. But we
can't put it to work if the banks are unable to lend or are at their
leverage limit.
The Small Business Lending Fund will proceed to inject liquidity into
our economy, and that is like oil into an engine--a job-creating
engine--to the tune of as much as $300 billion in additional lending to
small businesses on Main Street, and this will occur under the Small
Business Lending Fund without any dollar of subsidy from the U.S.
taxpayer.
Indeed, the Congressional Budget Office has studied this proposal and
has recognized and reported that it will save $1 billion to taxpayers
over the next 10 years, and that is just from the earnings of the
payments that the banks will make back to the funds that are injected
as additional capital into our community banks.
But think about this: Every small business that is able to see an
opportunity because it can gain access to credit is also going to make
money on that proposition. When they make money, they pay additional
taxes. CBO doesn't score the additional taxes, but recognize that in
addition to the $1 billion of savings on interest payments, there will
be all the benefits that will flow from additional jobs--additional
taxes paid on the income from those jobs, additional profits to small
business, additional revenue from those profits. So the real return is
even greater to the taxpayer.
But most importantly we are creating jobs, and that is a return that
is hard to measure. When a family has a job, they can diminish their
reliance on every other program. The most important foundation of a
family is a good job, and that is what the Small Business Lending Fund
is all about. It does indeed have prominent endorsements, as my
colleague mentioned: the Independent Community Bankers of America,
representing 5,000 community banks on Main Street which are having to
bypass the opportunities they are seeing because they are at their
leverage limit. Recognize that they can make loans, which is good for
them, good for small businesses, good for their communities and
certainly great for the families who get the additional jobs. Also, the
National Bankers Association, the National Small Business Association,
the National Association for the Self-Employed, the Small Business
Majority, and so on and so forth.
Let me give one example from Oregon. John and his business partner
have owned a small retail store in Portland, OR, for over 25 years. It
is a store I have visited often. Because of lackluster consumer
spending, John has made a lot of sacrifices to keep that business
afloat during this recession. He has had to reduce his staff, cut
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the hours the shop is open, and he and others have had to take pay
cuts. But to add insult to injury, his bank threatened to drop his line
of credit.
John has never missed a payment, never had a late payment, but in
this process of reducing exposure or reducing the required leverage
limits, banks are cutting lines of credit, and John's line was being
cut. Finally, after negotiation, they agreed to renew his line of
credit every 90 days but every 90 days charge a fee, and on many
occasions to raise the interest rate.
He has been looking for a new lender who will work with him and not
against him, but that is hard to find in this economy, where lender
after lender is affected by the same constraints. This story is
repeated, different versions, hundreds of times throughout Oregon, and
thousands of times throughout this Nation.
How would a Small Business Lending Fund work? Essentially, it
capitalizes the community banks, so with that additional capital they
can make more loans. If they get more loans out the door, then the
repayment rate--the dividends they would pay back to the taxpayers--is
reduced to as low as 1 percent. If they do not get loans out the door,
the payments go up to as high as 7 percent. So there is a significant
incentive to take these funds, after a bank is recapitalized, and get
them out the door.
That addresses several of the challenges folks have raised. There has
been concern about banks that might hoard cash and say: Well, we will
prepare in case some assets are devalued in the future or that banks
might say: We will wait until a better time, when everything is surging
forward. Well, things won't surge forward unless we get lending out to
small businesses. That is why this structure of incentives is critical.
The banks that will qualify are banks that have CAMELS ratings, which
means capital adequacy, asset quality, management, earnings, liquidity,
and sensitivity--or exposure to market risk. So a bank that is in deep
trouble isn't going to be in a position to take advantage of this. But
banks that are sound and healthy will, and therefore this makes it a
good investment, an investment that has significant return to the
taxpayer but, more importantly, a big return to our communities.
I would also note that this will go hand in hand with the program to
make additional grants to State-based small business programs. My
colleagues, Senators Levin and Warner, have been very involved in
helping to forge that program. These things go together. Community
banks on Main Street will see opportunities and State-based small
business programs will see opportunities. They probably will see the
same opportunities. These will work together to take us out of this
recession.
I wish to read a note that I received:
Dear Senator Merkley: Overall, I believe the majority of
financial support under TARP went to the large investment
banks, insurers, FNMA, FHLMC and other giant institutions on
Wall Street. It is now very important to revive the economy
that the government assist Main Street, which includes
community banks, if we are to have job creation. Jobs are
created by small business that bank at community banks.
And the writer goes on:
As a community banker in Oregon, I urge you to retain the
$30 billion small business lending fund. . . . Community
banks are well-positioned to leverage the SBLF and have
established relationships with small businesses in their
communities to get credit flowing quickly. Leveraging the $30
billion funds with community banks would potentially support
many times that amount in loan volume to small businesses--as
much as $300 billion in additional lending.
The writer concludes:
Banks that increase their small business lending by certain
threshold percentages will pay reduced dividend costs,
ensuring that their incentive to lend matches their great
capacity to do so.
Thank you very much, Sincerely Tom.
