[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 56 (Monday, April 7, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2179-S2180]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PAYCHECK FAIRNESS ACT--MOTION TO PROCEED
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I now move to proceed to Calendar No. 345,
S. 2199.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill.
The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
A bill (S. 2199) to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of
1938 to provide more effective remedies to victims of
discrimination in the payment of wages on the basis of sex,
and for other purposes.
Cloture Motion
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have a cloture motion at the desk.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.
Cloture Motion
We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the
provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate,
hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to
proceed to calendar No. 345, S. 2199, a bill to amend the
Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide more effective
remedies to victims of discrimination in the payment of wages
on the basis of sex, and for other purposes.
Harry Reid, Barbara A. Mikulski, Patty Murray, Richard J.
Durbin, Kirsten E. Gillibrand, Brian Schatz, Heidi
Heitkamp, Martin Heinrich, Tammy Baldwin, Barbara
Boxer, Debbie Stabenow, Mazie K. Hirono, Kay R. Hagan,
Mary Landrieu, Claire McCaskill, Jeanne Shaheen, Dianne
Feinstein, Amy Klobuchar.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the mandatory quorum
required under rule XXII be waived.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from Colorado.
Wind Energy
Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about
jobs and about one sector in particular that has created tremendous
economic growth in Colorado and across the United States, and that is
wind energy and the jobs it has brought to our State.
During last Thursday's markup in the Finance Committee, we worked in
a bipartisan fashion to include a 2-year extension of the production
tax credit, known as the PTC, and the investment tax credit, known as
the ITC, for wind energy.
The wind credit has enjoyed broad bipartisan support from both sides
of the aisle over a number of years, ranging from its original
champion--who continues to be a champion--Senator Grassley from Iowa,
to my friend and colleague from Colorado Senator Mark Udall, who has
been a tireless and relentless supporter over the years for wind energy
jobs in Colorado. I know he will be a supportive advocate when the
extenders bill reaches the floor. If enacted into the law, the
extension of the production tax credit and investment tax credit will
continue to drive job growth in my State of Colorado.
Sometimes I hear people say the government should not pick winners
and losers in their critique of the wind energy tax credits. I actually
agree with that notion, but what I would say to people who are
listening to this on the TV is that when you hear someone in Washington
say you shouldn't pick winners and losers, that is when you should hold
onto your wallet. They say that is as if those decisions haven't
already been made--as if winners haven't already been produced
somewhere deep in the Tax Code in the last century or the regulatory
code or the statute books. It is a reminder to ask yourself: Who is
more likely to have benefits in this town? Is it the incumbent
industries that have been working on these for decade after decade or
is it the innovators in our economy? And, of course, time and time
again it is the legacy firms that have the upper hand in these debates.
I don't blame them for fighting for that advantage. But I also know
they are not necessarily going to be the industries that are going to
create the 21st century jobs we need, and whether we know it or not
that is fundamentally the debate we are having. It is not a left-right
debate in this town. It is future versus past debate, and it is
critically important to the next generation of Americans that we get
this right.
This is an updated version of a chart I have been bringing to the
floor for the last 4 years that shows some interesting relationships of
lines relating to our economy. The top chart is GDP growth in the
United States, and that is the green line. Here is the recession right
here. You can see we are actually producing much more as an economy
today than when we went into the recession. There is much greater gross
domestic product.
This is the unemployment level. You can see at the depths of the
recession the destruction in jobs the Presiding Officer saw in his home
State, and we saw it in my home State. We were in a very difficult
period at that time. We have actually begun to add jobs again, and we
are almost back to where we were. I think we are back to where we were
in terms of job creation.
This is a very stubborn and difficult issue for the people at home
and the people I represent. This shows what has happened to median
family and household income over periods of economic growth and over
periods of economic decline. A way of thinking about that line is: What
is happening to the middle-class income in this country? What is
happening is the growth of middle-class income has decoupled from our
economic growth. That, among other causes, has produced the worst
income inequality we have seen in this country since 1928, I would
argue, with the educational outcomes we have seen for kids, the most
significant opportunity gap we have had in our lifetimes.
Why has this happened? There are a variety of reasons, but let me
call your attention to this line. This is the productivity index in the
United States. This shows how productive and efficient our economy has
become. It has become incredibly efficient partly because of the use of
technology, that is true, partly because of reaction to competition
from overseas from China and India, and partly because the recession
itself, which you can see, drove the line straight up because firms had
to figure out how to get by with fewer people. That is our challenge.
That is our central economic dilemma as we move into the second decade
of this 21st century.
It is my view that there are two principal answers to that challenge.
