[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 23620-23621]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                     THE ECONOMIC STIMULUS PACKAGE

  Mr. NELSON of Florida. I thank the Senator from Alaska and I thank 
the Presiding Officer, the Senator from Hawaii, who is kind enough to 
stay a couple of moments extra before I take the chair so that I might 
make a couple of remarks.
  I compliment and encourage the bipartisan efforts among the 
leadership in meeting with the President to discuss how to best proceed 
on an economic stimulus package.
  The efforts of those negotiators, in the framework set out last night 
whereby the top elected leadership of both parties in this Chamber will 
approach their efforts with the leadership in the House of 
Representatives and come to an agreement with regard to a stimulus 
package and taxes, is clearly a step in the right direction. We do need 
a stimulus package. We need it as soon as possible. We need it 
operative by the end of this year.
  A few days ago, the National Bureau of Economic Research declared the 
U.S. economy has been in a recession since March. Some have responded 
to that announcement by saying since 6 months have already transpired, 
and since our average recession is typically less than 11 months, there 
was not a need to pass an economic stimulus package. They would say our 
economy at this point would likely recover on its own.
  I disagree with those conclusions. That is why I think we ought to 
move ahead with a stimulus package. That has all the more been brought 
to light by virtue of the announcement made by the administration 
yesterday that indeed the surpluses we were counting on projecting over 
the next several years are not going to be there. In fact, the sad news 
was that we were going to be in deficit financing; that is, spending 
more in any one year than we have had coming in tax revenue.
  How quickly things have changed. Just a few months ago we were still 
talking about the beneficence of projected surpluses over the course of 
the next 10 years and how we were going to be able to take care of a 
lot of the spending needs, including--this was prior to September 11--
the increased defense costs that clearly were a priority, and still be 
able to have substantial tax cuts and preserve the integrity of the 
Social Security trust fund surplus so it was untouched. Therefore, that 
surplus was going to pay off the national debt over the course of the 
next decade.
  Now all of that has been knocked in a cocked hat because of the 
slowed economy, the lessened surplus projected over the next decade, 
and then because we enacted a huge tax cut, a tax cut that over 10 
years was in excess of $2 trillion. The effect of that has led to the 
present economic malaise and economic projections so that now the 
administration is saying we will have deficit spending over the next 3 
years.
  It is with a heavy heart suddenly we have to face these new 
conditions. It is all the more important to have a stimulus package. 
Clearly, in my State, the State of Florida, we are feeling the effects 
big time. We are feeling the effects big time also because of September 
11, the fear factor out there of people not wanting to get on an 
airplane. I have said many times from this desk--and I fly every 
weekend at least twice--I think it is safe to fly. However, there are 
still a lot of people who do not think it is safe to fly. As a result, 
they will fly for business reasons, but they will not fly for leisure 
and vacations.
  There are parts of this country that are highly economically 
devastated. One such place is the capital city of the State of the 
Presiding Officer, Honolulu. Another is the largest tourist destination 
in the world, Orlando, FL.
  Another is Miami, with its robust cruise tourism business. Another is 
Las Vegas. We can look at the list of cities that as part of their 
economy are inextricably entwined with travel and tourism. We can see 
the economic devastation. When the leisure travelers are not flying, 
they are not getting into the hotels; when they are not getting into 
the hotels, they are not going into the restaurants, they are not going 
into the gift shops, and they are not going to the tourist attractions. 
As a result, we see the economic devastation.
  As wartime conditions continue, we should expect to see a continued 
loss of tax revenue due to the precipitous drop in travel and tourism 
and the overall economic activity. While every State has been affected 
to some degree, and travel and tourism is one of the top 3 industries 
in 30 of our 50 States, clearly States such as the State of the 
Presiding Officer and my State of Florida have been uniquely impacted 
due to the significant presence of the tourism and aviation industries 
in those States.
  For example, since the end of September, the average daily 
unemployment claims for Florida have risen by 55 percent, translating 
into approximately 50,000 more Floridians applying for unemployment 
benefits. That is mind-boggling. That is staggering.
  The unemployment rate in Florida is expected to peak at 6.1 percent 
next summer. The latest State forecast anticipates 120,000 lost jobs by 
the end of June, with an additional 115,000 jobs lost in the following 
fiscal year. And that is only in one State, my State of Florida.
  So these statistics show that we still need help, a tremendous amount 
of it.

[[Page 23621]]

As we speak today, Florida's State Legislature is meeting in the 
capital city of Tallahassee once again, trying to rewrite the State 
budget to make up for more than $1.3 billion in lost revenue, while 
also trying to fund rising unemployment claims and skyrocketing 
assistance needs of those, the least fortunate among us.
  So while it is entirely possible that we have already seen the worst 
of our economic drops--I certainly hope that is the case--the 
ramifications of these losses will be felt by Florida and many other 
States for many months and possibly for years to come.
  There is no time to waste. We must pass a stimulus package as soon as 
possible. The substance of that package is clearly the very sticking 
point where we have substantive disagreement among lawmakers, not only 
in the Senate but at the other end of the hall in the House of 
Representatives. There is significant disagreement between that body 
and this body. Yet there are still many areas on which we can agree: 
increasing unemployment benefits, helping the unemployed maintain their 
health insurance, helping our States ride out a recession with fewer 
Federal spending cuts. At the same time, we must provide assistance to 
our smaller and medium-sized businesses, and to those sectors that have 
been hardest hit in these difficult times. Those are the things we can 
agree on, and we ought to come together in the stimulus package and 
make that happen.
  Once again, I applaud the continued efforts of the majority leader 
and the minority leader, the chairman and ranking member of the Finance 
Committee, Senators Baucus and Grassley, for sitting down again today 
to try to come up with an agreement. Once they come up with that 
agreement, then we can pass it. We can pass it before we adjourn. We 
can get it into law--the President has said he will sign it--and we can 
start to take care of our weakening economy.

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