[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 52 (Tuesday, April 1, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1889-S1890]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                  JOBS

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about 
jobs. Once again, this week the Senate is taking up an extension of 
unemployment benefits, which will be the 13th such extension since 
2008.
  Arguably, of course, we came out of an economic downturn and a lot of 
people were hurt by that; a lot of people were in need of help and 
assistance. Yet here we are, 6 years later, and we are still talking 
about extending unemployment benefits. Why? Because we haven't created 
enough jobs necessary to get the people who have been unemployed for a 
period of time back to work. Once again we have Senate Democrats 
ignoring the real issue, which is the lack of jobs that has left so 
many Americans struggling to find work.
  The solution to years of high unemployment is not perpetual 
extensions of unemployment benefits but the creation of new jobs--
steady, good-paying jobs with the opportunity for advancement. Workers 
don't want to spend years on meager government benefits; they want to 
return to work. But in order for that to happen, there have to be jobs 
available, and there haven't been too many jobs over the past 5 years.
  That is why Republicans have proposed a number of amendments to the 
unemployment insurance legislation that would remove obstacles to job 
creation and encourage businesses to expand and hire new workers. 
Unfortunately, Democrats have shown little interest in job creation 
over the past 5 years, so they are happy to extend unemployment 
benefits 13 times in 6 years, but they are unwilling to actually do 
anything to treat the causes of unemployment and to help hurting 
workers get the jobs they are looking for.
  In fact, Democrats' record on job creation has been pretty dismal.
  There was the stimulus bill, which completely failed to bring about 
the economic growth the President promised.
  There are thousands of new regulations the administration has placed 
on businesses which stifle job creation.
  The backdoor national energy tax which the EPA is trying to put on 
power companies in this country is going to be passed on. People across 
this country who can least afford it are going to be looking at much 
higher utility bills.
  We have the Keystone Pipeline, which has generated open hostility 
from Members on the other side, and of course we know that has 
immediate job creation potential. The Keystone Pipeline, according to 
the President's own State Department, would create 22,000 shovel-ready 
jobs, which could become available as soon as we get the pipeline 
approved.
  Of course, there is the ObamaCare legislation, passed several years 
ago, which continues to wreak havoc on job creation in this country. 
Chief among the burdens ObamaCare places on business is the employer 
mandate, which requires all businesses with 50 or more full-time 
workers, which the administration defines as 30 hours or more a week, 
to provide government-approved health insurance or to pay a fine.
  That is financially impossible for thousands of nonprofits and 
businesses with small profit margins such as restaurants. As a result, 
many of these businesses are being forced to cut workers' hours below 
30 hours a week to reduce the number of full-time employees on their 
books. And when they hire new workers, they are hiring part-time--not 
full-time--employees.
  The employer mandate is also discouraging a lot of small businesses 
from hiring at all. Businesses that planned to expand are now deciding 
they will be safer financially if they keep their businesses below 50 
employees. As a result, many new jobs are simply not being created.
  Then there is the costly tax on lifesaving medical devices such as 
pacemakers and insulin pumps. This ObamaCare tax, which is so 
economically damaging that it is opposed by many Democrats as well as 
Republicans, has already affected more than 300,000 jobs in the medical 
device industry. If the tax is not repealed soon, many more jobs in the 
industry will be lost entirely or sent overseas.
  Ultimately, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that ObamaCare 
will result in up to 2.5 million fewer full-time workers. On top of 
that, the Budget Committee estimates the law will reduce wages by more 
than $1 trillion.
  Right now more than 10 million Americans are unemployed. Nearly 4 
million of them have been unemployed for more than 6 months. 
Perpetually extending unemployment benefits does not fix that problem. 
We need to start creating jobs.
  I have an amendment to the legislation before us. It is called the 
Solutions to Long-Term Unemployment Act. It includes four commonsense 
measures that would support the unemployed and make it easier and 
cheaper for employers to hire new workers.
  For starters, my amendment would provide direct support to unemployed 
workers by offering a one-time, low-interest loan of up to $10,000 to 
allow an individual who has been out of work for 6 months or longer to 
relocate to a city or State that has a lower unemployment rate.
  Unemployment rates vary substantially across the United States. My 
home State of South Dakota, for example, has an unemployment rate of 
3.6 percent, which is far below the national average. We have a hard 
time in my State of South Dakota, believe it or not, in actually 
finding workers to fill the jobs. I talk to employers all the time in 
my State who are trying to find people to fill the jobs that are 
available in South Dakota.
  So moving to a State with a low unemployment rate can substantially 
increase workers' chances of getting a job. Unfortunately, most long-
term unemployed Americans lack the means to pack up and move to a new 
city or State.
  My amendment would help ensure that lack of resources does not 
prevent Americans from heading out to where the jobs are.
  My amendment also would support workers by cleaning up the mess that 
is Federal worker training programs. Currently, there are more than 
50--50--worker training programs spread across nine different Federal 
bureaucracies. Needless to say, that leads to a lot of duplication. And 
worse, a majority of these programs have never been evaluated to see if 
they actually work.
  My amendment would consolidate 35 of these programs into one 
streamlined