The first is education. I am not here to talk about that tonight, but
just as a reminder, we are not going to recognize ourselves in this new
century if we continue to perpetuate a set of outcomes in our K-12
system where if you are born poor in the United States, your chances of
graduating with the equivalent of a college degree are roughly 9 in
100. That is completely unsatisfactory and outrageous, particularly for
the kids we are talking about.
The other is innovation. We have to make sure we have the most
innovative economy in the United States, and whether we are willing to
lead the world; it is the companies that will start next week, the week
after that, and the week after that, and the venture-backed companies
that are somebody's bright idea today in their garage, but tomorrow
could become the next Apple or Google. That is where the job growth and
the wage growth is going to come from.
In my view the wind credit cuts right to the core of whether we are
going to compete in a global economy. We are not talking about a fly-
by-night experimental industry. This credit has triggered tremendous
economic growth in Colorado and across the country. In Colorado alone,
these tax credits directly support 5,000 jobs.
Vestas, which manufactures wind turbines, employs over 1,400 workers
across four factories in our State from Pueblo all the way up I-25 to
Brighton
[[Page S2180]]
and Windsor. They have hired 400 new workers this year with another 450
projected to be added before the end of 2014. This is it. Right here.
Bricks and mortar. Real jobs. Made in America. It is not just
manufacturing and design jobs near urban centers; it is also
construction and operation jobs at the actual wind farms.
One Thursday night I left this floor, as I do almost every week--or
it was a Friday morning, I guess. I flew back to Colorado. I got in the
car and drove up to Peetz, where we have a wind farm. I climbed up to
the top of a wind turbine. I thought that was it. I was in the pod at
the top. That is not the technical term, but that is what it was. I
thought I could then go home. When I got up there, they opened a trap
door in the ceiling, and then I had to climb out on the roof of this
thing, swaying over the Wyoming border, in the very shoes I wear on the
floor of the Senate. That was an uncomfortable feeling, even though I
was clipped in.
There was a guy up there who was one of the operators, one of the
workers. He said: I would never have had this job in this community if
it were not for this wind farm. If it were not for a vision somebody
imagined several years ago but was unimaginable a decade ago, I would
not have this job in this community.
This industry drives economic growth across our State from the
conference rooms of tech startups in Boulder and Denver and all the way
to 6,000-acre Kit Carson Wind Power Generating Site just west of the
Kansas State line.
These are good jobs. In 2012, median household income for a single
male in this country was just under $37,000. Compare this figure to
jobs in the wind industry--and these are all from the Bureau of Labor
Statistics. Crane and wind tower operators have a median annual wage of
over $47,000. These are jobs that can't be exported overseas. They
can't be exported overseas. The electricians on wind projects average
nearly $50,000 annually. Land acquisition specialists who secure the
land where wind projects are located have a median salary of $74,000,
and site managers for wind projects make over $100,000 a year.
So if we are looking for a way to say we would like to see median
family income start to rise again in this country instead of going down
whether we are in a period of economic growth or decline, we might
start to look at things such as the wind industry. These are good-
paying jobs, and we are seeing it more and more in Colorado and all
across the country.
The production tax credit has driven $105 billion in private
investment, opened 550 industrial facilities, and provided $180 million
in lease payments to farmers, ranchers, and landowners who host wind
farms. Wind power accounts for more than a third of all new U.S.
electric generation in recent years. It has moved our State toward a
more diversified and cleaner energy portfolio. Colorado is in the lead
in many ways, and we are proud of that. Most importantly, 70 percent of
a U.S. wind turbine is produced right here in the United States, and
that creates 80,000 American jobs. When we travel the highways of my
State, we see the component parts of these wind turbines moving from
one plant to another, reflecting manufacturing jobs right here in the
United States of America.
So I am delighted, I am glad, that we are moving to restore the wind
credit that expired at the end of last year. We have seen this before
where the PTC expired without a prompt extension, and it doesn't end
well. Each time the credit has expired in the past, new installations
fell between 76 and 93 percent, dealing a blow to the industry and its
employees--and a reminder once again that what we don't do here
actually matters out there in the real lives of people.
I know I sound like a broken record, but the world is not waiting for
us to get out of our own way. We can't keep going through this
unnecessary political boom-and-bust cycle. I am pleased the Senate
Finance Committee took an important first step last week by reporting
out a 2-year extension. We need to follow that with good work by
bringing the extenders package to the floor and passing it into law.
That outcome will give much-needed certainty to our industries and help
secure the economic future for Colorado families who work in the wind
industry.
With that, I thank the Chair for allowing me to speak this evening,
and I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
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