[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 156 (Tuesday, October 18, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6625-S6628]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
JOBS-TEACHERS/FIRST RESPONDERS BACK TO WORK ACT
Mr. MENENDEZ. Madam President, I rise as the lead sponsor of the
Teachers/First Responders Back to Work Act. I rise in favor of jobs, in
favor of teachers, in favor of police officers and firefighters,
keeping our communities safe, and the promise we made to first
responders after September 11.
We have a choice. I listened to the distinguished Republican leader,
but it is interesting how history can be viewed through different
lenses. What I failed to hear were the challenges this President and
this country inherited from 8 years of policies that led us, in 2008,
to the verge not of the great recession we had been referring to but on
the verge of a new depression, where the Chairman of the Federal
Reserve and the former Secretary of the Treasury, under President Bush,
came before Members of Congress and said: We have a series of financial
institutions on the verge of collapse, and if they collapse, it will
create systemic risk to the entire country's economy, and every
American will feel the consequences of that.
The result of that 8 years of largely unregulated process created
excesses where large entities made decisions that ultimately became the
collective responsibility of everybody in this country because a
failure to have met those responsibilities would have meant a collapse
of this country.
Now, there are those in the Senate who are advocating we go back to
those very policies. They talk about stopping each and every
regulation. Those regulations ultimately--the lack of it and the lack
of enforcement of it is what gave us the excesses we had.
Additionally, we had the two wars abroad, which are totally unpaid
for, and fiscal responsibility went out the window there. Tax cuts were
totally unpaid for, and fiscal responsibility went out the window
there.
The culmination of all of that brought us to January of 2009, when
the new President took office and had already inherited millions of
jobs that had been lost prior to then. Around 7.5 percent unemployment
was the starting point already. In the first quarter of 2009, before he
could even do anything--he took the oath of office in late January,
swore in a cabinet in February, and sent a plan up in March--another 2
million jobs were lost.
I find it interesting how we forget all of that, at least as a
starting point.
We have had 19 months of private sector growth--a little over 2
million jobs. That is good news. But where we have been shedding many
jobs is in the very essence of those in the public sector who teach our
children, who prepare for the next generation and the competitive
future of America, and who protect our communities--police officers,
who protect us from crime, and firefighters, who respond when there is
an emergency in our communities.
With the Teachers and First Responders Back to Work Act, we can
fulfill our duty to educate our children and keep our communities safe
or we can gamble our future on the political games we have seen here
that disinvest in the future of our children and the safety of our
communities.
Almost 300,000 education jobs are on the chopping block this year in
this country. At a time when other countries in the world are
increasing their educational workforce, we are in the process of
decreasing it. New Jersey, my home State, is facing a $10.5 billion
shortfall in its 2012 budget. That means more cuts in State and local
spending for education, and that hurts our children.
[[Page S6626]]
The Teachers and First Responders Back to Work Act creates 400,000
education jobs because an investment in our teachers is an investment
in our children and in our collective future. We are talking about $30
billion to States and local communities to retain, to hire, to rehire
the teachers who have already been separated, to educate tomorrow's
entrepreneurs.
In my State of New Jersey, this bill would provide an additional $831
million in funds to support an additional 9,300 education jobs that
largely have been lost. New Jersey alone has lost over 6,000 teachers
since 2008, slowing our economic recovery and creating a huge knowledge
gap in our schools. What does that gap translate into in terms of lost
knowledge? What does it mean to a promising young scientist who needs
some guidance or a struggling student who needs a little extra help?
I know about the power of a teacher. I know it through my own
personal life. I have had several great teachers along the way, but one
made a huge difference in my life. I remember her name--Gail Harper, my
speech teacher in high school.
You know, I know some of my colleagues won't believe this, but I was
among the most introverted persons at that time in my life. I didn't
even want to take the speech course, but I was told by my guidance
counselors that it was a must. I was a good student, an honor student,
but I didn't want to take the speech course because I didn't want to do
extemporaneous speaking, read assignments, or get up in front of the
class, any of that. I was forced to take it. I would prepare my work,
but I would not deliver it.
Finally, Gail Harper, the teacher, said to me--she kept me after
class, and she said: Robert, I don't know why you prepare yourself--
your preparation is great, but if you don't deliver this year, you will
fail. My mother, who had fled a country to come to freedom, was
convinced that I would be the first in my family to go to college. She
told me that failure is not an option. When I heard Gail Harper talk
about failure, I knew that was not an option. She worked with me to
nurture my abilities so that I could break out of that self-imposed
shell and really transform my life. In some respects, that I am here
today speaking on the Senate floor is because of Gail Harper. I fully
understand how teachers can make a huge difference in the life of a
young person.
