[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 171 (Tuesday, October 24, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6721-S6730]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
BANKRUPTCY JUDGESHIP ACT OF 2017
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the
Senate will resume consideration of the House message to accompany H.R.
2266, which the clerk will report.
The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
House message to accompany H.R. 2266, a bill to amend title
28 of the United States Code to authorize the appointment of
additional bankruptcy judges; and for other purposes.
Pending:
McConnell motion to concur in the amendment of the House to
the amendment of the Senate to the bill.
McConnell motion to concur in the amendment of the House to
the amendment of the Senate to the bill, with McConnell
amendment No. 1568, to change the enactment date.
McConnell amendment No. 1569 (to amendment No. 1568), of a
perfecting nature.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from California.
Ms. HARRIS. Mr. President, I thank the minority leader, Senator
Schumer, for his words of emphasis on the need to ensure that not only
do our fellow Americans in Florida and Texas receive the relief they so
dearly and sorely need but also that our fellow Americans in Puerto
Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well, receive the relief
[[Page S6722]]
they need and receive the priority they deserve.
California has been devastated, frankly, by the wildfires that we
have just experienced. Ten days ago, I was in Santa Rosa, CA, and
witnessed firsthand the devastation that took place throughout that
region and, in particular, in Coffey Park.
I met with evacuees. I met with firefighters. I met with community
leaders, elected leaders, and others who traveled to that area out of
concern and with a desire to help. I met county supervisors, and for
two of them in particular, Supervisors Gore and Gorin, their entire
districts were on fire. One of the supervisors even lost her own home.
Yet they were leading the charge in the recovery efforts and doing so
in such a selfless way and with such courage.
Entire communities were devastated, and people have lost everything
and are still suffering to an incredible extent because of the loss
they have experienced and the fact that they have not been resettled.
My heart breaks, as I know all of us feel for the 42 people and their
families whose lives were ended in these fires. There were 42 people in
this region who lost their lives. In addition, more than 8,400 homes
and buildings were destroyed. For example, in Santa Rosa, 5 percent of
the entire housing stock is gone. Many of the folks in these
neighborhoods are middle-class families--working families. They are
plumbers and teachers and first responders who were barely able to meet
their mortgage. The fires have scorched more than 245,000 acres, and
100,000 Californians were forced to evacuate.
I must tell you, I am in awe of the work of the firefighters and
first responders who fought tirelessly day and night. I heard stories
of firefighters who worked 80 hours straight to do the work of
evacuation, ensuring that no lives were lost and no lives were in
peril. I am in awe of their work.
I met a firefighter. His first name is Paul, who, when I met him, was
finally taking a moment of rest from the firefighting he had been
doing. He was wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt and flip-flops he
borrowed from another firefighter because he lost his home and
everything he had. Yet there he was on the frontlines fighting to make
sure no other Californians, no other people faced the kind of
devastation he faced.
There were more than 11,000 total firefighters who went to the fire.
Some were from other States and even other countries. They deserve our
thanks. I stand here in the U.S. Senate to thank them for the work they
did, coming to California and helping us deal with this crisis.
First responders and medical professionals did important work as
well. Fifty-one doctors from Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital who lost
their homes and possessions still stayed overtime to help crowded
emergency rooms full of patients. I am uplifted by what I know, and the
world now sees, which is the character of Californians. People rushed
to help the elderly in nursing homes evacuate. I heard the story of a
doctor who used his motorcycle to save newborn babies from a neonatal
unit.
Now these folks need our help. Senator Feinstein and I will continue
to demand FEMA resources, which include the need for housing,
individual assistance, transportation, and water infrastructure. We
need to make sure all Californians, regardless of status, can get help
at the shelters.
I spoke with DHS Acting Secretary Elaine Duke and confirmed that ICE
will suspend immigration enforcement in the area until further notice.
It is our belief, and it is our understanding as Californians, that
notice will be clear as to when this effort will end, in terms of not
enforcing immigration. We want to be clear when it is going to start so
we can tell Californians because right now they are trusting DHS's word
that this immigration enforcement has been suspended. We are told that
FEMA, through Elaine Duke, will also support emergency packages that
provide disaster relief for the hurricanes in Texas, Florida, Puerto
Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
California is resilient and will rebuild, but we need help. More than
12,000 constituents have contacted our office, and we will continue to
work with FEMA, HUD, the Small Business Administration, and the USDA to
ensure that those affected in my State will get all the relief that is
necessary.
Congress needs to fund programs like community development block
grants and section 8 housing to help provide affordable housing for
low- and middle-class residents. They need the help to find affordable
housing. California is facing an affordable housing crisis like many
other States in our country, and this is something that has been
highlighted by the devastation these various States and territories
have experienced recently, but it is an ongoing issue we must deal
with.
We cannot stop there. We need larger supplemental emergency packages
that include helping California. This has to be a long-term commitment.
California is experiencing the worst fires in history, and they are
becoming more frequent. In the 1980s, fires burned and wildfires burned
under 25 acres, on average. Now typical wildfires will burn over 100
acres. California's 2017 fire season has not yet ended, and it has
already burned more acres than the average for the past 5 years. In
Southern California, from Kern County to San Diego, red flag warnings
are occurring as we speak. There are currently up to 55 mile-an-hour
winds and warm, dry weather, with no humidity or very little humidity.
These are the conditions that were at play during the most recent
wildfire crisis.
We must also look at the future and how we can prevent wildfires from
reaching this magnitude as we go forward. We must pass the Wildfire
Disaster Funding Act.
Today, over half of the U.S. Forest Service budget is dedicated to
combating wildfires, compared to just 13 percent of the budget in 1993.
The wildfires are treated differently than floods or hurricanes. The
Forest Service is not allowed to use general disaster relief funds at
FEMA, and that makes no sense.
Prevention is cheaper than reaction. The U.S. Forest Service
estimated that there are 6.3 billion dead trees in the Western States.
Removing them would improve safety by mitigating wildfires. Also, it
would have an economic benefit and create jobs. There are certain
bills, and the bill I mentioned, that will help achieve this because it
will allow the Forest Service to dedicate part of the budget to forest
management and not just reacting.
We must listen to the experts. For example, CAL FIRE agrees. Too
often, States are picking up the bill for prevention in forest
management, and we should make it very clear that fires are not
partisan. This bill I mentioned, the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act, is
a bipartisan bill, and it should be inserted cleanly into the next
supplemental emergency package.
Finally, let's recognize the connection between these disasters and
climate change. California is leading the way and preparing for
increasing wildfires, but the Federal Government needs to do its part.
Natural disasters from fires to hurricanes, to floods do not
discriminate by region or by party. We must help each other when these
travesties hit, but also we must prepare for the future.
In closing, I would suggest and urge our colleagues to pass the
supplemental bill and future emergency resources, ensure that Federal
agencies deliver prompt help on the ground, and pass the Wildfire
Disaster Funding Act.
Thank you.
I yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Florida.
Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, just as the Senator from California has
outlined the needs of her State, having been hit by a natural disaster,
so, too, natural disasters, not wildfires--although we have had plenty
in Florida--but hurricanes have hit other States.
Yesterday, this Senator spoke at length about the effects on a
particular industry, the citrus industry. I showed pictures of 75
percent to 90 percent of the fruit on the ground. This Senator made a
unanimous consent request to include a bipartisan amendment to get
money for agriculture, not just in Florida but Texas, Puerto Rico, the
Virgin Islands, and the wildfires in California into the package--
specifically, about $3 billion for agriculture. The losses in Florida's
agriculture are $2.5 billion, of which three-fourths of a billion is
just losses to citrus growers.
That is all the bad news because the unanimous consent request was
rejected. The good news is, although the
[[Page S6723]]
White House rejected it, they made a promise to put it in a continuing
supplemental emergency appropriations in November for all these natural
disasters and get that funding in there for agriculture. Some of us on
both sides of this aisle, in order to make sure that promise is kept,
have put a hold on the nominee for Deputy Budget Director. I will take
the White House at its word, and this ought to all be worked out in
November. That was the subject of my address to the Senate yesterday,
along with my colleague Senator Rubio from Florida, as we talked about
the losses particularly to agriculture.
Today I want to talk about how a month after the hurricane in Puerto
Rico and 2 months after the hurricane in Florida, the aftermath is not
going so swimmingly because people are not getting the assistance they
need. Mind you, this is 2 months after the hurricanes. People lost all
the food in their freezer because they didn't have any power. They are
supposed to get assistance in order to be able to buy food. If you are
living paycheck to paycheck and you don't have a paycheck, you don't
have any money to buy food. Therefore, you should get financial
assistance from FEMA and the USDA. Yet you ought to see the lines in
Miami, in Orlando, in Tampa, and in Belle Glade, and then they are
cutting off the lines. The people who are getting cut out are going
without food. So we have a long way to go.
The USDA's Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, called
D-SNAP, is supposed to help all of our people recover from losses
incurred by Irma by making short-term assistance available. It is
especially important for families who are low income, who don't have
income, or they are not getting a paycheck. Now they are saddled with
unexpected repairs like a storm-damaged roof. They spent money
evacuating or they lost wages during the storm, or they lost power and
lost all the food in their freezer. Some people buy food in bulk
because they can get it cheaper and store it in the freezer. Then, bam.
It is all gone because there is no power.
There were 50,000 people waiting at a center in South Florida, and
many were turned away after waiting in the heat for hours and hours.
The next day it was the same story in another city I didn't mention,
Delray Beach. The people are getting desperate.
I thank FEMA for everything it has done. I thank the Congress for
doing the first supplemental in September that was intended originally
for Harvey in Texas but along came Irma in Florida. I thank the
Congress for the additional supplemental we just passed last night, but
the administration of all these programs for assistance to people is
not going so well.
Let's take another example. You get on the phone and you call FEMA.
You are supposed to get a FEMA representative, and you have to wait. If
that is because FEMA needs more people on a short-term basis to handle
the amount of calls, well, FEMA, let's get it going.
What happens if you are calling because you need to have a FEMA
representative come to your house to inspect your house so you can then
get the necessary individual assistance to help you? You are waiting
for assistance as to when a housing inspector can come and visit the
home. Once you get through on the telephone, the last time we checked,
the expected wait time to get a housing inspector is 45 days. That is
too long for families to wait for an inspector to come because these
Floridians are stuck living in damaged homes. Their homes have gotten
wet, and, therefore, the mold and the mildew has built up, and they
don't have any place else to go. They don't have any income to go down
to one of the air-conditioned hotels, and they are still waiting for
the FEMA inspector to come and inspect their home so they can get
qualified to get the assistance that, in fact, they are due under the
law. Our people can't access certain forms of FEMA assistance until the
inspection is complete. I am told that FEMA has indeed increased the
number of housing inspectors on the ground, but this process has to be
expedited.
This isn't the only delay that is causing a very serious threat to
health and to safety in Florida. FEMA has been very slow to bring in
manufactured homes, mobile homes. Why? Because a lot of people's homes
and/or mobile homes were so damaged, they can't go back and live there,
so they get temporary assistance. They go into, hopefully, some air-
conditioned place, such as an existing apartment complex or, per
chance, a hotel. But what if you are in the Florida Keys? What if you
are in the Keys, where there are not enough hotels and motels? In fact,
there are not a lot of apartments.
By the way, the service industry is necessary to revive the tourism
industry in the Keys, as an example, because that is the lifeblood of
the economy, and the service industry has no place in which to live
because their trailers are history.
I wish I had a picture here to show you of a mobile home park just
north of Big Pine Key that I went to. There was not one mobile home
that was upright. They were either all on their side, or they were
upside down. It is not unusual because these are the Keys. The
hurricane came right off the water, a category 4. But FEMA isn't
getting those mobile homes, those manufactured homes, in as temporary
assistance.
Understand, the example I gave is of the Florida Keys. There is one
way in and one way out. But you have to compensate for that. In the
meantime, people are suffering, and people are hurting.
The redtape should not stop anyone in this country from having a safe
place to live. I urge FEMA to expedite the transporting of these units
all over Florida, to Florida communities, and filling them up so that
Floridians have a place to live that is safe and clean.
I say to my friend from New Jersey, if what is going on in Florida
isn't bad enough, what about Puerto Rico? Right now, more than a month
after the hurricane, 80 percent of the island still doesn't have power.
I didn't go into the urbanized parts of San Juan, although I was there
and did look around; I flew into the mountains, into the little town of
Utuado. For 2\1/2\ weeks, they were cut off. They didn't have a road to
get up there for 2\1/2\ weeks.
I say to my friend from Washington, in Puerto Rico, would you believe
that over a month after the hurricane, 30 percent still do not have
potable water? In Utuado, in the mountains, I saw them going up to a
pipe to get water that was flowing down through the mountains. This
wasn't necessarily potable water, but it was the only thing they had.
They were lining up with their plastic jars and plastic buckets.
Hospitals in Puerto Rico are rationing services. They are forgoing
optional operations. They are making difficult decisions on
prioritizing patients because of limited medication, and limited
facilities, fuel, communications, and power. Dialysis centers are
desperate to get clean enough water so that they can process the
dialysis for kidney patients.
Clearly, more needs to be done to help the people of Puerto Rico in
addition to the people in Florida and all the other States.
I urge my colleagues to remember the plight of Americans trying to
put their lives together after a major disaster.
We have heard the Senator from California make a plea about the
wildfires. You have heard this Senator make a plea for Florida, Puerto
Rico, and the Virgin Islands. We have heard the Texas delegation make a
plea for Texas. We all have to come together in this time of need and
pass a robust and comprehensive aid bill. We hope the White House will
be true to its promise that the additional aid, particularly for
agriculture, will be put in the November emergency supplement. There
should be absolutely no ambiguity that the Federal Government intends
to provide all the necessary assistance to make our people whole.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Washington.
