[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 131 (Wednesday, September 7, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5348-S5349]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
JOB CREATION
Mr. REID. Madam President, this fall the Democrats are hoping to find
Republican allies willing to reach across the aisle for the sake of
creating jobs in America, for the sake of putting people back to work.
For 8 months now, Republicans have wasted our time on partisan politics
regarding issues that should have been so simple, such as funding the
government for last year. We were forced to deal with that for months.
Then, when we finished that, we went to do something that happens as a
matter of fact around here. Not that it is unimportant, but there is no
reason for our country to default on the debts we have. Extending the
debt ceiling doesn't allow us to spend money on more items, it simply
allows us to pay our debts.
Take, for example, Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan is somebody whom
Republicans idolize, and I have no problem with that. He was a good
President and did some good things for our country--lots of good
things. I liked him very much as a person and as a President. He asked
us 18 different times to raise the debt ceiling, and we did it every
time--every time. But this time, no thanks. The Republicans forced us
to spend months on raising the debt ceiling.
They have also used unrelated amendments and procedural stall tactics
to kill good pieces of legislation that have always had the support of
Democrats and Republicans. Take, for example, the Economic Development
Administration. They blocked that, something that has been going on for
35 years creating jobs. This piece of legislation alone would have
created 314,000 jobs. They killed it. The EDA has worked with little
businesses, universities, and economically challenged areas to create
jobs, as I said, for three decades. Actually, it has been 4\1/2\
decades.
For nearly 2 months, they held up efforts to reauthorize the Small
Business Innovation and Research Program before finally killing it
altogether. This legislation would have helped small businesses, small
technology companies, which have invented everything from the electric
toothbrush to how to put armor on a Bradley fighting vehicle. These
small business innovation loans were terrific for bringing out the
innovation and creativity of the American people, creating thousands of
jobs. They forced that bill off the floor.
The fate of these two pieces of legislation alone cost more than one-
half million jobs--more than 500,000 jobs. But not only did they take
away these two pieces of legislation--and there are many others but
speaking of these two--their obstructionistic tactics also cost us lots
of time. Every moment wasted on procedural hurdles--and we have spent
months on these useless amendments--was a moment we weren't creating
jobs.
Republicans held up the work of Congress for months in the hope of
defeating the President. And this is not something I have made up. My
counterpart, the Republican leader, has said that is his No. 1 issue--
making sure President Obama is not reelected. But this effort to defeat
President Obama has also held up our economic recovery. We saw the toll
in last month's job report, showing unemployment holding steady. For
the eighth month in a row we have created private-sector jobs--we
didn't create many--last month, about 20,000.
Because of what is going on around the country, with the Republicans'
austerity programs, there are lots of government jobs being cut. Each
of us, from New York, Illinois, and Nevada, has had local governments
really being cut to the bone--police and fire. These are the jobs that
people need very much.
Madam President, I hope the Republicans have gotten the stalling
tactics out of their system and really will work with us to create
jobs. Hopefully, the Senate is now moving forward with this patent
bill, the America Invents Act. This bill will reform the Nation's
outdated patent system that has almost 1 million patents waiting to be
looked at. Any one of those patents could be a new benefit--something
that will create jobs and allow people who have such great ingenuity in
America to put their product on line.
We are told that this reform of our Nation's outdated patent system
will allow us to create almost 300,000 jobs, and it will clear up a 3-
year backlog in patent applications so inventors might be able to
invent the next iPod or iPad or electric car or whatever other
interesting thing that makes America so great. I hope the spirit of
bipartisanship comes into being now, because Congress and this country
cannot afford to waste any more time.
There are two things we can do right away to create lots of jobs.
First, extend the authorization of the FAA bill. Let me explain what
this is all about.
We passed an FAA bill, a good bill, passed overwhelmingly, Democrats
and Republicans. It went to the House and they put it in some dark hole
over there, and finally they gave us a bill back. It is different than
our bill, and here is how it is different. The National Mediation Board
set a new rule. It is something called democracy. What it means is that
in a labor election, the majority wins. Under Republican dominance in
years past, if you had a group of people who were trying to be
unionized, and let's say there were 1,000 and that is how many were in
the work unit and there was an election held and 600 people turned out
for that election, 450 voted, yes, we think we should be able to
collectively bargain with our employer, under the old rules that is not
enough; 450 out of 600 is not enough. You would have to get a majority
of the people in the unit.
I ask my friend from New York, the Presiding Officer, and my friend
from Illinois, because I have asked myself, under rules like that, none
of us would have been elected. Of the millions and millions of people
in New York and Illinois and the 3 million people in Nevada, I won by 5
percent last election. I got a majority of the people who were
registered to vote. That is how you win in America, not a majority of
everyone in the State, because no one would be elected if that in fact
were the case.
But that is how the Republicans want to change the rules. They want
go back
[[Page S5349]]
and say a simple majority of those voting is not enough. You have to
have a majority of everybody in the union. And, as I indicated, based
on our elections, it would mean each of us would have to get a majority
of everyone in the State.
So they stuck that provision in the bill saying, no, a majority is
not enough; you have to have a majority of everyone in the unit. It is
this kind of antidemocratic issue they placed in this legislation. I
would hope they would take that out. They haven't been willing to do
that.
If we can reform our antiquated air traffic control system, it will
bring us into the modern world where we are no longer depending on
Second World War technology; that is, radar, and we can move into the
modern world as most all countries have, where we would have GPS, and
it will create lots and lots of jobs, hundreds of thousands of jobs
which are so badly needed. Ray LaHood, Secretary of Transportation,
thinks it is essential that we get this done for the safety and
security of our Nation and certainly to create lots and lots of jobs.
Second, we must authorize Federal spending for our Nation's highways.
About 1.8 million construction jobs in highway and mass transit
projects are at stake. If we don't extend this bill, they will be gone,
almost 2 million jobs.
So we will be happy to consider a bipartisan idea to get the economy
going again. I have talked about two things.
Here are two ideas Republicans have supported in the past: payroll
tax cuts and extension of unemployment insurance. Extending the payroll
tax cut could save 972,000 American jobs next year alone. Extending
unemployment insurance during these tough economic times would save
528,000 American jobs. They have agreed to these in the past.
Speaker Boehner and Leader Cantor wrote to the President yesterday
and they said, Our differences should not preclude us from taking
action in areas where there is common ground.
I hope they would agree that extending unemployment benefits and
cutting the payroll tax are agreements that are common sense. So I
agree with them, our differences should not preclude us from taking
action in areas where there is common agreement. Let's start with the
four commonsense measures I have talked about: the FAA bill; of course,
we have to do the extension of the payroll tax cuts; do the
unemployment insurance; and, of course, FAA. I would hope we can move
on these as quickly as possible.
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