We need to reinvest in teachers and education, in New Jersey's kids
and in America's future. We need to get those 6,000 New Jersey teachers
back in the classrooms and hire thousands more in every school in every
State in America.
Then I turn to the police and firefighters, and I remember living in
the New Jersey-New York region on September 11 a little over a decade
ago. On that fateful day, it was not the Federal Government that
responded to the tragedies and the horror of the World Trade Center; it
was local police, local firefighters, local emergency management who
were the first responders, who risked their lives and gave their lives
on that fateful day.
We made a promise to every community that we would keep communities
safe in America in a post-September 11 world, that we would give cops
and firefighters what they needed to do their jobs.
Every Member of Congress wanted to take a picture with a police
officer or a firefighter. We called them heroes. Now, Republicans want
to zero out the COPS Program that puts police officers on the beat.
They want to break our promises after September 11, and I think it is
time to make good on it with the $5 billion our legislation provides so
communities can hire and keep cops and firefighters on the job. They
are our first line of defense. We learned that after September 11.
I don't care where one is on the political spectrum or what one
believes the role of government is, we can all agree public safety and
the security of our communities is government's most fundamental
responsibility. We don't need police and firefighters just in the big
cities--although they face some of the major challenges--we need them
in every town and community.
Over 2,700 communities applied for help to fund 9,000 officers in the
last round for a total of $2 billion. But because of the opposition of
those on the Republican side to keeping our promise to first
responders, only $243 million was available, enough for only 238 of
2,700 communities that applied. That is 9 percent, and it was capped at
25 officers, no matter how big the city or how great the need.
In New Jersey, more than 150 communities applied for funding to keep
cops on the job. Only 12 of those 150 were funded. Those 12 communities
were only able to hire approximately 78 cops over the course of the
next 3 years. Right now, in New Jersey, there are 705 police officers
who lost their jobs and can't find law enforcement work, 705 fewer
sworn officers on the street, and there are 4,000 fewer officers in New
Jersey than there were on December 31, 2009. Public safety is
government's No. 1 responsibility, and it is time to deliver on that
promise, after September 11, to our communities and our first
responders. This legislation includes $5 billion to help first
responders stay on the job, close the public safety gap, and keep our
communities safe.
Let me conclude by saying, according to a CNN poll released just
yesterday afternoon, 75 percent of Americans support providing funding
to State and local governments to hire teachers and first responders,
including 63 percent of Republicans.
We have a choice. With this legislation, we can fulfill our duty to
educate our kids and keep our communities safe or we can gamble our
future on political games that don't invest in our children, our
economy, and the safety of our communities. I think the choice is
clear. I choose educating our kids. I choose protecting our
communities. I choose investing in our future and we do this all and
pay for it at the same time.
This is the beginning of a fight, and we will be back again and again
to force our friends on the other side to make the choice again and
again about whose side they are on. I think the choices are pretty
clear. The American people have spoken. It is time to get our teachers
and our first responders back to work.
I yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Illinois.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I wish to thank my colleague from New
Jersey for this amendment. It is an amendment that is critically
important to New Jersey, to Alaska, and to the State of Illinois
because the Menendez-Casey amendment in my State means that 14,500
teachers, firefighters, and policemen will stay on the job.
If the Menendez amendment--which is part of President Obama's jobs
package--does not pass, these people will be out of work. There will be
more kids in the classroom, talented teachers will be laid off, there
will be fewer cops on the beat in small towns and large, and
firefighters will have to cut back in terms of their ranks and we need
their protection. We can't let that happen. Senator Menendez has an
amendment which deals with this responsibly. It pays for it. It doesn't
add to the deficit, and that is where the objection comes in from the
Republican side of the aisle because he pays for it by asking those
making over $1 million a year to pay about one-half of 1 percent more
in taxes, and the Republicans say: No way. We cannot ask the wealthiest
people in America to pay one penny more.
To me, it is hard to explain why we would want to deny our children a
quality education, lay off teachers, make our streets a little less
safe with fewer police, and run the risk of fewer firefighters because
we don't want to ask people making over $1 million a year to pay one-
half of 1 percent more on their taxes. People who are making over
$20,000 a week, we are asking them to pay one-half of 1 percent to save
the jobs of teachers, firefighters, and police. It is interesting to
me, because when President Bush offered his jobs bill years ago, with
payroll tax cuts and cuts for businesses, these same Senators who are
criticizing President Obama's version of the bill were voting for it
and it wasn't paid for. It was added directly to the deficit. These
deficit hawks were willing to vote for this with President Bush's name
on it but now oppose it with President Obama's name on it. Is there a
message there? I think there is a clear message.