That was a letter from Tom of M Street Bank.
I thank the many colleagues who have put themselves behind this idea
and supported it. An earlier rendition of this idea was called
``Banking on our Communities'' and had support from Senators Carper,
Hagan, Kerry, Levin, Pryor, Stabenow, and Mark Udall, and I wanted to
mention that they have been sponsors of that legislation.
I urge my colleagues to stand for small businesses, stand to provide
a solution to the problem of liquidity and access to loans that is
plaguing our small businesses, stand to help not just your community
banks but your community businesses and your families who will benefit
from the jobs that it will create.
I thank my colleague for her passionate and effective leadership on
this particular issue and for her leadership on our Small Business
Committee.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.
Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I thank my colleague, and let me add a
few words to that wonderful explanation. Again, what we are on the
floor talking about here--the jobs 3 bill, the small business bill--is
a lending program for small business. This is not a bank bailout. It is
not a big bank bailout. It is not a medium-sized bank bailout, It is
not a small-sized bank bailout. It is not for banks. It is for small
businesses.
We are using healthy banks, not troubled banks, as a conduit to reach
small businesses so they do not have to rely on high rates through a
credit card company that is impersonal and not interested in their
business but just the bottom line. They do not have the home equity
that they used to have, as you know, either in Delaware or Louisiana or
Oregon or Texas.
I think in America we want to encourage healthy relationships between
our small businesses and our local banks. Only small healthy banks can
participate in this voluntary program on behalf of small businesses in
their communities. Ninety percent of community banks are less than $1
billion, and you can only participate in the Small Business Lending
Program if you are below $10 billion. So none of the big banks can even
qualify for this.
As the Senator from Oregon said, there is not going to be an end to
this recession any time soon if we don't, in this Chamber, figure out a
way to get low-cost capital into the hands of small business. We don't
have many choices. We could issue some more credit cards to them and
let them pay 15, 16, 17, 24 percent. We can ask them to go back and get
equity out of their homes, which has all but dried up, and not through
any fault of their own, or we could give direct lending through the
Small Business Administration.
Some people have trouble with the Federal Government acting as a
direct lender, and I can understand that. It is not what we do. We are
not a bank. But there are banks out there--there are 8,000 community
banks--many of which are healthy, and with a little bit more capital
and a partnership with the Federal Government, they could turn around
and lend money to businesses that desperately need it.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record
a list of small business organizations I received from the Small
business Access to Credit Coalition.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
(See exhibit 1.)
Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I am going to read a few of these
organizations into the Record at this time. This is a very market-
based, private-sector approach to solving this problem, and that is why
the American Apparel & Footwear Association, the American Hotel &
Lodging Association, the American International Automobile Dealers
Association, the Associated Builders & Contractors, Heating,
Airconditioning & Refrigeration Distributers International, and we said
the Independent Community Banks of America, but how about the
Independent Electrical Contractors, the International Council of
Shopping Centers, the Main Street Alliance, the National Association of
Women Business Owners--Los Angeles, and I could go on and on and on.
There are hundreds of organizations that support this $300 billion
Small Business Lending Fund. Again, it leverages up to $300 billion of
potential loans to small businesses right here in America to create the
jobs we need to move us out and past this recession to higher ground
and happier times. We can't wait to get there, but we are not going to
get there by peddling in place. We have to move forward.
This is a bold proposal, but it is very much based on common sense.
It is easy to understand, with clear parameters for understanding it.
It is using the great asset of community banks to
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get low-cost capital into the hands of small businesses--shoe stores,
retailers, cleaners, grocery stores--that can then start the hiring of
one or two or three extra people. All of that is going to add up to
more consumer demand. As people have paychecks, they can go spend them,
increasing demand.
This is economics 101. It is very simple. It is bold, it is simple,
and I believe it will work. It is voluntary. It is for healthy banks
only--for community banks only. It has nothing to do with Wall Street,
hedge funds or bailouts. It has everything to do with job creation on
Main Street in America, and more than 100 small business organizations
are supporting this initiative.
I thank the Members of the Senate, both Democrats and Republicans,
who have been very supportive. We are grateful for the wonderful
testimony and endorsements we have received from these very powerful
organizations and we look forward, after we have the vote on
unemployment sometime tomorrow, to getting back to the business of
ending this recession. We have all had about as much of it as we can
take.
We want to move to stronger times, to happier times. We are only
going to do that by giving small business substantial and targeted tax
cuts and a lending program that they can work for them and the
businesses they want to serve and service every day on Main Streets
throughout America.
Exhibit 1
Small Business Access to Credit Coalition
(February 17, 2010)
Dear Senator: Access to credit is a critical issue facing
small businesses today. The undersigned organizations,
representing millions of small business owners in every
industry sector, were very disappointed to learn that only
one provision related to expanding small business access to
credit was included in the draft legislation offered by
Senators Baucus and Grassley, the ``Hiring Incentives to
Restore Employment Act.'' Furthermore, none of the provisions
aimed at improving the Small Business Administration (SBA)
lending programs are currently being considered in Majority
Leader Reid's latest proposal. We are concerned that if the
Senate fails to listen to the needs of small businesses and
address the credit crisis, a tremendous opportunity to help
create new, sustainable jobs in 2010 and beyond will be lost.
