[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 82 (Wednesday, May 12, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H2261-H2264]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         EXTENDED UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS ARE HURTING MAIN STREET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Auchincloss). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of January 4, 2021, the Chair recognizes the gentleman 
from Illinois (Mr. Bost) for 30 minutes.


                             General Leave

  Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that Members have 5 
legislative days to revise and extend their remarks.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Illinois?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, I am a small business man. We own a small 
business, my wife and I. I know many small business owners across 
America are struggling to reopen and rebuild after COVID-19 shutdowns. 
They simply can't find workers to fill the job openings.
  Why? Because the Federal Government is disincentivizing people from 
working. Many people are making more money off unemployment insurance 
than they would if they were back at work, and that is having a 
crippling impact on Main Streets across America, including in my 
district.
  People in Washington need to hear these stories. Southern Illinois is 
home to Belleville Boot Company, a military boot manufacturer founded 
in 1904. A year ago, they employed nearly 240 workers in Belleville. 
But after each round of stimulus checks, as good as they may be, they 
had fewer and fewer workers showing up. Now, their workforce has 
dropped to 26 percent, and they can't find enough workers to fill the 
openings.
  In Alton, the Kreative Kids Learning Center has helped educate local 
children for 51 years. The owner, Keith, says that they currently have 
21 employees but are desperate for more. He runs ads in the newspaper, 
online, and on social media, offering a good wage, yet he received zero 
applications--zero.
  He has even had to turn children away because he is so short of 
staff.
  In Carbondale, Illinois, Mary Lou's Grill has been a local staple 
since 1962, serving up the most famous biscuits and gravy in town. On a 
telephone town hall last night, Marilynn, the owner of Mary Lou's, 
shared that her food suppliers are unable to hire enough people to run 
their facilities. That potentially means food shortages and 
skyrocketing prices for restaurants and customers.
  Before COVID-19, the Broadway Grille in Sparta, Illinois, had more 
applicants than they had positions to fill. But now, Justin, the owner, 
says that some former employees have told him they will not seek a job 
as long as they are getting unemployment benefits.
  He is so short-staffed that he doesn't have enough people to answer 
the phone most nights. If he can't find workers soon, he isn't sure 
what he will do.
  This is not just a southern Illinois issue. It touches every 
community across this country. That is why I have invited several of my 
colleagues to highlight how their districts have been impacted.
  I will start, first off, by yielding to the gentlewoman from Indiana 
(Mrs. Walorski), ranking member of the Subcommittee on Worker and 
Family Support. She has many stories I am sure she can tell.
  Mrs. WALORSKI. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for hosting this 
critical Special Order to discuss the ongoing impact of enhanced 
unemployment benefits on Main Street businesses, the American 
workforce, and our economic recovery.

[[Page H2262]]

  Like many of my colleagues, I have seen ``help wanted'' signs all 
over my district. I have heard from local job creators about the 
difficulties they face in hiring workers they need just to stay open. 
Many have told me they can't even get people to show up for an 
interview.
  Enhanced Federal unemployment benefits made sense last year as a way 
to keep those who lost a job and to reduce the economic impact of 
government-imposed business closures and stay-at-home orders. But now, 
we are facing a much different situation today.
  Safe and effective vaccines are bringing us closer to defeating 
COVID-19. Employers have updated their facilities and operations so 
workers can safely return back to work. Businesses are fully operating.
  Now is the time to reconnect unemployed workers with their jobs, but 
enhanced jobless benefits are discouraging Americans from returning to 
work, making it impossible for businesses to hire.
  The Democrats' partisan $1.9 trillion spending bill extended 
supplemental unemployment benefits of $300 per week until September 6. 
At this level, nearly 40 percent of jobless Americans can make more on 
unemployment than they can by returning to work.
  Main Street businesses shouldn't have to compete with the Federal 
Government for workers. In fact, they can't compete with the Federal 
Government for workers. The labor shortage currently is crushing small 
businesses, which are fighting to keep their businesses alive while 
coming out of a pandemic.
  In late March, I hosted a virtual roundtable and heard from a Hoosier 
who owns a small insulation company. He told me: It has been quite the 
burden to have all these tools on hand and all these trucks in the 
driveway and to put people in the seats to get them to be able to drive 
to homes to provide insulation when nobody wants to come to work.
  Just last week, we saw the undeniable impact of these misguided 
policies when the monthly jobs report showed hiring slowing to a crawl 
in April in this country, despite millions of job openings.
  My biggest fear is that we will see permanent job loss across our 
economy as small businesses close their doors because they can't hire 
workers that they need.
  But it is not too late to avoid this outcome. I recently joined Ways 
and Means Republican leader Kevin Brady in introducing the Reopening 
America by Supporting Workers and Businesses Act. Our bill would turn 
extra unemployment benefits into a back-to-work bonus that would 
incentivize these workers to come back to work instead of staying on 
unemployment. The legislation would also reinstate the Federal 
requirement that those receiving unemployment benefits be engaged in 
actively searching for a job.