Mrs. MURRAY. Thank you, Mr. President.
As we speak, millions of Americans are working to put their lives
back together after what has been an especially devastating series of
disasters, from hurricanes that caused unprecedented flooding, which
the Senator from Florida just spoke about, the catastrophic damage
there, to deadly wildfires that have scorched communities across the
West. From Santa Rosa to San Juan, there are countless families who
need a hand up right now,
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and we have to be there for them, including our fellow Americans in
Puerto Rico, where a vast majority of families on the island are still
without power or access to clean water, as we just heard.
I am glad we will soon take up a relief package to send resources to
help our neighbors in need, many of whom have lost everything. I am
glad, as you will hear from many of our colleagues on the floor today,
that this is not the end of our commitment to those affected by these
recent disasters but, rather, a downpayment on what we know will be a
very long road to recovery for many devastated regions. But I challenge
my colleagues to do one better. Not only could we address the
longstanding fisheries disaster that continues to cause hardship for
the men and women of our fishing industry and our Tribal communities,
we could also fix the flawed way this country fights wildfires.
For far too long, the U.S. Forest Service has been forced to use up
its budget fighting wildfires every season, only to have no funds left
over to work on preventing them. This is a very dangerous cycle and a
disservice to so many communities in the West. It has only gotten worse
as climate change takes hold, which means our wildfires have grown more
massive in size and intensity in recent years. I urge my colleagues to
treat wildfires like the disaster they are.
I hope we all take this moment to acknowledge all of our neighbors
affected by disaster, even if they don't make the front page of the
paper. Let's use this opportunity to get the policy right and help out
all our neighbors in need.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from New Jersey.
Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I am grateful to be joining with a lot of
my colleagues today to talk about the urgency and the importance of
what has happened in the aftermath of horrific hurricanes--Hurricane
Harvey more than 2 months ago and Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria
over a month ago. They have wreaked havoc on millions of lives. They
have destroyed billions of dollars of property. They have created pain,
suffering, and loss--loss of life everywhere from Texas, to Florida, to
Puerto Rico, to the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Right now, too many of our citizens are still living in not just
unacceptable conditions for an American, but they are really living on
the brink of homelessness--food and water insecurity, scarcity, and
facing the ravages of poverty, where you have lost everything and you
are in a dependent state, dependent upon relief aid, dependent upon
your neighbors.
Thousands of families have lost everything, and I believe they have
yet to receive the kind of support they deserve from their government.
Governments were formed in this country. This Nation was founded on
this ideal of common defense. It is literally written into our founding
documents, this idea that we are coming together for the protection and
the strength of our communities. Right now, we are not doing enough,
and that is not the American way.
I have seen it. During the storm that hit New Jersey, Superstorm
Sandy, I still remember seeing us at our best, seeing neighbors open
their homes, reaching out to one another. They were Americans standing
up for Americans and not worrying about what their political parties
were, not worrying about the risk there might be to themselves.
In fact, I still remember, as the storm was still raging, driving
around my city in an SUV, checking in. I was coming up a hill, and I
got a call from the President of the United States checking in on
Newark. As the hurricane was beginning to leave, as the superstorm was
beginning to leave, I got a call right after that from Governor Chris
Christie expressing the same empathy, the same concern, checking in to
see how I was doing.
I remember coming up on a hill, and just as I was finishing the last
of those two conversations--talking to the most powerful person on the
planet, the President, and the most powerful person in our State, the
Governor; two different parties, two different backgrounds, but they
are Americans--I remember coming up to a street corner where a massive
tree had fallen, had torn down lines, and I saw a person in a raincoat
standing there by the lines trying to wave me by to make sure my SUV
didn't hit what could have been a live wire. I pulled the car over to
the side in the wind and the rain, and I saw that it was an elderly man
standing there in the streets feeling as if it was his obligation to
protect his community. I stood there in the rain and looked at this
elderly, African-American man who was standing there trying to protect
people who were driving through and thought to myself: I talked to the
most powerful guy in the country. I talked to the most powerful person
in my State. But the true power that I saw was in an American who was
working to take care of his community in a time of trial.
That was the spirit that stayed with me and lifted me during this
crisis when I was staying up day after day--seeing his commitment to
his community.
Martin Luther King said so eloquently that the ultimate measure of a
man--and I would like to expand that and change that for a second--the
ultimate measure of a person is not where they stand in moments of
comfort and convenience but where they stand at times of challenge and
controversy. That is where we are right now.
Tens of millions of us are very comfortable right now. This is a time
of comfort and convenience for many. I got up this morning, I turned on
my shower, and hot water came out. When I opened my fridge, there was
food there. But how can we sit idly by while there is an urgency going
on of epic proportions?
Let me tell you about Puerto Rico. As my friend from Florida said, 80
percent of their island remains without power. I saw firsthand what 1
week without power did in my community. It literally led to the deaths
of people--not the storm itself, but the lack of power was directly
related to the deaths in the city of which I was mayor. There are
people who don't have access to things we take for granted, whether it
be a bank account or food. It was profoundly stated by my colleague
that just access to clean water--right now, there are people who are
falling ill and dying in Puerto Rico because of a lack of access to
clean water. Sanitation systems, water, roads, bridges, electric
grids--all of these urgently need Federal investment.
One of my staffers has a son who is a medic in the Puerto Rico
National Guard, and he has told her that people in hospitals have died.
The loss of life, the loss of American lives--our fellow citizens have
died because of their lack of access to electricity and the lack of
access to oxygen.
We are Americans. I know our character. I know our spirit. But right
now, there are hundreds of thousands of people in our country who are
suffering. They may not be proximate to us in geography; they may not
be next to us in sight. But the spirit we need right now is the spirit
of that man standing in the storm, watching over his neighbors,
watching over people passing through, being there for their own.
We have work to do. We have an urgency. Where children are suffering
without the basics, where schools are closed, where crops have been
destroyed, where access to food has been destroyed, we have work to do.
So my sense of urgency right now is believing that, as a first step, we
must have a comprehensive aid package--not just to help our fellow
Americans in Florida and Texas where there are urgent crises still
going on. The gravity of the pain and suffering in the Virgin Islands
and in Puerto Rico right now is unimaginable for those of us who are
not experiencing it, and it is unacceptable for us, as Americans, not
to be there for our fellow citizens.
We are just 5 days away from the fifth anniversary of the storm that
hit New Jersey, and we have made great strides in New Jersey over the
past 5 years. But the reality is that today in New Jersey, we are still
recovering from that storm.
This is going to be a long process, an urgent process. It is going to
be a process that necessitates resilience, necessitates endurance, and
necessitates persistence. But it starts with this body, the Congress of
the United States of America, putting together an aid package that
includes direct grant funding for rebuilding our country. For Puerto
Rico and the Virgin Islands, it
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must include making sure the island is strong enough. From
telecommunications, to energy sources, to schools, we must make sure
that the aid package includes all that is necessary for these islands
to stand up again and get to work for the many months and years to come
of rebuilding.
