[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 57 (Tuesday, April 2, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2177-S2180]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IMPROVING PROCEDURES FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF NOMINATIONS IN THE
SENATE--MOTION TO PROCEED--Continued
Cloture Motion
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before
the Senate the pending cloture motion, which the clerk will state.
The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
Cloture Motion
We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the
provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate,
do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to
proceed to Calendar No. 24, S. Res. 50, a resolution
improving procedures for the consideration of nominations in
the Senate.
Mitch McConnell, Roy Blunt, Mike Crapo, Richard C.
Shelby, Johnny Isakson, Lamar Alexander, Pat Roberts,
Ron Johnson, John Barrasso, Steve Daines, John Hoeven,
John Thune, Mike Rounds, John Boozman, Shelley Moore
Capito, Tom Cotton, David Perdue.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum
call has been waived.
The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the
motion to proceed to S. Res. 50, a resolution improving procedures for
the consideration of nominations in the Senate, shall be brought to a
close?
The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from California (Ms. Harris)
is necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 51, nays 48, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 57 Leg.]
YEAS--51
Alexander
Barrasso
Blackburn
Blunt
Boozman
Braun
Burr
Capito
Cassidy
Collins
Cornyn
Cotton
Cramer
Crapo
Cruz
Daines
Enzi
Ernst
Fischer
Gardner
Graham
Grassley
Hawley
Hoeven
Hyde-Smith
Inhofe
Isakson
Johnson
Kennedy
Lankford
McSally
Moran
Murkowski
Paul
Perdue
Portman
Risch
Roberts
Romney
Rounds
Rubio
Sasse
Scott (FL)
Scott (SC)
Shelby
Sullivan
Thune
Tillis
Toomey
Wicker
Young
NAYS--48
Baldwin
Bennet
Blumenthal
Booker
Brown
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Coons
Cortez Masto
Duckworth
Durbin
Feinstein
Gillibrand
Hassan
Heinrich
Hirono
Jones
Kaine
King
Klobuchar
Leahy
Lee
Manchin
Markey
McConnell
Menendez
Merkley
Murphy
Murray
Peters
Reed
Rosen
Sanders
Schatz
Schumer
Shaheen
Sinema
Smith
Stabenow
Tester
Udall
Van Hollen
Warner
Warren
Whitehouse
Wyden
NOT VOTING--1
Harris
The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 51 and the nays are
48.
Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted
in the affirmative, the motion is not agreed to.
The majority leader.
Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I enter a motion to reconsider the
vote.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The motion is entered.
The Senator from Washington.
Unanimous Consent Request--H.R. 7
Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I come to the floor today not in
celebration but in frustration to once again mark Equal Pay Day. It has
now been 50 years since Congress passed the Equal Pay Act. It is a
bipartisan law signed by President Kennedy and intended to ensure equal
pay for equal work. While this was a strong step in the right
direction, the sad reality is that today the gender wage gap still very
much exists.
Today women, on average, make 80 cents for every dollar a White man
makes, meaning the average woman has to work up until today to earn
what her male colleagues made in 2018. For women of color, the pay gap
is even worse. African-American women working full time only make 61
cents for every dollar a White man makes, meaning they have to work
until August to earn what a White man made in 2018. American Indians
make only 58 cents for every dollar, meaning they have to work until
September to catch up with their White male colleagues. Latinas, on
average, are paid 53 cents for every dollar their White male colleagues
make. They will have to work until November--almost a full year--to
earn what White men made last year.
The wage gap also hurts mothers who, on average, only make 71 cents
to every dollar fathers earn. The gender pay gap starts when women are
entering the workforce, and it widens throughout their careers. Pay
inequity will cost the typical woman more than $400,000 over the course
of a 40-year career. Sadly, by the way, that number tops $1 million for
Latina women, meaning women have to work longer and still have less to
save for retirement.
The gender wage gap doesn't just hurt women; it hurts families,
communities, and the economy. Women are the primary or sole breadwinner
in more than 40 percent of American families, meaning families have
less money to pay for groceries, childcare, support businesses in their
communities, and stay financially secure and independent.
That is why it is so important that we pass the Paycheck Fairness Act
today--not tomorrow, not next year. We need to pass this now. Every
year the wage gap grows, and it is far past time we close the loopholes
in the Equal Pay Act and give women the tools and the protections they
need to be sure they are being paid fairly.
This should not be a partisan issue. The Equal Pay Act was passed
with bipartisan support. The Paycheck Fairness Act passed the House
last week with Republican support. Women across the country, regardless
of their skin color, where they live, or whether they are Republican or
Democratic, deserve to be paid the same as their male colleagues doing
the same work.