  The American people have faced unprecedented challenges since last 
spring. Now, safe and effective vaccines have given us renewed hope 
that we can defeat COVID-19, rebuild our economy, and return to normal 
life.
  Let's not put our recovery at risk by pushing workers to the 
sidelines of this economy. Let's get Americans back to work, Main 
Street businesses back on their feet, and the American Dream back on 
track for every single American.
  Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Williams).
  Mr. WILLIAMS of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise to voice my concerns about 
the current state of the economy and the worker shortages that 
employers face due to the Democrats' extended unemployment benefits.
  As a small business owner for 51 years, I have seen a lot. I know 
firsthand how challenging a year of government-mandated shutdowns have 
been for business owners.
  The enhanced unemployment benefits in last year's CARES Act were 
meant to be temporary and targeted to the effects of this COVID-19 
pandemic. Now, over a year later, and thanks to the success of 
Operation Warp Speed and the Trump administration's focus on vaccine 
development, the economy is ready to fully open. Yet, millions of 
Americans who can return to work are choosing a government paycheck 
over earning an income.
  Unemployment was never meant to be a full-time job. We are telling 
people it is a career, for crying out loud, and living off the 
government for more than 26 weeks while you are capable of working will 
only delay our economic recovery.
  In Texas' 25th Congressional District, hundreds of small businesses 
are feeling the effects. They simply cannot operate their businesses if 
employees refuse to return to work. States need to enforce unemployment 
laws. If employees are offered a job and they refuse it, unemployment 
benefits should immediately expire.
  Enhanced weekly payments will continue to eliminate the incentive to 
return to work. Under no circumstances should they continue past 
September.
  Vaccines are widely available if people so choose, but there are no 
longer excuses to remain on the sidelines.

                              {time}  1915

  Before the pandemic, we had the greatest economy in modern history. 
Certainly the best I have seen in 51 years. For all the right reasons, 
and with thanks to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed by President 
Trump and Republicans, we had more jobs than people.
  However, under President Biden and House Democrats, we have more jobs 
than people, because what they ultimately want is to make Americans 
reliant on the government. It is simply called socialism. It is victims 
versus patriots.
  In God we trust.
  Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, I thank the former speaker because of his 
experience in small business and running a business for a majority of 
his life.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from West Virginia 
(Mrs. Miller).
  Mrs. MILLER of West Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to share 
stories of employers across the country who are struggling to find and 
hire employees.
  According to April's disastrous jobs report, there are 8.1 million 
job openings in the United States. Employers can't fill them and, as a 
result, can't operate their businesses effectively.
  The extended unemployment handouts my colleagues across the aisle 
keep reauthorizing incentivize workers to stay at home and collect 
unemployment rather than go to work.
  I have talked with countless small business owners who cannot compete 
with these handouts and are facing a grave workforce shortage.
  I recently visited with manufacturers in Minnesota. They have had to 
reduce their output on medical device orders by 20 percent because 
workers, who they pay between $14 and $16 an hour, are making more on 
unemployment and choosing to stay at home.
  Paying people not to work won't help us recover from COVID-19. We 
must encourage people to get back into the workforce and not stay on 
the sidelines.
  The opportunity to work hard and get ahead is a pillar of the 
American Dream. Pursuing a career, providing for a family, and 
supporting our communities, these are the things we should encourage 
and celebrate.
  We have got the vaccines. Now it is time to get back to work.
  Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from 
South Carolina (Ms. Mace).
  Ms. MACE. Mr. Speaker, for the last eight years, Charleston, South 
Carolina, has been named the number one city to travel to. Even despite 
the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen thousands of folks come and visit 
our beautiful, historic city.
  In the next 10 days, Charleston is going to welcome a PGA Tournament 
in Kiawah, South Carolina. There is opportunity everywhere. Our 
airports are full. We are seeing a record number of travelers this 
month and this year alone. People are on the roads driving to our 
beautiful city. Yet with all of this great tourism that we are having, 
we are having a massive labor shortage.
  Take, for example, one of my friends, Wade Boals, who owns Saltwater 
Cowboys in Mt. Pleasant, a beautiful waterfront restaurant where you 
can enjoy sunsets and a great cocktail or adult beverage of your 
choice. Rather than be excited about all this tourism, he is desperate 
to find help, desperate to find workers and staff to work his 
restaurant. So imagine a restaurant that once had 20 employees now has