I support my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. I am encouraged
by the spirit I encountered that night, having a Democratic President
and Republican Governor call me as concerned Americans. But the spirit
I call on tonight is that of the elderly Black guy on a street in a
storm who said: The storms may howl; the rain may come; the water may
rise. But when it comes to my country, I will stand for America and
stand for Americans.
I yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Montana.
Mr. TESTER. Mr. President, Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria have
left a path of destruction along the Texas gulf coast, Florida, and
Puerto Rico. The damage caused by these storms will be felt for many
years to come.
This emergency supplemental is another step forward to recovery for
the millions of Americans who call these places home. But I want to
remind my colleagues that there is still an ongoing natural disaster in
the West that is leaving families displaced, costing taxpayers billions
of dollars, destroying structures, and taking human lives.
As of today, 5,000 firefighters are still battling more than a
quarter of a million acres of wildfires burning across the West.
In my home State of Montana, despite an early snowfall, families this
last weekend in Musselshell County were forced to evacuate after a fire
ripped through a dry landscape and put their homes and livelihoods at
risk.
In California, more than 8,000 structures have been lost to wildfires
this year alone, and with temperatures expected to be in the 90s all
week, there doesn't seem to be any end in sight.
Across the country, in total, fires have burned nearly 9 million
acres--significantly more than the yearly average--and 1.2 million of
those acres are in Montana. These fires have cost the taxpayers nearly
$3 billion to date.
Quite frankly, these wildfires have been devastating in Montana and
in States across the West. It is critically important that we take
quick action to mitigate the damage caused by these fires and get
communities back on their feet.
The funds in this emergency package will reimburse the Forest Service
for the funds borrowed to fight wildfires. When the Forest Service has
to borrow from its nonfire accounts to cover firefighting on the
ground, we lose out on critical maintenance, mitigation, and
restoration work. This funding will pay back those accounts and support
the work needed to recover after a recordbreaking fire season. This
funding can help restore the trails and roads that were lost in fires,
as well as keep our fishing streams clean and clear from runoff this
spring. It will get folks back in the woods, thinning, cutting, and
removing debris. It can provide the Forest Service with the resources
to quickly salvage the dead and dying trees that are still usable and
get that timber into our local mills.
Unfortunately, though, this bill fails to provide a long-term budget
fix to pay to fight wildfires. Fire seasons are getting longer and more
intense, which is quickly transforming the Forest Service from a forest
management agency into a forest firefighting agency.
Folks, our climate is changing. History is telling us that our fire
seasons are becoming more intense and they are becoming longer. Longer
fire seasons will mean more borrowing from the Forest Service to fight
these wildfires. We need a long-term fix.
Fires are burning a hole through the Forest Service budget, which too
often leaves our forests unmanaged and at further risk for more
catastrophic fires in the future. Money that should be used to curb the
fire risks, maintain and improve forest health, research and develop
better forest policies, and fund the work that must get done to make
our forests more resilient is borrowed to fight wildfires. We must
change the way we are paying for fighting wildfires.
The bipartisan Wildfire Disaster Funding Act is one step toward that
fix. We must keep pressing forward to get this bill signed into law.
Then we need to adjust the disaster budget cap to make sure this is
truly a long-term fix.
As I said, this bill doesn't contain all of the answers we need to
reduce wildfires, but it is no doubt a step in the right direction. It
lets the Forest Service treat wildfires just like other natural
disasters. This means more reliable support for forest management
projects and emergency funding for catastrophic wildfire seasons.
These important wildfire and forest resources, combined with
providing the necessary FEMA, flood insurance, and food assistance to
those displaced by hurricanes, will take us a major step forward after
a series of devastating natural disasters. But I want to underscore
that we aren't at the finish line yet, and I will work with Chairman
Boozman on the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee to ensure
that all Montanans and all Americans impacted by natural disasters
aren't left waiting for Congress to act.
Folks from both parties are going to have to work together to ensure
that every community impacted by hurricanes, floods, and fires will
have the resources to recover and turn the page. Americans directly
impacted by these natural disasters continue to wake up each morning
displaced, hungry, without power, and surrounded by destruction.
Congress must remain diligent and ensure these communities have the
support that they need and that they deserve.
Finally, I will just say this: We are here today talking about the
disaster funding bill. We are talking about the disaster funding bill
because disasters are becoming more and more common. It is not going to
change. We need to address the root cause of this, which is an ever-
changing climate. Until we do, we are going to continue to see taxpayer
dollars go out the door for disasters year after year.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Strange). The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
GAO Climate Change Report
Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I come to the floor this morning to talk
about a GAO report, or a Government Accountability Office report, that
is being released today, which says that the cost and impact to the
Federal Government of climate change is in the billions of dollars. In
fact, it is in the hundreds of billions of dollars over the next 5
years, and, over the next decade-plus, it is in the trillions of
dollars.
Why is this so astounding? It is astounding because we have not had
the Government Accountability Office outline for us before what the
impacts of climate costs the U.S. taxpayers, what it costs the Federal
Government, and that we are paying an astronomical cost. Right now we
are discussing the supplemental, and we can see the costs of the damage
we have experienced from storms, damage from wildfires, and damages
from other kinds of events and how much it costs the Federal
Government. The GAO took the last 2 years to develop this report after
receiving a letter from me and Senator Collins of Maine to say that we
wanted to understand these costs.
Why did we do this? The Senator from Maine and I have long been
advocates of looking at issues of adaptation and mitigation. We can
debate all we want about what people think the impacts are of climate
and what drives it. What we are here today to say is that we know that
it is costing billions of dollars, and, as stewards of the taxpayers'
money, we ought to do a better job at adaptation and mitigation. That
is why we sent the letter, and that is why, probably 7 or 8 years ago,
she and I started working to try to encourage various agencies that are
most impacted by this to do a better job at adaptation and mitigation.
For us in the Pacific Northwest, we got to this point because we saw
a shellfish industry almost devastated by the level of ocean
acidification caused by changes in temperature. It was so
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much so that we had to help the shellfish industry with science and
research. If we wanted to keep a shellfish industry, we had to look at
the science behind the seeding and do it at specific times when there
was the right chemistry balance in the water. This incredible economy
is enjoyed by so many Americans. The Washington shellfish industry that
we have--five generations, six generations of families in that
industry--was almost lost because of these changes.
Also, as a State that has a great deal of hydropower and very cost-
efficient electricity, a 1-degree temperature change means a lot too in
terms of snowpack--20 percent less snowpack. It means a lot to us for
the challenges we face in keeping affordable electricity rates.
When it comes to fire, we have certainly taken it on the chin with
two unbelievable back-to-back fire years, with unfortunate loss of life
and billions of dollars of economic loss impacting both the Federal
Government and to local communities.