There are two things which drive the Republican caucus when it comes
to this debate. First, protect those making over $1 million a year at
any cost.
[[Page S6627]]
Let America languish in this recession, with 14 million people
unemployed, rather than ask the wealthiest, most comfortable people in
America, to pay just a little bit more in taxes.
Secondly, they consistently oppose proposals to deal with this jobs
crisis if they are offered by the President of the United States.
Senator McConnell said it earlier. It has been quoted over and over and
over that his highest priority as the Republican leader in the Senate
was to make sure President Obama was a one-term President.
If we are driven only by that kind of motive, I assume it will make
for good political headlines, but it ties our hands in getting things
done. You see, in the Senate, it takes 60 votes to do anything
significant and, unfortunately, 53 on this side of the aisle need the
help of 7 on the other side and they haven't been forthcoming. Last
week, we offered the President's jobs bill and said to the Republicans:
At least let's proceed to the bill and offer amendments. We couldn't
get a single Republican Senator to vote with us, not one. We had 51
votes for it--two Democrats did not vote for it--but we had no
Republican support, none.
So what is the Republican jobs bill? What would they do to turn this
economy around and move us forward? Sadly, they have nothing to offer,
nothing. Protect the incomes of the wealthiest people in America and
say no to everything President Obama suggests. That is not a recipe for
moving America forward.
I like to listen to their arguments about cutting redtape to create
jobs. I think to myself, do we have to eliminate the standards in this
country for clean air and clean water in order to have a thriving
economy? If we went the Republican way of eliminating these protections
for America's families and children, would this be a better nation? I
think not. Basic protections when it comes to air pollution, for
example, mean an awful lot to a lot of Americans.
I make it a point of going to classrooms and asking the kids in the
classroom a question: How many of you in this classroom know someone
who has asthma? I just asked that question in Mount Sterling, IL, a
rural community, one that you wouldn't believe would be dealing with
air pollution problems or pulmonary issues. More than half the class
raised their hand: Yes, they all knew someone--at least half of them
knew someone who was dealing with asthma.
Every year, asthma is responsible for 9 million visits to health care
professionals and more than 4,000 deaths in America. It is one of the
leading causes of school absenteeism, accounts for 14 million missed
school days annually. The average family spends between 5.5 percent and
14 percent of its total income on treating an asthmatic child.
So when the Republicans want to come forward and waive air pollution
standards, eliminate the protections we are trying to put in place,
they are endangering the health of people and children across America.
That is the reality. To argue that the only way to build the American
economy is by destroying public health standards to protect families
and children is not the right answer. We have to find a balanced
approach, one that takes into account the reality of science and the
reality of business but certainly protects defenseless Americans from
the kinds of changes which some Republicans are suggesting.
Is this what it comes down to? Is this the only way to move the
American economy forward, to say we may have to compromise the purity
of our drinking water when it comes to mercury and arsenic in order to
have the economy create jobs? What a terrible choice that is, and it is
a real choice. Take a look at the amendment offered by a Republican
Senator on cement kilns. Cement kilns generate toxic chemicals that end
up in air pollution and eventually are deposited on Earth, many times
in bodies of water such as the Great Lakes. What do mercury and arsenic
do to the aquatic life in the Great Lakes and to the people who live
around those Great Lakes? They compromise the safety of those great
bodies of water.
There are some who say: It goes into the air; It surely isn't going
to hurt you. Yet the statistics show the opposite. Poor air quality in
the most polluted U.S. cities can shorten the lives of residents up to
2 years, on average. The American Cancer Society found that the risk of
early death is over 15 percent greater in areas with increased smog
pollution. Nearly two-thirds of those suffering from asthma live in an
area where at least one Federal air quality standard is not being met.
We can't ignore this public health reality. We have an obligation to
the families who live in these cities, whether it is Chicago or
Springfield or any city across America, to make certain we don't
compromise basic air quality standards. That, frankly, is the only
proposal we hear from the Republicans to create jobs. They want to
protect the incomes of the wealthiest people in America and lessen the
standards we use to protect innocent families from air pollution and
deterioration of water quality.
Before I got up to speak, the Chair showed me a headline from the
Wall Street Journal. It is a headline we need to remind the Republicans
of when they get into this debate about jobs. Do you remember how many
times they mocked the President of the United States because he stepped
up and said: I will not allow the American automobile industry to die.
I am going to step in, he said, and help General Motors and Chrysler
through a very difficult time. Do you recall what we heard from the
other side of the aisle? It is the wrong thing to do. Let General
Motors go bankrupt, the Republicans said. Even former Governor Romney
said the automobile bailout was a bad decision. Here is Governor
Romney, from a family who had a lot to do with the automobile industry
and ought to have known a little better about it.
