[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 129 (Tuesday, July 31, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S5464]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            ECONOMIC GROWTH

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, now on another matter, we learned 
last week that second-quarter real GDP growth exceeded 4 percent. That 
is the best quarterly growth rate in 4 years and one of the strongest 
reports since the great recession.
  Earlier this month, we learned that new claims for unemployment 
insurance recently reached the lowest level since--listen to this--1969 
and that the number of continuing claims, week to week, is lower than 
it has been at any point since 1973. Let me say that another way. 
Notwithstanding almost half a century of population growth, fewer 
Americans are applying for new unemployment benefits today than has 
ever been the case since just a few months after Apollo 11 landed on 
the Moon. The last time this few number of Americans continued to 
receive unemployment week to week was when Richard Nixon was President. 
No wonder analysts are heaping praise on this economy. The Wall Street 
Journal noted last week that recent reports indicate ``underlying 
strength that could tee up one of the best years in the current 
expansion.''
  Back in March, my home State of Kentucky joined a list of 14 States 
that have reached the lowest unemployment rates in recorded history 
since this united Republican government has been in office. Never 
before on record has Kentucky's unemployment rate dropped as low as 4 
percent.
  Already in 2018, an estimated 14,000 Kentuckians have found jobs at 
businesses of all shapes and sizes.
  Glier's Meats, in Covington, announced that the company was planning 
to add new positions and invest in new equipment to meet growing 
demand. In the words of the company's president, ``We had a number of 
projects that were seen as something we could consider doing down the 
road, but because of tax reform, it's possible to reinvest in the plant 
and in new equipment now.''
  In Ashland, Braidy Industries expects to support 1,000 construction 
jobs as it constructs a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility and 
then 600 permanent jobs. It broke ground in June.
  Not a single one of our colleagues across the aisle voted in support 
of this historic tax reform that is helping to make these developments 
possible. For them, these data are telling an inconvenient truth, and 
the inconvenient truth is this: The rest of America is not hiding from 
these numbers. Americans are benefiting from these numbers. We are 
celebrating them and all of the life-changing job opportunities, wage 
growth, and small business expansions they represent.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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