[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6557-6561]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           RIGHT-TO-WORK LAW

  Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, it seems as if every day there is 
some new action by the Obama administration that throws a big wet 
blanket over job creation in America. Republicans haven't been hesitant 
to point this out and talk about too many taxes, too many regulations, 
too much debt, higher gasoline prices, higher health care costs, and 
the health care law.
  Yesterday, Senators Graham and DeMint and I introduced legislation to 
reaffirm section 14(b) of the Taft-Hartley Act to permit States, if 
they so chose, to have a right-to-work law, creating a competitive 
environment in which we can create more jobs in this country. This is 
in reaction to the action by the National Labor Relations Board that 
would basically say the Boeing Company could not expand into a nonunion 
State.
  I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record an editorial in 
the Wall Street Journal today called ``Congress vs. the NLRB.''
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                         Congress vs. the NLRB

       President Obama's National Labor Relations Board has spent 
     the year thumbing its nose at Congress by reinterpreting 
     longstanding labor law on behalf of union friends. Congress 
     is finally fighting back.
       Tennessee GOP Senator Lamar Alexander along with South 
     Carolina Senators Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint are this week 
     introducing legislation to rein in the labor board's latest 
     assault on business. The board's complaint against Boeing, 
     filed last month, is the first shot in a new union war on 
     federal right-to-work law, a policy shift that is every bit 
     as threatening as the drive to get rid of secret ballots in 
     union elections.
       Boeing decided 17 months ago to invest $2 billion building 
     a new production plant for its 787 Dreamliner in South 
     Carolina. It made the decision only after talks broke down 
     with the International Association of Machinists and 
     Aerospace Workers, whose members wanted the work at a 
     unionized plant in Washington state. The union's many strikes 
     over the years have cost Boeing a bundle. South Carolina, 
     like 21 other states, has a right-to-work law, which forbids 
     compulsory unionism.
       The Obama NLRB nonetheless chose to make Boeing a whipping 
     boy in a new offensive against right-to-work states. It filed 
     a complaint demanding that an administrative law judge halt 
     the South Carolina plant (set to open in July), and force 
     Boeing to move production to Washington.
       This despite the fact that Boeing made clear this is a new 
     production facility or that it has added 12,000 jobs in 
     Washington since announcing the South Carolina move.
       No matter. The complaint's real target is the federal 
     right-to-work guarantee. Among the most celebrated provisions 
     of the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act is what's known as 14(b)--the 
     section that allows states to pass right-to-work laws. The 
     Boeing complaint guts that guarantee by effectively requiring 
     companies to continue manufacturing in union states--or be 
     found guilty of a rights violation. This is a union dream 
     come true, on par with ``card check.''
       As Senator Alexander tells us, this is a direct attack on a 
     right-to-work law that was ``thoroughly debated'' by Congress 
     in 1947 and ``remains clear today.'' The Alexander-Graham-
     DeMint legislation would clarify the existing provision, 
     ensuring that state right-to-work laws cannot be pre-empted 
     by the NLRB or union contracts. We're assuming the 11 
     Democratic Senators from right-to-work states will stand up 
     for their non-unionized workers--if Senator Majority Harry 
     Reid (from right-to-work Nevada) allows a vote.
       Boeing will fight the NLRB complaint, though that might 
     mean a protracted court fight. It also means more uncertainty 
     for every business considering a move of future production 
     facilities to a right-to-work state. Many of them may simply 
     relocate manufacturing overseas.
       This is the latest gambit from an Administration that has 
     been ramping up its regulatory and enforcement powers on 
     behalf of special-interest allies such as unions. The only 
     check against this is Congress, so we're glad to see Members 
     speaking up.