What we are saying is that we can do better. We need to recognize
these costs and the impact and do a better job of planning for them in
the future. That is why one of the things that I have done with my
colleagues--Senator Murray from Washington, Senators Risch and Crapo
from Idaho, and Senators Merkley and Wyden from Oregon--was to
introduce a bill to help reduce our risk when it comes to fire seasons
and what we can do to better protect our communities. That is the kind
of planning and adaptation that we think we need to address.
Today's report cannot be ignored. It cannot be ignored that the
Federal Government is going to have to spend this much money dealing
with the impacts of climate. That is what the Government Accountability
Office is saying. It says we need a better plan. We need to reduce
costs. We need to look at these impacts and make sure that we as a
nation are putting every resource into this. Otherwise, we really will
be spending trillions of dollars.
That trajectory is real. That is what the GAO report says--hundreds
of billions of dollars now and trillions in the future, but if we would
simply recognize these impacts and start addressing them by having
agencies recognize climate and plan for it, both in terms of adaptation
and mitigation, I guarantee you that we can save the taxpayers money.
I hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will heed this
report. This report is saying that climate is impacting us, the Federal
Government. It is costing us a great deal of money. I guarantee you
that it is money we would rather have to focus on whatever issues my
colleagues would like to focus on--whether it is education, job
training, or any of the other issues that someone might want to
address, such as healthcare. We cannot afford to continue to pay this
kind of money while not dealing with climate.
Impacts and costs are only going to accelerate. That is the scary
thing. The GAO report says these numbers are going to increase for the
future. Can we at least sit down at the table and talk about the ways--
just like on fire, just like on flooding, just like on drought--to plan
strategies for how we can work together to mitigate these impacts? I
guarantee you, if we don't, this bill is going to continue to rise and
the conflicts are going to get worse.
If you look at this year alone--even though I am saying it is $600
billion over the next 5 to 10 years and trillions over the next 20--we
will probably see $300 billion in economic impacts in Texas, Florida,
and Puerto Rico.
What is the conclusion I am drawing? I think the report is very
clear. The research is very clear. One thing that is happening, as the
climate changes, is that there are more intense weather events. These
intense weather events are presenting challenges like we have never
seen before. These challenges and the devastation that caused them are
something that we need to take into consideration in the future.
Certainly, we need better science. We shouldn't rely on the European
weather agency to give us the best, most accurate information about
storms and weather. We should do that ourselves. We should use the
great research that is being done at the labs in Tennessee on climate
and what we can do to best prepare our Nation. We need to come to the
table when it comes to the issues of drought and plan for strategies
that work and work successfully now, not wait another 20 years and have
the cost be even more astronomical.
I thank my colleague from Maine for joining this effort of getting
this documentation by the Government Accountability Office. We need to
take their accounting very seriously and start doing things that will
help us reduce the risk, lower the cost, better protect our
communities, and give the taxpayers a sense that we are not leaving
them to devastation and storms every year but that we are coming up
with better strategies to save lives and to save dollars.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I am pleased to join with my colleague
and friend Senator Cantwell to discuss a new GAO report on the cost of
climate change.
As our Nation begins to recover and rebuild from the devastation of
Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria, and Nate, as well as from the wildfires
that are sweeping across the West, we cannot ignore the impact of
climate change on our public health, our environment, and our economy.
Most of the past focus of the impact of climate change has been on
public health and the environment--important to be sure--but there has
not been nearly enough analysis of the consequences for our economy and
for the Federal budget, in particular.
In 2007, I first became interested in the cost of climate change when
Senator Joe Lieberman and I headed the Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs Committee. We commissioned a report by the GAO to
look at the fiscal risk of climate change for both the Flood Insurance
Program and the Federal Crop Insurance Program. Our request was an
attempt to sound the alarm that there were very significant fiscal
consequences to the Federal Government for failing to take action.
The report found that the Department of Agriculture and the
Department of Homeland Security can and should do better jobs of
assessing the fiscal impacts that unchecked global warming will have on
the taxpayer-funded Federal Crop Insurance Corporation and the National
Flood Insurance Program. In addition, the report revealed that
insurance programs had not developed a long-term strategy to deal with
the effects of global climate change, putting them far behind private
insurers that have incorporated these risks into their overall
assessments.
According to a 2014 GAO report, the Federal Emergency Management
Agency, FEMA, and the Risk Management Agency commissioned some climate
change studies in order to better prepare for potential climate
effects.
To build upon this important work, 2 years ago, Senator Cantwell and
I asked the GAO to conduct a comprehensive study on the costs and risks
to the U.S. Government from climate change and to evaluate policy
actions that could be taken by the Federal Government to address these
financial consequences. After 2 years of indepth, nonpartisan analysis,
the GAO publicly released the results of its findings this morning, and
they are astonishing. The GAO estimates that, by the year 2039, climate
change will cost U.S. taxpayers more than $1 trillion. In just this
past year alone, the economic losses will, almost certainly, exceed
$300 billion.
In Maine, our economy is inextricably linked to the environment. We
are experiencing a real change in sea life, which has serious
implications for the livelihoods of many people in our State, including
those who work in our iconic lobster industry. With warming waters,
lobsters are migrating into deeper waters, which poses more risks to
our lobstermen and lobersterwomen. Additionally, Casco Bay, which is
where Portland is located, has experienced an invasion of green crabs,
which are not native to Maine and are devastating some of our other sea
life population. This change in the Maine waters could be detrimental
to our State's economy.
[[Page S6727]]
I am also very concerned about the excessively high rate of asthma in
my State. According to public health physicians, this is due to air
pollution that comes into our State. Now, Maine is not a coal-burning
State, but the emissions from other States are causing the changes in
sea life and are also contributing to the public health epidemic of a
very high rate of asthma. The fact is, Maine is located at the end of
our Nation's tailpipe, and we get emissions blown in from other States,
which affects our economy and the health of our citizens.
The Federal Government cannot afford the billions of dollars in
additional funding that is going to be needed if we do not take into
account and start acting on the serious consequences of climate change.
Spending more than $300 billion each year, in response to severe
weather events that are connected to warming waters and producing
stronger hurricanes, is simply not a solution.
I hope the release of this new GAO analysis will encourage all of us
to think more broadly about this issue, take a harder look at the
economic consequences of climate change, and then use this analysis to
inform Federal policy. We need to support practices and policies that
promote resilience and reduce risk and exposure to weather-related
losses for the Federal Government, for States, and for local
communities.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, soon the Senate will pass a supplemental
appropriations bill that provides much needed relief for folks across
the country who are recovering from hurricane and wildfire devastation.
While some of these resources will impact Texans who are recovering
from Hurricane Harvey, I stress that much more will be needed in my
State.
I will make one point abundantly clear, which is that Harvey has not
been permanently handled in Texas. It is not over and done with, and it
is not time to just move on. There was the storm, and now there is the
storm after the storm.