[[Page S1890]]

program and move control to the States. With every State facing 
different unemployment challenges, trying to administer a one-size-
fits-all program from Washington makes absolutely no sense. Putting 
States in control would allow each State to tailor its workforce 
training programs to the needs of its own citizens.
  My amendment would also provide two incentives to encourage 
businesses to hire the long-term unemployed.
  First, my amendment would permanently exempt long-term unemployed 
workers from ObamaCare's requirement that businesses with 50 or more 
workers provide government-approved health care to their employees or 
pay a fine.
  Many employers want to hire more workers but they are afraid. They 
are afraid of the financial hit their businesses will take if they end 
up subject to ObamaCare's costly mandate. My amendment would allow 
businesses to hire those new workers without that fear.
  This idea recently gained broad bipartisan support in the House of 
Representatives. The House has acted on a similar measure to exempt 
veterans from the ObamaCare employer mandate headcount. That measure 
passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 406 to 1. That is a 
strong indication that we need to provide relief from ObamaCare's 
costly mandates to ensure those who need and want to work are able to 
find good jobs.
  I am confident that if the majority leader would allow this provision 
to get a vote on the Senate floor, we would see a similar outcome that 
would benefit long-term unemployed individuals.
  Finally, my amendment would provide another hiring incentive by 
granting a 6-month payroll tax holiday for each long-term unemployed 
worker that a business hires. For an employer hiring a worker that is 
making $40,000, that 6-month payroll holiday means a savings of $1,240.
  If it is the Senate's will to extend these benefits, Republicans want 
to ensure this extension is paired with the kind of help that will 
actually ensure we do not have to extend unemployment benefits a 14th 
or a 15th time. That is why we are here offering measures to address 
the root cause of unemployment--the lack of jobs.
  It is vital that we stop putting bandaids over the problem and start 
focusing on solutions. Democrats may not have made job creation a 
priority for the last 5 years, but they can start making it a priority 
today. And they can do that by the majority leader allowing votes on 
Republican proposals to make it easier and less expensive to create 
jobs.
  We just heard--we keep hearing--proposals that are being brought to 
the floor by Democrats that will drive up the cost of doing business, 
make it harder, create more obstacles to hiring people and to creating 
jobs. The proposed 40-percent increase in the minimum wage, for 
example--I have visited with employers in my State of South Dakota, 
small employers. I had a meeting with employers, where the size of 
their businesses range from 30 employees up to about 200 employees, all 
of whom concluded that an increase of that magnitude in the minimum 
wage would make it much harder for them to grow their businesses and to 
create jobs.
  The Congressional Budget Office estimated that raising the minimum 
wage would cost our economy up to 1 million jobs. Why? Because it makes 
it more expensive, more difficult for employers to create those jobs 
and to hire new workers. As a consequence, there are fewer jobs that 
get created in our economy.
  Well, if the goal is to lift people into the middle class, to get 
more people to work, I do not know why we would look at policies that 
have proven in the past to make it more difficult to create jobs and 
cost us jobs in our economy. And we have the Congressional Budget 
Office saying it would cost us up to 1 million jobs and also raise 
costs for people in this country; in other words, the things people 
have to buy. It would raise prices for the things people have to rely 
on in their daily lives.
  Those are the types of things we continue to hear from the other 
side--proposals that, frankly, sound good and maybe poll well but when 
you really get down to brass tacks do not get the job done. And 
clearly, the object is creating jobs--something we have not done here 
now for 5 years because we consistently get policies from our 
Democratic colleagues and from the President that drive up the cost of 
doing business, drive up the cost of hiring new employees, put more 
obstacles in the way of job creation, instead of putting policies in 
place that we know--that we know--will create jobs, good-paying jobs, 
and give people an opportunity for advancement that will help lift them 
into the middle class.
  We can do it. It is high time we did it. I hope, again, that the 
majority leader will allow votes this week on Republican proposals--and 
there are many of them here--that actually will make it easier and less 
expensive to create jobs in this country. It is long past time that we 
start providing real help for the unemployed.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Schatz). The Senator from Indiana.

                          ____________________