[[Page 6558]]

  Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, as important as it is to say what we 
don't like about the Obama administration's job policy, it is even more 
important for us to say what Republicans will do to create an 
environment to make it easier and cheaper to create private sector 
jobs.
  Senator Portman of Ohio has a strong background as a budget director, 
as a Congressman, and as a trade negotiator in the Bush administration, 
and he has a good understanding, representing one of our largest and 
most important manufacturing States, of exactly what kind of policy it 
takes to create an environment for job growth. He has been working with 
Republican Senators so that we can clearly state our progrowth plan. We 
would like to discuss that.
  I ask Senator Portman, what would be the keys to the Republican plan 
to make it easier and cheaper to create private sector jobs?
  Mr. PORTMAN. I thank my colleague from Tennessee. I happen to have 
the answer to his question. Yesterday--he is correct--we did propose a 
jobs plan, which is a series of commonsense proposals to get our 
economy back on track and create jobs across our country.
  You will recall that a few years ago there was a stimulus effort in 
the Congress--the President's $800 billion stimulus plan--that was 
passed. The idea was to get the economy back on track. There were 
estimates that it would have a big impact on job growth and, in fact, 
reduce our unemployment numbers significantly. That didn't happen.
  One of the reasons that didn't happen is because it relied too much 
on government providing the resources for jobs. Government doesn't 
create jobs, but government can create the climate for job growth. Our 
view is that we need to take a different approach. That approach is to 
stimulate private sector job growth and create that pro-growth 
environment.
  The seven proposals we announced yesterday as part of our jobs plan 
include being sure that we do indeed deal with the deficit and debt 
because that is a negative impact today on our economy. In fact, there 
are economic studies out there showing that our GDP is much smaller 
than it would otherwise be but for the deficit and debt. Also, we need 
to reform the Tax Code to spur economic growth. Economists across the 
spectrum agree that we can stimulate economic growth by having a Tax 
Code that makes more sense for job creation.
  Regulation is a major issue. We will hear from our colleagues who 
want to make sure we have regulatory relief for small businesses which 
are not able to create jobs because of the increased regulations coming 
from Washington.
  We need a workforce that is more competitive, and that requires the 
Federal Government to do a better job on workforce development. Also, 
there is the need to increase and expand exports. The President has 
talked about that. We are eager to get trade agreements in Congress. We 
can create hundreds of thousands of new jobs immediately through 
expanding markets.
  We also talked yesterday about energy. This is important. There are 
things we can do right now to get America less dependent upon foreign 
oil and use our own resources in this country more effectively. Then in 
terms of the health care circumstances--we will talk about this in a 
moment--every person I have talked to in Ohio, and I have been on over 
200 factory visits in the last couple years--tells me the cost of 
health care is going up not down, which is making it harder to create 
jobs. We will talk about the need to reduce health care costs.
  This is a commonsense, seven-point plan to get the economy moving and 
create jobs. It is incredibly important to get the unemployment numbers 
down and to be sure American families have opportunities. It is also 
very important, though, in terms of dealing with the debt and deficit 
because, although we need to restrain spending--and Congress is 
beginning to take small steps in that regard--we also need to grow the 
economy.
  When we have 1.8 percent economic growth, which we had in the last 
quarter, which is anemic, weak, and not something we should be 
satisfied with, it is difficult to create that economic growth to help 
deal with this huge overhang of deficits and debts.
  As the Senator from Tennessee said, we have other colleagues with us 
today, and Senator John Hoeven from North Dakota will talk about these 
issues, as will Senator Barrasso from Wyoming. Senator Cornyn from 
Texas has just joined us.
  I ask Senator Hoeven, a former Governor of North Dakota--where there 
is about 3.6 percent unemployment and is a State that is producing 
domestic energy to help meet our needs and is a big State for exports--
if he will talk about his ideas on job growth and how it fits into this 
job plan.
  Mr. HOEVEN. Madam President, I say to my colleagues, Senators 
Portman, Alexander, Barrasso, and Cornyn, that it is great to be here 
this morning to engage in this colloquy. I want to follow up on the 
points that my esteemed colleague referred to on both energy and trade. 
They are very important in terms of job creation for our country.
  If I could, I will start for a minute on the comprehensive nature of 
this jobs plan that Republicans have put together. If we look at it, we 
will see that it is truly comprehensive. It is about living within our 
means, about reforming our Tax Code, without raising taxes, to create a 
progrowth environment, create jobs, and get our economy moving. It is 
about unburdening our economy from the overregulation that is hurting 
job creation. It is about helping to create a more competitive 
workforce to compete in a global economy. It is about increasing our 
exports, and it is about a truly comprehensive approach to energy that 
will help us develop all of our sources of energy, both traditional and 
renewable. It is also about commonsense health care reform. We need to 
do that because we have more than 15 million people who are unemployed. 
Every day they are unemployed is one day too many. We also have to get 
on top of this deficit and debt we face. That means controlling our 
spending, reducing our spending, but it also means growing our economy. 
That is the way to not only get people back to work but reduce the debt 
and deficit.
  If we look at the 1990s when we were in a somewhat similar situation, 
that is exactly what we did. We need to go back and do that. North 
Dakota is a large energy-producing State--oil, gas, clean coal 
technology, and also the renewables, biofuels, and wind. But the way we 
did it wasn't through government spending. It was through creating a 
legal, tax and regulatory environment and creating certainty so that 
companies and entrepreneurs could invest in energy and advanced 
manufacturing and technology--the whole gamut. But there are hundreds 
of millions to billions of dollars today that would go into investments 
all over this country in the energy patch, both traditional sources and 
renewable sources of energy, with the latest, greatest technology--more 
energy, more dependable, and cost effective, with better environmental 
stewardship.
  That is what this is about, creating the right environment. By the 
same token, we are looking at three different trade agreements: the 
South Korea Free Trade Agreement, the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, 
and the Panama Free Trade Agreement. These would create more economic 
activity. The Korea agreement alone is expected to increase U.S. 
exports to South Korea by $10 billion a year. We are talking hundreds 
of thousands of jobs.
  We need to be working on those free-trade agreements right now, 
today, to approve them. I urge our leadership and the administration to 
work with us to get those trade agreements to the floor and get them 
approved as part of this comprehensive jobs plan.
  I thank my esteemed colleagues again, and I commend Senator Portman 
for his outstanding work on this plan. I thank all of the members of 
our caucus for the contributions they have made to this plan. Also, 
again, I express our desire to go to work with our friends across the 
aisle on all of these provisions for the benefit of all of those who 
are looking for work, for the