Nearly 2 months after the hurricane--the most extreme rain event in
U.S. history--many Texans are still waiting for normalcy to return to
their debris-littered lawns and their torn-up living rooms, to their
daily routines, their workplaces, their children's schools. The waters
may have receded, but their troubles have not.
I have read, for example, about people having to wait 2, 3, or 4
hours before they can actually even speak to Federal Emergency
Management Agency, FEMA, representatives, who themselves are
overwhelmed with requests that are related not only to Hurricane Harvey
but to Hurricane Irma's devastation in Florida and to Maria's flooding
in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Never before do I remember
a series of natural disasters hitting our Nation in such quick
succession.
Yet I know, even as the inspectors are still evaluating damaged
properties--moving as quickly as they can--FEMA is hiring hundreds of
additional staff in the next few weeks to help with the backlog. I am
hopeful this will help my fellow Texans, who have grown frustrated and
discouraged by the procedural hurdles. As of Sunday, three shelters
remain open in Texas, and over 60,000 people are living in hotels
because their homes--reeking of mold--are still not ready, and they
will not be for months.
A teacher I heard about is living on a cot in her classroom while her
house undergoes repairs. The mayor of Rockport, one of the most
devastated communities along the gulf coast, has said that perhaps one-
third of the destroyed areas in his town may never be rebuilt. Hundreds
of businesses have yet to reopen, and if they don't, it will make
matters much tougher on local residents than they already are. The
number of houses yet to be repaired is even larger than the number of
businesses. The mayor of Port Aransas says that 75 percent of the homes
in his community--three-quarters, just imagine--were severely damaged
or destroyed. These are just a few of the reasons the situation demands
ongoing attention, as well as the full extent of government resources.
Last month Congress got started--that was before subsequent
hurricanes occurred--and the first wave of disaster relief was $15.25
billion. Then the House passed the second wave, a $36.5 billion
disaster relief package to replenish FEMA's nearly depleted coffers and
to address the National Flood Insurance Program, which should help pay
some Texas claims.
Here in the Senate, the cloture vote on this second wave was
yesterday, and I am glad we moved to end debate. It is clear to me that
Texas will need significant additional Federal assistance for our
recovery efforts. As I have told folks back home, we don't expect to be
treated any better than anyone else, but we are not going to be treated
any worse.
Last week, I spoke with President Trump and OMB Director Rick
Mulvaney, and they made a commitment to me that there would be another
funding request coming over in mid-November that would include Texas-
specific hurricane relief. I realize that the folks impacted by Irma
and Maria are also reeling, as well, and we want to make sure that we
are locking arms with all of our colleagues who represent the areas hit
by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, and also those hit by the
wildfires out West. We are working together.
I appreciate the President's pledge, and I will continue to work with
Senator Cruz and with Governor Abbott to make sure that Texas has what
it needs, not only to make a full recovery but a timely one as well.
Tax Reform
Mr. President, at lunch, the President of the United States will be
joining us to discuss a different but very important topic, and that is
Federal tax reform. We want to make sure that hard-working Americans
get to keep more of what they earn in their paycheck and that we can
help them improve their standard of living by reducing their tax
burden.
We passed a budget resolution last week that was step one to getting
where we need to be. So I am excited the President is joining us today,
and I look forward to hearing his ideas. It is important that we all
pull together to accomplish this joint goal. We appreciate his
engagement on the issue, which has been clear from day one.
Congressional Review Act Resolution
Finally, Mr. President, I would like to bring up one additional
matter that we will be voting on soon, and that is the repeal of the
recent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule, which governs how
community banks, among others, resolve disputes with consumers. This
rule that the CFPB issued bans using arbitration. Arbitration is a
widely accepted method of resolving disputes between consumers and
banks and other financial institutions, and it actually increases the
benefit that flows to the consumer, as opposed to the alternatives,
which are class action lawsuits that enrich lawyers, whereas consumers
get pennies on the dollar.
The CFPB's own data shows that the rule would transfer hundreds of
millions of dollars from businesses to plaintiffs' lawyers over the
next 5 years. According to a recent Treasury report, the rule could
generate 3,000 additional class action lawsuits over the next 5 years,
costing businesses $500 million in defense fees alone and obviously
enriching those who would benefit more than the consumers themselves;
that is, their lawyers.
The CFPB data itself shows that the vast majority of class action
lawsuits delivered next to no relief to the class in question--
consumers. And the Treasury report found that the agency, the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau, failed to consider much less onerous
alternatives, like increased disclosure or a more limited ban.
I have been around long enough to remember that back in the eighties
there was a movement called alternative dispute resolution, led by the
Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, who pointed out that while
access to courts was absolutely critical, unfortunately, because of the
delay and expense of litigation, alternative dispute resolution
mechanisms could actually benefit consumers more if they chose to
resort to those alternative dispute mechanisms, and that is exactly
what arbitration is. I believe that the CFPB has gone above and beyond
its authority in eliminating this very meaningful way for consumers to
get compensated when they get involved in disputes with their bank or
other financial institutions, and there is no reason for us to enrich a
class of lawyers who bring these lawsuits and see consumers end
[[Page S6728]]
up with pennies on the dollar, which is what the status quo would
permit.
Thankfully, we have the power of the Congressional Review Act to
overturn the rule, as the House has already done. I urge my colleagues
to repeal the CFPB arbitration rule so that we can get rid of this
harmful regulation, which imposes obvious costs and offers invisible
benefits.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I want to begin by paying tribute to
the people of Puerto Rico, who have been through unimaginable
disaster--a natural disaster not of their making and a financial
disaster that is not any more their fault than the hurricane they have
endured. They have persevered and, indeed, now are surviving and even
thriving, despite the hurdles placed in their way by the humongous
storm that destroyed parts of their island. In fact, even now, at least
a quarter of their water is undrinkable, more than 80 percent of their
electricity is down, many of their roads are unpassable, their schools
are largely closed, and their island is paralyzed or, at least, largely
paralyzed as far as economic progress and job creation are concerned.
They don't deserve this fate. They are Americans. They fought in our
wars. I have been privileged to spend time with the Borinqueneers and
led the effort to award them a Congressional Gold Medal as a sign of
their patriotism and their dedication to our country.
They are not only Americans; they are patriotic Americans. So, too,
are the first responders, military, and others from States around the
country who have gone to Puerto Rico to help with relief. I want to
recognize their courage, sacrifice, and service to our Nation.
The National Guard from Connecticut has gone to the island to help
with National Guard from at least 13 States. There are thousands of
them now, and they are working with men and women on the ground from
FEMA, the Department of Energy, the Department of Homeland Security
generally, and our military. They deserve our thanks. Yet, for all that
heroic work, this Nation is failing Puerto Rico. Americans are on the
verge of failing fellow Americans.
Puerto Rico has a population of about 3.4 million people, roughly the
size of Connecticut. If the humanitarian crisis now ongoing in Puerto
Rico had occurred in Connecticut, there would be an outcry and outrage
of unprecedented proportion, comparable to a public surge of criticism
unseen before. Yet the people of Puerto Rico endure this humanitarian
crisis seemingly without response.