The President of the United States said: It wasn't my ambition to
step in and intervene and help major automobile companies, but I am
going to do it because hundreds of thousands of jobs are at stake. The
reality is, the President's decision was the right decision. It was the
right decision not just for Michigan--and Illinois, I might add--but
for the Nation. General Motors and Chrysler have now restructured. They
have a leaner workforce, a stronger inventory, and better products. The
report from the Wall Street Journal, which you showed me, shows that
the profitability of automobile companies when you look across the
board is now tipping in favor of American companies for American
workers.
There was also that story there that said, for the first time in a
long time, we are importing jobs from Asia and Mexico in the automobile
industry back to the United States of America.
Some Republican Senators can come to the floor and say President
Obama got it all wrong. Come on down to the Ford works, south of
Chicago, and take a look at those workers filing in every single day to
go to work.
Then go over to Belvedere, IL, to the Chrysler facility, and see
1,200 people going to work with good-paying jobs. They are there
because this President stepped up and said we are not going to let
these jobs go away. Many on the Republican side argued this was
heretical and wrong. Explain that to the families who have these good-
paying jobs, right here in America, with good benefits.
When I hear my Republican colleagues and friends come to the floor
and criticize what President Obama has done in this economy, they had
better stop and explain their early position opposing the President's
efforts to make sure the automobile industry in America survives and
thrives. Two hundred thousand workers today went to work for General
Motors in America. If the Republicans had their way, GM would have gone
bankrupt. Whether it would have survived bankruptcy no one knows. The
President said we cannot run that risk. He kept the company in
business, restructured, and now it is profitable again. That is a fact.
I will say this too. When I hear the Republican leader come to the
floor and argue that the President should speak for all Americans, I
ask the Republican leader to take a look at the response of the
American people to the President's jobs package. When the President
says we should cut the payroll tax for working families who are
struggling paycheck to paycheck so they have money to get by,
overwhelmingly the people support it. When the President says we should
help small businesses hire the unemployed, particularly veterans,
overwhelmingly the
[[Page S6628]]
American people support it. When the President says we should make sure
that teachers and policemen and firefighters do not lose their jobs in
this tough economy, overwhelmingly the American people support it. When
the President says millionaires should pay a little bit more in their
taxes to make sure the American recovery is underway, overwhelmingly
the American people support that, too.
In fact, 56 percent of Republicans, when asked, say that is a
reasonable way to pay for a jobs program. Unfortunately, none of those
56 percent serve with the Republicans in the Senate who happen to
believe their No. 1 task and goal is to protect the incomes of the
wealthiest people in America.
We can do better. We need to make sure we move forward on a
bipartisan basis to create jobs. This President inherited a very weak
economy. Under President Bush we had more than doubled the national
debt. When President Bush took office, our national debt was $5
trillion. When he left office, it was over $10 trillion, two wars he
didn't pay for, programs he didn't pay for, and tax cuts for wealthy
people in the midst of a war--something no President had ever done.
President Obama inherited that, and it has been a tough road, he will
tell you, to get this economy back on track. Now he has a plan and the
Republicans offer nothing. They vote against the President--whatever he
wants they are opposing--and they vote against common sense, which says
helping working families, helping small businesses, helping our
veterans find jobs, and paying for it so it doesn't add to our deficit
is a sensible approach to getting America back on the right track.
I urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, put the
campaigning aside for a moment. Take a look at what it takes to create
jobs and bring your best ideas to the table. Let's sit down and put
together a bipartisan bill. We will have the President's proposals as a
starting point. Bring your ideas too. Let's do something for this
country on a bipartisan basis. I think that is why we were elected.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Begich). The Senator from Arizona.
Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, as always I listened with interest to my
friend and colleague from Illinois. I did not come to the floor with my
colleagues to discuss that particular issue, but it is interesting, the
justification for the bailout of General Motors and Chrysler, when the
fact is there are thousands of small businesses and companies all over
America that had to go into bankruptcy but did not get the bailout that
was favorable to the trade unions. Why couldn't General Motors have
gone into bankruptcy the way every other company and corporation has
had to do in these hard economic times, restructured, and then gone
back into business again?
Instead, this administration and my friend from Illinois seemed to
favor the trade unions who obviously got very favorable treatment
rather than the normal bankruptcy procedures. Unlike the treatment the
favored trade unions and automobile corporations were able to get,
thousands of small businesses and companies all over America were
unable to get the benefit of their largesse.
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