I hope my colleagues across the aisle will join us today in
supporting this critical legislation. Our economy can only succeed if
women can succeed.
Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to
the immediate consideration of H.R. 7, which is at the desk; that the
bill be read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider
be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action
or debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The Senator from Tennessee.
Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, the distinguished Senator from
Washington and I often agree on issues, and for the most part we agree
on this. We agree that equal pay for equal work is the right thing to
do. What I would add is that equal pay for equal work is already the
law.
Paycheck discrimination on the basis of gender is wrong. It is
already illegal in the United States. Congress prohibited
discrimination based on gender in the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Title
VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The Equal Pay Act is very clear: ``No employer . . . shall
discriminate . . . between employees on the basis of sex by paying
wages to employees . . . less than . . . he pays . . . employees of the
opposite sex . . . for equal work . . . which requires equal skill,
effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar
working conditions. . . . ''
Equal pay for equal work. That already is the law; therefore, it is
unnecessary to have yet another law saying basically the same thing. I
object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
The Senator from Washington.
Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, let me just respond by saying the
Paycheck Fairness Act that we are asking to go today and have been
denied the opportunity to do so makes very important updates to the
Equal Pay Act.
It reaffirms that every worker in America has the right to receive
equal pay for equal work. It protects women from retaliation for
talking about salary information with coworkers. It allows women to
join together in class action lawsuits, and, importantly, it prohibits
employers from seeking salary history so the cycle of pay
discrimination cannot continue.
This bill has the support of Republicans and Democrats and millions
of
[[Page S2178]]
workers in this country, and I really hope this Senate can reconsider
and bring this important piece of legislation up that has passed the
House.
I thank my colleagues who are out here today supporting this effort.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York.
Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Madam President, I want to associate myself with the
comments of the Senator from Washington. She is exactly right.
We are rising today to speak about a very disturbing annual milestone
that we are once again marking today. Today is known as Equal Pay Day,
and here is what it means.
The average woman has to work 15 months just to get paid what the
average man earns in 1 year alone. The reason today is Equal Pay Day is
that it is today in the new year when the average woman finally gets
paid what the average man earned the year before. If you are a woman of
color, on average, you have to work even longer just to get paid what
the average man earns in 1 year.
It is outrageous that we still don't actually have equal pay for
equal work in this country, and it is the year 2019. It is shameful
that women all across this country are being underpaid for the hard
work they are doing every day. It is disgraceful that the gender wage
gap is as wide as it is. This is happening in a moment in our Nation's
history when women, more than ever before, are working outside the
home, when many women are the actual primary breadwinner or the sole
breadwinner for their family.
This is an alarming, glaring reminder of how badly our economy is
failing so many workers and their families all over the country. Above
all else, it is a reminder to all of us that as a country, we are still
struggling to value women. We are still struggling to protect women
from wage discrimination, pregnancy discrimination, workplace
harassment, and unfair minimum wage; that we are still struggling to
ensure that women and their families have access to paid leave,
affordable daycare. All of these things add to the gender wage gap and
make it even worse.
If a woman isn't getting paid a fair wage, the way she actually
deserves, the wage she earned by putting in the hours of hard work,
then that hurts her, her family, her children. It hurts our entire U.S.
economy. It weakens the middle class. It is bad for our country.
There is no excuse for any of this. It is something all of us should
be thinking about what we can do to correct, using our power to
correct, because the fact that we still don't have equal pay for equal
work in this country is an embarrassment.
We need equal pay for equal work, and we need it now. In this
Chamber, we have a responsibility to make sure our workplace policies
and our laws are actually protecting women, protecting their families,
and protecting our economy as a whole. One of the best ways we can
actually solve this problem is by finally passing this law. It is
common sense. It guarantees equal pay for equal work once and for all.
The good news is we already have a bill, and it is ready to go right
now. It is even bipartisan. It is called the Paycheck Fairness Act. It
has already passed the House, and the only thing stopping it right now
is the Senate. This bill would ban retaliation against workers who
discuss their wages. It would give the Department of Labor the tools
needed to enforce equal pay around this country.
Although the Senator claims we already have laws, they are not
working. So we need better enforcement. It would prohibit employers
from relying on a salary history of prospective employees when they are
deciding how much to pay them.
This bill would help end wage discrimination. It would actually make
our families, our country, and our economy stronger. Don't you want
that, Madam President?
So what are we waiting for? Congress needs to step up right now. We
need equal pay for equal work.
I yield the floor.
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.
