[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.

                          ____________________