[[Page H2263]]

three, and the demand on those staff who see no end in sight right now.
  But he is not alone. In the State of South Carolina, there are 85,000 
jobs available in the last 30 days, and we have 116,000 people on 
unemployment today. If you want a job, you can have a job. And Wade is 
offering great benefits, great salary, right on the waterfront. There 
is no better place to work than Mt. Pleasant, right on the water.
  The $1.9 trillion COVID relief package, meant as a short-term 
financial solution to help those most in need, has really turned into 
an entitlement. We are making people dependent on the Federal 
Government for their day-to-day life, when opportunity is all around 
them every day, even in the middle of the pandemic.
  It turns out, when you pay people to stay at home and not go to work, 
they actually do that; they stay at home.
  Wade is just one example. There are examples everywhere. Literally 
everyone in every industry that I talk to, businesses large and small, 
are having the same problem. Employers are desperate to find employees.
  Everywhere, even in the supply chain--you look at what is happening 
this week with our supply chain. Truck driver shortages, a shortage of 
CDL drivers. Many of those folks are on unemployment right now, rather 
than go back to work. We have enormous needs in every industry across 
the country today.
  The reality is that no business, large or small, could ever waste as 
much money as our Federal Government does. When I look around us here 
today, I see a House of Representatives that has the slimmest majority 
in a generation, and I see a U.S. Senate that is evenly split 50/50, 
yet we are chasing radicalism. This is not a referendum on socialism or 
radical policy. This year should be a referendum on both Chambers 
working together, in a bipartisan way, to get our kids back in school 
and our people back to work and through COVID-19 successfully.
  Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Kansas 
(Mr. Estes). I know that he has many comments that are vitally 
important to this issue.
  Mr. ESTES. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend, Congressman   Mike 
Bost, for hosting this very important Special Order hour.
  Today, we are more than a year out from the beginning of the COVID-19 
pandemic, and we are also 5 months out from when the first dose of 
vaccine was administered. Defeating the virus through a safe and 
effective vaccine has been critical in reopening our country and our 
schools and getting Americans back to work. But the recent partisan 
policies of the left discourage work and create an employment gap in 
the country.
  I hear about this regularly in my district in Kansas. Small 
businesses, who were hit hard by the pandemic, were forced to shut 
down, had stay-at-home orders, and are now struggling to find workers 
to get back reopened.
  One of those small business owners, Jessie Sterling, shared with me 
her experience of struggling to have full employment while she raises 
her young children, something that was much more difficult when the 
schools were closed.
  While her business has seen customers return, many of her employees 
have not. Unfortunately, most of Jessie's employees opted to stay home 
and collect expanded unemployment benefits rather than return to the 
workforce. The additional $300 means that most of the part-time 
employees are now making more on unemployment than they were making at 
their job. While Jessie is responsible for the education and care of 
her children, she now has the additional stress of picking up extra 
shifts to cover for the employees who aren't coming back.
  But it doesn't have to be this way. We need to shift our focus from 
the early days of the pandemic, when it made sense to expand these 
unemployment programs, to encouraging a return to work.
  Just yesterday, our neighboring State of Missouri opted out of the 
enhanced unemployment benefits, a move that will help encourage work 
and a return to normalcy. Today, my colleagues, Congressmen Tracey Mann 
and Jake LaTurner, called on Kansas Governor Kelly to do the same 
thing.
  Our American spirit is built on resilience, hard work, and ingenuity. 
We have had many struggles over the past year, but our history has 
shown us that we will overcome, not through a heavy reliance on a big 
Federal Government, but a reliance on faith, on families, and our own 
work ethic. We need to encourage all Americans to pursue these ideals 
and get our economy back to work.
  Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
Washington (Mr. Newhouse), a person who really does understand small 
business and farming, who understands what it is like to employ people 
and how important those employees are.
  Mr. NEWHOUSE. Mr. Speaker, these are trying times for our country, 