The President of the United States gives himself a 10. I agree. He
deserves a 10 if the grading scale is 1 to 100 because barely one-
tenth--in fact, less than one-tenth of what this Nation owes to Puerto
Rico--has been done for them.
I flew over the island of Puerto Rico in a Sikorsky Black Hawk during
a recent bipartisan trip and saw out of the side of that Black Hawk the
devastation and destruction I never thought I would see in America.
Whole towns were flattened, homes razed to the ground, community
centers destroyed, power lines dangling and down. I heard from the
Corps of Engineers that there is no timetable to repair those lines, to
restore electricity, which is the lifeblood of civilization and
essential to bare economic functioning, let alone progress going
forward, which is what the island needs. From what I hear, which
families have told me, the shortages of food, water, and medicine
persist. The hospitals depend on generators that are sometimes
nonfunctional, and medicine is lacking in those hospitals.
What is at stake in Puerto Rico is really our humanity. In the midst
of this humanitarian crisis, what is challenged is our humanity, not
just the legality or the protocols but our basic instinct to help
fellow Americans when they need it.
This Nation should not have a double standard for disaster relief.
The Americans of Puerto Rico deserve what Connecticut would receive. I
have stood in Connecticut with our Puerto Rican community. We are proud
of the fact that we have more Puerto Ricans per capita than any other
State in the country. That community has given back to Connecticut and
has contributed to our quality of life. And we are proud of all of our
Puerto Ricans who came from the island in past generations or recently.
I stood with Gladys Rivera, who lived in Connecticut, went to Puerto
Rico, and has just come back; with the Bermudez family, who have deep
ties and family there and here; with Jason Ortiz, who is in charge of
the Puerto Rican Agenda. And I could list many others. They have given
me a picture of the humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico that speaks to
my heart--families who continue to suffer and endure these hardships.
The measure we are passing today is a tiny downpayment on what is
needed for Puerto Rico. It is a short-term, very small sign of what we
owe. It is a downpayment that must be followed by a much bigger long-
term commitment, a Marshall Plan that will enable the island to not
just repair the power lines or the roads but to rebuild with different
kinds of power--renewables and solar--and not be dependent on diesel or
coal. It will enable them to build stronger, more resilient structures,
whether homes or commercial buildings, that can withstand future
hurricanes. What is needed in Puerto Rico is not just repair but true
rebuilding and recovery--and not just the physical structures but the
sense of financial stability and pride.
So the pittance in this supplemental for Puerto Rico is the least we
can do. In fact, it is less than the least we can do because it
actually adds to the debt Puerto Rico now has. It adds $5 billion to
the $74 billion that is owed by Puerto Rico. It does nothing about the
bankruptcy of PREPA, the power company. It in no way alleviates the
financial burdens of debt; in fact, it adds to it.
Instinctively, we in this Chamber know we have an obligation to do
more. There have been enough reports to fill this Record today about
the courage of Puerto Rico and about the burdens it has to endure. We
have seen and heard enough to know that a longer term plan is
necessary, a Marshall Plan. Stronger leadership is necessary.
Leadership has been lacking.
I have proposed a disaster relief czar who can cut through the
redtape and the bureaucratic lack of cohesion and get this job done,
someone who can tell the Corps of Engineers what the deadlines are and
bring together the leadership of Puerto Rico and give them the
empowering authority in resources, not just in words.
I also call for the CDC to be engaged more actively and effectively
because Puerto Rico now faces a potential epidemic of mosquito-borne
diseases: Dengue fever, Zika, chikungunya. The standing pools of water
throughout the island--and I have seen them--pose a real public health
threat at a time when the island is ill-equipped to deal with it.
I have begun working with my colleagues on a longer term plan because
this measure must be followed by stronger, more robust steps. The
damage done to the island was in the range of $100 billion. That is a
rough estimate. That $100 billion must not only be reinvested, it must
be used to provide resilience--real investment, real rebuilding. That
is what is necessary for Puerto Rico.
I hope to return and visit again shortly, but in the meantime, the
voices and faces of our fellow Americans there come to us clearly
through my friends and neighbors in Connecticut who have joined with me
in this call for real action and real rebuilding and real investment
much more than this short-term downpayment which will shortchange the
island if we do no more. It must be simply a first step that we owe our
fellow Americans in Puerto Rico.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cruz). The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Tax Reform
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I don't need to tell anyone that middle-
class Americans have had a rough time in recent years. Stagnant wages
and a lack
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of opportunities have left many American families stretched thin.
Sending the kids to college, a secure retirement, putting something
away for a rainy day--for too many families, these hallmarks of the
American dream have started to seem more and more doubtful.
A recent survey found that 50 percent of people in this country
consider themselves to be living paycheck to paycheck. And about one-
third of people in this country say they are just $400 away from a
financial crisis. If anyone wants to know why we are taking up tax
reform, this is why. We are taking up tax reform because it is not
acceptable that 50 percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck
and because it is not acceptable that one-third of voters are one
unexpected car repair away from a financial crisis.
How is tax reform going to help? For starters, our tax reform bill is
going to make sure that hard-working Americans are taking home more
money from every paycheck. We are going to cut income tax rates. We are
going to double the standard deduction--the amount of Americans' income
that is not subject to any income tax--and we are going to
significantly increase the child tax credit. All these things mean that
American families are going to see an increase in their take-home pay.
They are going to get to keep more of their hard-earned money. We are
also going to simplify and streamline the Tax Code so that it is easier
for Americans to figure out what benefits they qualify for, so they
don't have to spend a lot of time and money filling out their tax
returns.
But we are not going to stop with reforming the individual side of
the Tax Code. Another key part of improving Americans' financial
situation is reforming the business side of the Tax Code so that we can
give Americans access to the kinds of jobs, wages, and opportunities
that will set them up for a secure future.
In order for individual Americans to thrive economically, we need
American businesses to thrive. Thriving businesses create jobs. They
provide opportunities, and they increase wages and invest in their
workers.
Right now, though, our Tax Code is not helping businesses thrive.
Instead, it is strangling businesses large and small with high tax
rates. Our Nation has the highest corporate tax rate in the
industrialized world. It is at least 10 percentage points higher than
the majority of our international competitors.
It doesn't take an economist to realize that high tax rates leave
businesses with less money to invest in their workers, with less money
to spend on wages, and with less money to create new and better paying
jobs. This situation is compounded when you are an American business
with international competitors that are paying a lot less in taxes than
you are.
It is no surprise that American businesses that are struggling to
stay competitive in the global economy don't have a lot of resources to
devote to creating new jobs and increasing wages.
A study from the White House Council of Economic Advisers estimates
that reducing the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent
would increase average household income by $4,000 annually. That is a
significant pay raise for hard-working American families.