Ms. CORTEZ MASTO. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Unanimous Consent Request--S. Res. 137
Ms. CORTEZ MASTO. Madam President, I rise today, along with my
colleagues, to bring attention to an issue that I think is important
for all of us women. Today, we are 4 months--92 days, to be exact--into
the new year. Today is the day that American women catch up in earnings
to what their male counterparts made last year. In 2019--almost 100
years after women won the right to vote and 56 years after the passage
of the Equal Pay Act--it still takes women 15 months to earn what a man
makes in 12. That is the significance of today, Equal Pay Day.
Women make up half of the U.S. workforce. We are small business
owners, entrepreneurs, doctors, lawyers, and community leaders. Yet
women in the United States still make an average of 80 cents for every
dollar earned by a man. For women of color, women with disabilities,
and transgender women, the gap is even more jarring. Black women earn
an average of 61 cents on the dollar, Native American women earn 57
cents, and Latinas earn 53 cents for every dollar the average White man
makes. This means that Latinas, who face the highest pay gap in the
country, must keep working until November 20 this year in order to earn
what their White male colleagues made in 2018. Women with disabilities
are paid an average of 83 cents for every dollar a man with a similar
disability makes at a full-time job, and transgender women can expect
their average yearly earnings to fall by almost one-third after their
transitions. In 2019, this is still the reality for American women.
These women are often the sole breadwinners for their families.
This type of systemic discrimination has no place in our country. It
is having a negative economic impact on families. As long as the wage
gap exists, women face unfair barriers to success and have to fight
hard for economic security for themselves and their families.
Full-time working mothers trying to provide for their families are
paid, on average, $16,000 less per year than fathers. That threatens
their ability to put food on the table or save for their children's
education. Older women are likely to have to work longer--by an average
of 10 years--than their male counterparts to make up their lifetime
wage gaps and earn enough for a secure retirement. Young women just
entering the workforce can expect to see their wage gap grow, not
shrink, over the course of their careers.
All of these factors hurt Nevada women, Nevada families, and our
country. It undercuts American women's ability to get ahead, provide
for their families, and save for retirement. In Nevada alone, women who
are employed full time lose a combined total of nearly $5 billion each
year due to the wage gap.
It is past time American women earn equal pay for equal work. Women
in our country will no longer accept being held back. As a Nevada
Latina, it is my responsibility to use my seat at the table to ensure
that future generations of women are able to have the support they need
to succeed so that their families can thrive. It is time women receive
the same paycheck as a man for doing the same job.
I am fighting alongside a longtime leader for women in Congress,
Senator Murray, as well as my Senate Democratic colleagues, to pass the
Paycheck Fairness Act and provide women with the opportunities and
resources they need to succeed. I look forward to the day when equal
pay for equal work is a reality for every woman in Nevada and across
this country.
America's women are leading the economy of the future. They are
building the infrastructure that fuels commerce, developing the
scientific breakthroughs that improve our way of life, and driving
political change. America's women are heading America's companies, and
we need more. That starts with ensuring equal pay for equal work. Until
we pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, I will continue to fight for women
and their families, to level the playing field for them, because
nothing less than their future is at stake.
Thank you.
I yield the floor.
[[Page S2179]]
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Blackburn). The Senator from Utah.
Free Trade Agreement
Mr. LEE. Madam President, as the deadline for Britain's withdrawal
from the European Union fast approaches, there is an enormous
opportunity before us--an opportunity for free trade with the United
Kingdom. Such an agreement would provide tremendous economic and trade
benefits to both nations and would strengthen and preserve our special
relationship.
As this deadline approaches, the United States should stand ready and
willing to negotiate a free-trade agreement with Britain, which is the
purpose of the resolution before us today. This resolution simply
declares that it is the sense of the Senate that, one, the United
States has and should have a close and special relationship--one that
is mutually beneficial as a trade partnership and otherwise--with the
United Kingdom and that that relationship should continue without
interruption; and two, that the President, with the support of
Congress, should lay the groundwork for a future trade agreement with
the UK.
Some of my colleagues have raised objections to it. Some have
objected, for example, that this resolution didn't go through the
Senate Finance Committee. First, it is important to point out here that
the vast majority of resolutions expressing a sense of the Senate
normally don't go through the committee process at all. Second, a
straightforward assertion of friendship, of support, and of economic
partnership with one of our oldest and closest allies is not by its
nature and should never be controversial.
Others have claimed that the point of this measure is somehow to
lambast the EU. This misses the point entirely, which is simply to
preserve a unique and important alliance and promote America's economic
interests.
Others have said that by encouraging a free-trade agreement with
Britain, we would be ``picking sides'' or somehow affirming Brexit.
