[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 14, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S299-S300]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HOMEOWNER FLOOD INSURANCE AFFORDABILITY ACT OF 2013--MOTION TO PROCEED
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 266.
The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 266, S. 1846, a bill to
delay the implementation of certain provisions of the
Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012, and for
other purposes.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, we will have further discussion on this
matter today; that is, the matter I moved to. On our side, we have
cleared the bill. We could complete it quickly. We are waiting to hear
from the Republicans. This is one of the bills where, if we need to do
some amendments on it, we can do some amendments on it.
The point is, I think we should try to get this done. We have been
waiting for a long time to get this done. This is truly a bipartisan
bill. As I explained to the Republican leader yesterday, I have had a
number of Republicans come to me to see if there is a way this bill
could be moved quickly. It has become a desperate situation, with so
many problems. Construction has been, in some areas, brought to a halt.
So hopefully we can work something out on this in the immediate future.
Schedule
Mr. President, following my remarks and those of the Republican
leader, the Senate will resume consideration of the unemployment
insurance extension. The time until 12:30 will be equally divided and
controlled between the two leaders or their designees, with the
majority controlling the first 30 minutes and the Republicans the
second 30 minutes. The Senate will then recess from 12:30 until 2:15,
as we do every Tuesday, for our caucus meetings. At 2:30, there will be
up to two rollcall votes; first, a cloture vote on the Reed of Rhode
Island substitute amendment. If cloture is not invoked, there will be a
second cloture vote on the underlying bill.
We have had some good discussions, and I am going to--as I know the
Republican leader will--discuss if there is a way to move forward on
unemployment insurance. I hope there is. At 2:30 today, after our
caucuses, we will come out and see if there is a consent agreement we
can present to the Senate to move forward with the legislation. I hope
that is possible, and we are certainly trying.
Unemployment Insurance
Mr. President, each day Bloomberg releases a list of the 300 richest
individuals in the world--the Bloomberg Billionaires index. The list
includes 67 fortunate and really fabulously wealthy Americans. More
than any other country in the world, we have 67 of the 300. Last year,
the members of the billionaire index added $524 billion in new wealth
to their net worth.
Listen to that, Mr. President: Last year, the billionaire's index--
these 67 people--added $524 billion of new wealth. Not million but
billion--$2 billion per person last year.
These are 300 fortunate individuals, flooded with their already flush
coffers, with another $2 billion each, while millions of American
families struggle to pay their rent. I don't begrudge these people at
their making a lot of money. Their good fortune is something that
speaks well of our country. We are truly a land of opportunity. But I
do believe it is time for average Americans to share in that
prosperity, particularly as the economy recovers.
If this were just a quirk in the indexes of how rich people are, that
would be one thing, but in the last 30 years this same top 1 percent
have seen their wealth increase--their incomes triple--while the middle
class has gone down 10 percent in the same 30 years. It is time for
average Americans--and I believe this so sincerely--to share in that
prosperity in some way, especially as the economy is now recovering.
For most Americans, hard work isn't paying off the way it does for
the top 1 percent. For many it has been impossible to even find steady
full-time work since the recession began. That is why we must not
abandon the 1.4 million Americans who are out there struggling--
unemployed people who have been cut off from these crucial benefits now
for the last 2 weeks, and they are looking forward to maybe being cut
off forever.
This small stipend--an average of $300 per week--is helping them keep
[[Page S300]]
food on the table and, literally, roofs over their heads while they
look for work. I read here on the floor a letter from someone in
Nevada, a woman, who said she doesn't know where she is going to go,
what she is going to do. She, as have many people, has looked for work
so very hard. As part of the unemployment compensation, an individual
has to have been fired or laid off through no fault of their own and
then they have to look for work every week.
Americans do want to go back to work. They do not want to set a bad
example for their kids. They do not want to live off the system--
whatever that means. But there is still only one job for every three
people searching all over America. Some places are worse off than
others. In Nevada, a man wrote to me--1 of almost 20,000 Nevadans who
lost unemployment benefits last month--and he said he had applied for
700 jobs in the last 10 months--not 70, not 7, but 700. He has been
able to get a dozen interviews but still can't find work.
But he hasn't given up hope. He hasn't given up the hope of finding a
good-paying job, and he hasn't given up hope that Congress will restore
emergency unemployment benefits until he does find a job. Neither have
the 200 Nevada veterans who attended a job fair I put on last week. It
was held at the University of Nevada over the weekend. It is shameful
that tens of thousands of veterans of this Nation's armed forces lost
their unemployment benefits last year.
It is inspiring to hear the stories of hard-working Americans who
simply won't give up until they find a job. So I hope Senators will
remember the perseverance of these brave individuals as they continue
to seek a compromise here in this body that would restore emergency
unemployment benefits to 1.4 million Americans.
This says it all: 67 of the richest people in the world living in
America got a $2 billion tip last year. For 1.4 million Americans, they
lost $300 on average per week. That is not fair. This is America, the
land of opportunity. People who work hard are supposed to be rewarded--
but not during the last 30 years.
The middle class has lost 10 percent of their income, and that
doesn't take into consideration the poor--the poor. There are more poor
than ever in America. The middle class, we know, is being squeezed out
of existence. It is time for us to take care of these people who are
desperate for help. That is what the government is all about.
Looking back at my home life, I feel government has been good for the
people who live in my little town of Searchlight. It is a town mostly
of old people. Many of them are getting pensions from wherever they
worked. They get Social Security. But the government has done so many
good things. Let us not denigrate government. This is a time when
people have no opportunity. They need government help. They are
desperate. All they want is one job, but they know if there is a
vacancy over here, there are going to be scores--and we have seen this
in the news accounts of job opportunities--thousands of people showing
up for sometimes just a handful of jobs.
Recognition of the Minority Leader
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican leader is recognized.
Unemployment Insurance
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on the unemployment insurance bill,
there have been productive conversations between the majority leader
and several Members on this side. The Republicans have offered numerous
commonsense proposals to get to a conclusion. Ideally, we would have
spent the past week voting on those proposals, so there is really no
good reason for us to be in the position that we are in right now.
Let me just underscore some of the things on my side that we would
like to see in the final product. First, the Senate should actually be
paying for whatever it passes, and not with spending cuts 11 years from
now that we know aren't going to happen. It is also reasonable to
expect practical progrowth job creation measures so we can actually get
people back to work, and for a solution to be reasonable it should also
respect the right of our constituents to be heard on this issue through
a more open amendment process.
We have to get away from an attitude that essentially says the views
of half the American people don't matter in the Senate. These days it
has gotten even worse than that; ideas on both sides are often
completely ignored. That is just not how the Senate is supposed to
work. So we have an opportunity to begin to start fixing the problem on
the bill that is before us. It is the right thing to do. I am hopeful
common sense will prevail.
(The further remarks of Mr. McConnell pertaining to the introduction
of S. 1916 are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on
Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')
Mr. McCONNELL. I yield the floor.
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