We urge your support for appropriations to extend the SBA
loan provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
(ARRA) through the end of December 2010. The depletion of
funds last fall is proof that the SBA programs were, and
continue to be, critically important for our nation's
creditworthy entrepreneurs. An additional $354 million in
appropriations is needed to fund the extension of the higher
guaranty percentages and waiver of borrower fees for the
balance of the fiscal year.
Additionally, we urge your support for an increase in the
maximum loan size and the maximum guaranteed portion of SBA
loans. Senators Landrieu and Snowe have introduced
legislation that would increase the maximum size of SBA 7(a)
and 504 loans from $2 million to $5 million. This legislation
would also provide a commensurate increase in the statutory
maximum guaranteed portion of SBA 7(a) loans. Moreover, the
CBO has determined that their legislation, S. 2869, will have
no impact on spending or revenue. These levels are
recommended by the Administration, have bi-partisan support
and we urge your support as well.
By including these provisions in upcoming legislation aimed
at spurring new job creation, there is the potential to
leverage an additional $16 billion in SBA lending in 2010.
According to Federal Highway Administration data, federal
spending on highway programs can generate about 34,100 jobs
for every $1 billion spent. Small businesses can generate the
same rate of job creation, except that small businesses have
the ability to create new, sustainable jobs in every local
community. Therefore, by acting on these recommendations, the
Senate will help increase small business lending that will
result in over 545,000 sustainable new jobs in the next year.
We urge you to act quickly so that we can continue to
realize the SBA lending momentum we saw in 2009. Small
businesses cannot be the engine of our economy if they
continue to face unrelentingly tight credit markets. The
Senate must include these important provisions in the job
creation bills currently pending in order to restart the flow
of credit to America's small businesses or else these
entrepreneurs will be left to sit on the sidelines.
Respectfully,
American Apparel & Footwear Association; American Bankers
Association; American Foundry Society--California
Chapter; American Hotel & Lodging Association; American
International Automobile Dealers
Association; Associated Builders & Contractors; California
Association for Micro Enterprise Opportunity; California
Association of Competitive Telecommunications Companies;
California Cast Metals Association; California Chapter of
the American Fence Contractors Association; California
Employers Association; California Fence Contractors
Association; California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce;
California Metals Coalition; California Public Arts
Association, Inc.; Council of Smaller Enterprises (Ohio);
Engineering Contractors Association; Entrepreneurs
Organization Los Angeles; Fashion Accessories Shippers
Association; Flasher/Barricade Association; Golden Gate
Restaurant Association; Greater Providence (RI) Chamber of
Commerce; Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration
Distributors International; Independent Community Bankers
of America; Independent Electrical Contractors;
Independent Waste Oil Collectors and Transporters;
International Council of Shopping Centers; International
Franchise Association; Main Street Alliance; Marin
Builders' Association; Marine Retailers Association of
America; Monterey County Business Council; Napa Chamber of
Commerce; National Association for the Self-Employed;
National Association of Development Companies; National
Association of Government Guaranteed Lenders; National
Association of Manufacturers; National Association of
Women Business Owners--Inland Empire; National Association
of Women Business Owners--Los Angeles; National Automobile
Dealers Association; National Cooperative Business
Association; National Council of Chain Restaurants;
National Council of Textile Organizations; National
Federation of Filipino American Associations; National Gay
& Lesbian Chamber of Commerce; National Marine
Manufacturers Association; National Ready Mixed Concrete
Association; National Restaurant Association; National
Small Business Association; North American Die Casting
Association--California Chapter; North Carolina Bankers
Association; Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce;
NPES--The Association for Suppliers of Printing,
Publishing and Converting Technologies Oakland
Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce; Oregon Small Business
for Responsible Leadership; Peninsula Builders Exchange of
California; Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors of
California; Recreation Vehicle Industry Association;
Recreational Vehicle Dealers Association; Rhode Island
Small Business Summit Committee; Sacramento Asian Chamber
of Commerce; San Francisco Builders Exchange; San
Francisco Chamber of Commerce; San Francisco Small
Business Advocates; San Francisco Small Business Network;
Small Business Association of Michigan (SBAM); Small
Business Association of New England (SBANE); Small
Business California; Small Business Majority; Small
Manufacturers Association of California; South Carolina
Small Business Chamber; Spa and Pool Industry Education
Council of California; SPI: The Plastics Industry Trade
Association; The Financial Services Roundtable; The
Hosiery Association; Travel Goods Association; Tree Care
Industry Association; Urban Solutions--San Francisco; U.S.
Chamber of Commerce; U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I again thank my colleague for her
leadership. We together as a Senate need to stand with our small
businesses so we can revive our communities, restore our economy and
create jobs for our families. I thank the Senator again for the
terrific job she is doing.
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