Significantly, however, this resolution says precisely nothing about
whether Brexit should or should not happen. That decision is up to the
British people. But it is up to us to decide whether to stand with
Britain--the nation that has been one of our greatest partners, not
only in trade but also in the fight for freedom, peace, and prosperity
throughout the world. We should stand with the UK and strengthen this
special partnership by supporting this resolution today.
Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to
the consideration of S. Res. 137, submitted earlier today. I further
ask that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and
that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the
table with no intervening action or debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Mr. WYDEN. Reserving the right to object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, I would like to raise a few key points on
this whole matter.
First, this is a question of international trade, which is a subject
that has been handled by the Senate Finance Committee for literally
decades. The full committee has not been consulted on this resolution.
It is less than a week old, which, in my view, has not given Senators
an adequate amount of time to consider it. Suffice it to say, the
prospect of reshaping the American economy with sweeping trade deals is
not something that ought to just rocket past the committee of
jurisdiction.
Second, with respect to the substance of the request, I simply do not
believe it is the role of the United States to give aid and comfort to
the UK's nationalist right while it inflicts irreparable harm on the
UK's own economy and citizens.
Third, thinking kind of objectively about the future, I don't believe
anybody can pretend to know what the UK and its relationship with
Europe is going to look like even in the near future. The Senate simply
cannot make promises about trade talks months or years down the line
when the May government doesn't even know what is coming down the pike
in a matter of days.
Finally, there are serious issues that need consideration with
respect to our trade relationship with the UK and Europe. That cannot
happen if the debates play out in a slapdash process here on the floor
of this Senate.
For example, European governments are in the process of implementing
a new copyright regime that provides an easy way to chill free speech
online with bogus copyright claims. A number of European governments,
including the UK's, have proposed new digital services taxes. Let me
repeat that. A number of these governments have proposed new digital
services taxes. What they are attempting to do is loot American
technology companies with discriminatory taxes--slapping what is
essentially an extra tariff on American firms.
The UK would need to commit to abandoning these unfair policies,
which, in my view, are serious barriers to trade, as a precondition of
negotiations in the future. Otherwise, if the Senate were to, in
effect, make promises on trade in the dark, we would risk surrendering
our negotiating positions on these key issues which I have outlined
without getting anything in return.
For the life of me, I just can't see the case for undermining our
American businesses and American jobs for the benefit of the UK's
nationalist right as they steer their own economy and international
stature off a cliff.
For those reasons, Madam President, I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
The Senator from Utah.
Mr. LEE. Madam President, this isn't complicated. All we are trying
to do here is to say that the United States has and probably should
have without interruption an ongoing, special, vitally important trade
relationship with the United Kingdom and that the President and the
Congress of the United States should work toward an agreement to that
end.
That isn't rocket science. It is not complicated. It is not even in
itself a framework for a specific statute or for a specific trade bill.
It is laying out a very broad principle--one that I would hope every
one of us would accept and would embrace.
We have to remember that one of the reasons we are a country, one of
the reasons we don't fly the Union Jack or sing ``God Save the Queen,''
one of the reasons we declared independence nearly two and a half
centuries ago has a lot to do with the fact that, as Americans, we
understand that what we need access to is not so much proximity to
government, proximity to the Crown, as proximity to other people. It is
how human thriving occurs. It is how the human condition is able to be
elevated. It is a free market system that has elevated more people out
of poverty than any government program ever has, ever could, or ever
will.
Yes, what we need is access to markets. That is part of what prompted
the American Revolution, the fact that our merchants, our
manufacturers, and our farmers were being excluded from markets and
were being discriminated against by the Crown. We understood that would
necessarily limit economic mobility within the country and was
artificially holding us back. That is why we became our own country.
That has a lot to do with why we declared independence.
Over time, we have benefited substantially from free markets, from
free trade. We have seen the greatest economy--in fact, the greatest
civilization the world has ever known--in the United States of America.
That occurred not because of a government; it is not a result of who we
are; it is a consequence of what we do, the decisions we have made. A
lot of those decisions have been based on free markets.
With respect to my distinguished colleague, my friend, the Senator
from Oregon--with respect to his suggestion that this is somehow
weighing in on the merits of a political cause that he might not like
in another country, that is really not our business, and this
resolution is completely agnostic on that point. This resolution
doesn't require us to hold hands with Great Britain. This resolution
doesn't require us to say that the United Kingdom can do no wrong. This
is not a bill calling for us to make America Great Britain again. No.
This is here only to protect and promote free trade because free trade
makes us free. Free trade makes us prosperous. We should not walk
[[Page S2180]]
away from one of the greatest trade partnerships we have on this
planet.
Thank you.
Unanimous Consent Agreement
Mr. LEE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate recess
from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. today.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________