specifically for small business owners and their families who, in some 
cases, are watching their livelihoods literally disappear right before 
their eyes.
  The jobs report that was released on Friday was cited as the 
``largest miss'' compared to economists' expectations since 1998. The 
United States filled only 266,000 jobs of the estimated 1.3 million 
that were predicted to be filled. That is more than one million jobs 
less than expected. The unemployment rate actually rose for the first 
time during this recovery.
  For over a year, our businesses have been shuttered and our schools 
closed, making it impossible for parents to return to work and for 
hardworking individuals to earn an honest living.
  To make matters worse, many of our local businesses simply cannot 
find the labor they need because Federal unemployment benefits 
discourage workers from returning to the workplace, further hindering 
the recovery of our local economies.
  President Biden dismissed these figures as merely a snapshot in time, 
refusing to see that they represent the very real struggles our small 
businesses and communities are facing.
  Just this weekend, I hosted our annual job fair in central 
Washington, and the changes that I saw were stark. Dozens of employers, 
who represented everything from the agricultural industry to law 
enforcement offices, restaurants, distribution centers, to government 
contractors handling nuclear cleanup, were all looking to hire hundreds 
of people.
  And guess what?
  Less than 100 applicants showed up.
  Two years ago, we had 500 attendees competing for many of the same 
kinds of jobs.
  Now, I know that our small businesses are the economic engine of our 
economy, and we must ensure that we can get that engine restarted as 
quickly and as safely as possible. It is time we reopen our economy, 
get our kids back into the classrooms, empower the entrepreneurs who 
are the backbone of our economy, and allow America to recover.
  Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
Minnesota (Mr. Hagedorn).
  Mr. HAGEDORN. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for holding this 
Special Order. It is really a very important issue all across the 
country. And it really doesn't matter which district a Member of 
Congress represents; you are going to have these same problems.
  Mr. Speaker, I spent the better part of last 2 weeks, during our 
district work period, traveling southern Minnesota, meeting with all 
sorts of businesses, meeting with labor, talking to the chambers of 
commerce. I can tell you that, under normal circumstances, it is tough 
enough to run a business and it is tough enough to be productive and 
successful in small business. But when you have bad government 
policies--and that is what we have here--it makes it extra tough. In 
many cases it is limiting production.

  We are seeing companies, like United Commercial Upholstery in New 
Ulm, having to turn away work. They actually could do three times more 
work right now if they could find another 50 employees. But it is 
impossible.
  It really doesn't matter if it is skilled work or unskilled work; it 
is just across the board.
  I was up in Lonsdale, Minnesota, in Rice County, and talked to their 
chamber of commerce, talked to the packaging company, which is the 
biggest employer in town. They have production disruptions across the 
board. They just can't find the employees.
  Recently, in Rochester, I was at Crenlo Industries, where they make 
these high-end cabs for heavy production equipment--Caterpillar, John

[[Page H2264]]

Deere, those types of things. They have line employees, and they want 
to get those cabs worked through the line.
  Guess what happens?
  Employees don't show up. They can't fill the jobs. They have lots of 
disruption.
  We are seeing these supply chain disruptions all across the country, 
skyrocketing costs for materials and others. A lot of this is tied to 
these bad policies.
  What I do appreciate is some of the Governors across the country who 
have taken it upon themselves to say: You know what we are going to do? 
If you don't look for qualified work, if you don't accept work, you are 
going to lose your unemployment compensation benefits.
  Unfortunately, in Minnesota and some other States, you have Governors 
that want to hang onto emergency powers and still not make those 
requirements.
  I think at the Federal level, in my Small Business Committee and 
other committees represented here, we should look at how we can tie 
those benefits to make sure that there are those strings attached and 
we do everything possible to get folks back in the workforce. It is 
time. And I know that that is always best for folks to have good, high-
paying jobs, and be upwardly mobile and self-sufficient.