Another study shows a similar pay increase. Boston University
professor and well-known public finance expert Larry Kotlikoff recently
issued a study that concluded that lowering the corporate tax rate from
35 percent to 20 percent would increase household income by $3,500 per
year on average. Specifically, the study concluded that depending on
the year considered, the new Republican tax plan raises GDP by between
3 and 5 percent and real wages by between 4 and 7 percent. This
translates into roughly $3,500 annually, on average, per American
household.
On top of our high business tax rates, there is another major problem
with our Tax Code that is decreasing American jobs, and that is our
outdated worldwide tax system. What does it mean to have a worldwide
tax system like we have here in the United States? It means that
American companies pay U.S. taxes on the profits they make here at home
as well as on part of the profits they make abroad once they bring that
money back home to the United States.
The problem with this is that most other major world economies have
shifted from a worldwide tax system to what is called a territorial tax
system. In a territorial tax system, you pay taxes on the money you
earn where you make it and only there. You aren't taxed again when you
bring money back to your home country, like what happens here in the
United States today.
Most of American companies' foreign competitors have been operating
under a territorial tax system for years. They are paying a lot less in
taxes on the money they make abroad than American companies are, and
that leaves American companies at a disadvantage. These foreign
companies can underbid American companies for new business simply
because they don't have to add as much in taxes into the price of the
products or services they sell.
When foreign companies beat out American companies for new business,
it is not just American companies that suffer. It is American workers.
That is why a key part of the Republicans' tax plan involves lowering
our massive corporate tax rate and transitioning our tax system from a
worldwide tax system, like we have in America today, to a territorial
tax system, like all of our competitors have.
By making American businesses more competitive in the global economy,
we can improve the playing field for American workers. So 57 percent of
the manufacturers that took part in a recent survey from the National
Association of Manufacturers reported that they would be more likely to
hire additional workers if comprehensive tax reform becomes law, and 52
percent reported that they would be more likely to increase employee
wages and benefits. That would be a tremendous, tremendous boost for
American workers.
Comprehensive tax reform will allow us to see the same kind of
results in other industries.
The other part of improving the playing field for American workers is
lifting the tax burdens facing small businesses. Small businesses are
incredibly important to new job creation. Like larger businesses, right
now small businesses are being strangled by high tax rates and, at
times, even exceeding those paid by some of the largest corporations in
our country. Well, that can make it difficult for small businesses to
even survive, much less thrive and grow their businesses. Every dollar
that we save small businesses by lowering their tax rates is a dollar a
small business owner can use to expand the business, add another
worker, or give employees a raise.
We can also help small businesses increase wages and create jobs by
allowing them to recover their investments in things like inventory and
machinery more quickly. Right now, it can take small businesses years,
or in some cases even decades, to recover the cost of their investments
in equipment and facilities. That can leave them extremely cash poor in
the meantime. Cash-poor businesses don't expand, they don't hire new
workers, and they don't increase wages.
Allowing small businesses to recover their investments more quickly
will mean more jobs and more opportunities for American workers.
The American people had a rough few years, but economic stress
doesn't have to become the status quo for the long term. We can start
turning things around right now. Comprehensive tax reform along the
lines of what is envisioned by the plan that has been put forward in
the Republican framework will put more money in Americans' pockets. It
will give Americans access to new jobs and more opportunities, and it
will increase American families' wages.
I look forward to passing our comprehensive tax reform bill in the
near future and to giving the American people the relief they have been
waiting for.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
Congressional Review Act Resolution
Mr. REED. Mr. President, I rise today to oppose the Congressional
Review Act resolution repealing the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau's forced arbitration rule. At a time when millions of Americans
are suffering the consequences of abusive practices by major financial
institutions--including the massive consumer fraud by Wells
[[Page S6730]]
Fargo and the exposure of up to half of the national population's
personal information due to inadequate cyber security by Equifax--it is
simply wrong to give immunity to bad corporate actors against lawsuits
by the very customers they harmed.
I urge my colleagues to think about the millions of Americans who
still don't know all the facts about whether they are victims of one of
these or other major banking scandals. They deserve the chance to
gather the facts and hold the responsible parties accountable. This
anticonsumer resolution strips away those victims' constitutional first
line of defense against lending fraud and permits corporations more
opportunities to take advantage of consumers.
We have known for years that forced arbitration clauses harm the
financial security of those who are most vulnerable to lending scams.
Companies slip these clauses into the fine print of contracts for
everything from loan applications to purchases on a smartphone. Let's
be clear. Even if every American had the time to read and understand
the fine print of every contract they sign, most of these contracts by
major financial institutions are one-sided, and the consumer has no
power to bargain the terms in the fine print.
With these in place, consumers who learn their bank or lender has
overcharged or defrauded them also learn quickly that they have signed
away their right to take the corporation to court. Instead, they must
choose between dropping their claim or going it alone in an arbitration
process that is clearly and notoriously stacked in favor of the
corporation.
Forced arbitration makes it easier for predatory lenders to avoid the
consequences for taking advantage of consumers. This reality is even
more outrageous when we consider the fact that predatory lenders view
servicemembers, military families, and veterans as prime targets for
financial scams. The CFPB has noted that servicemembers are attractive
targets because, among other things, they are required to maintain good
finances, their pay is consistent, they often relocate, and many are
just starting to make significant financial decisions. The Department
of Defense is also well aware that military bases draw predatory
lenders selling bad or illegal loans, which is one reason why the
Department of Defense recently issued new rules banning forced
arbitration for many loans covered by the Military Lending Act. But
these rules still don't cover the full range of financial products that
may be used to take advantage of military consumers and their families.
That is why I have worked for years with Senator Lindsey Graham on
legislation to ban forced arbitration clauses that waive or limit
rights under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. The CFPB rule bans
many of these and other forced arbitration clauses that
disproportionately harm servicemembers and their families.
While the CFPB has provided data to support the arbitration rule's
positive effects for servicemembers, we should also listen to the
servicemember community. Their strong support for this rule speaks
volumes. The CFPB rule's supporters include the Military Coalition,
which consists of 32 military advocacy groups, including the Veterans
of Foreign Wars, and associations representing the interests of members
of the Navy, Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps. Moreover, in August,
the National Convention of the American Legion adopted a resolution
opposing legislation to repeal the CFPB forced arbitration rule
because, among other reasons, it ``is extremely unfair to bar
servicemembers, veterans, and other consumers from joining together to
enforce statutory and constitutional protections in court.'' Simply
put, servicemembers and veterans don't want this CRA, and they are
watching this vote closely.
Mr. President, forced arbitration is the prime example of a rigged
system whereby powerful corporations and interests play by different
sets of rules than average Americans. When a normal person defrauds
another person, that person is entitled to seek a resolution in court.
It is wrong for us to allow major corporations to create their own
justice system that serves their own interests at the expense of
American consumers, families, servicemembers, and veterans.
I urge my colleagues to oppose this resolution and to permit the CFPB
arbitration rule to go into effect.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. REED. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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