[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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