                              {time}  1930

  Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. 
Donalds).
  Mr. DONALDS. The inflation report came out this morning, 4.2 percent 
increase in inflation. You have got to ask yourself what happened and 
how did it happen so fast?
  Well, one of the key things we are seeing in this economy is very 
clear. What we are seeing is that the pool of workers is actually quite 
small compared to the demand for product from people who, frankly, have 
been locked down for over a year who are ready to go out and spend a 
lot of money that they have saved, get back to normal life, but there 
aren't the necessary workforce in order to produce the level of goods 
that the economy is demanding. So then, of course, the price of every 
individual unit is now going up because you have a scarcity of supply.
  How did this happen? Well, when this body passed a coronavirus 
spending bill, or the American Rescue Plan or however you want to call 
it, when we put in an additional payment of direct checks to 
individuals, not to mention extended unemployment benefits that are 100 
percent to what their wages were before the pandemic, and you let that 
run through the later part of this year, you are going to see exactly 
what we have seen all across America.
  You have seen too many workers not filling their shifts. I will give 
you an example. I was at a McDonald's drive-through, 24-hour drive-
through in my district about 12:30 in the morning. I was hungry. The 
first drive-through I went through, there was nobody there working. 
They cordoned off the drive-through. Has anybody in America ever seen a 
McDonald's 24-hour drive-through closed? It was closed because nobody 
was there.
  The second McDonald's I went to, there was one worker in the shop. He 
said, ``It is going to take me 30 minutes to fill your order because 
nobody else is here, and I am making breakfast for the morning 
shifts.''
  We have to pull back some of these benefits. We have to, because the 
way you miss a jobs report by 750,000 jobs is by paying people to stay 
home. That is not working for our economy. It is not working for our 
small businesses, and we are starting to see the effects in inflation, 
and it is only going to get worse unless we act swiftly here in the 
Nation's Capitol.
  Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume to 
close. I thank the gentleman for his comments. I want to thank all of 
my colleagues who joined me and joined us here tonight. Thank you to my 
friend Representative Jackie Walorski for cohosting this Special Order.
  We all agree that it was necessary for Congress to step up and act 
quickly to help hardworking Americans laid off or out of work during 
the widespread pandemic shutdowns. But here we are, three vaccines 
later, the States are loosening restrictions. We need to refocus on 
where we are going, on what we are doing, on making sure children go 
back to school and people go back to work.
  I am proud to support Ranking Member Brady's Reopening America by 
Supporting Workers and Businesses Act. Instead of paying people to stay 
home, it will allow States to provide back-to-work bonuses and 
increased funding for reemployment services.
  In April's dismal jobs report, which was mentioned earlier, it is an 
indication we have a long way to go. It is a time that we need to get 
our economy back on track and our people back to work. Every time we go 
down the street, if you listen to the people who spoke here tonight, 
jobs, help wanted, help wanted, help wanted, and no help to be found. 
Why? Because as good as an intention as we had when we passed the 
unemployment extensions, Mr. Speaker, what we are doing is we are 
prolonging this situation where we can actually get back to work. We 
can take these things off, we can actually be safe going to work. We 
are being vaccinated. Things are gearing back up.
  Let's not go down the path of government entrapment. Let's go back to 
what America is about: People seeking employment when jobs are there, 
to bettering their family when jobs are there. Not through government 
programs, but through the opportunity of actually working every day to 
provide for their families and to provide their children and 
grandchildren with opportunities.
  We are going to have to do that because we have spent a lot of money 
this last year, quite often in making sure that our American citizens 
were taken care of. And rightfully so. But now it is time to go back to 
work.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________