[[Page 6559]]

benefit of our economy, and for the important role that economic 
growth, along with spending restraint, will play in helping us get on 
top of our debt and deficit.
  With that, I turn the colloquy back over to Senator Portman for his 
additional remarks.
  Mr. PORTMAN. Madam President, I thank my colleague from North Dakota. 
He makes great points about the need for us to use our resources at 
home on energy and for us to expand exports because that immediately 
creates jobs in this country. He has done it. As a Governor, he rolled 
up his sleeves and got directly involved in economic development. He 
knows what it takes. The fact that he has been a champion of this plan 
and helped put it together gives me confidence that this is going to 
work.
  We need to work on a bipartisan basis. We are reaching out to our 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle and the administration. So 
much of this is common sense. These are things we should do now.
  We are also joined by our colleague from Wyoming. He is Wyoming's 
doctor. He is also a leader in the Senate and has taken the lead on a 
number of issues related to jobs, two of which are part of our jobs 
plan. One is, of course, the regulatory front, where he has taken the 
time to really dig into how these regulations affect business growth. 
He may have comments on that issue today.
  I would like to hear Dr. Barrasso on that point but also on the 
health care front where, as a doctor, he looked into what the impact of 
health care reform will be on jobs. This is something that perhaps does 
not get talked about enough. Unless we figure out a way to get health 
care costs under control, it will be harder for us to create 
opportunities in this country because the costs embedded in hiring a 
new employee under health care alone are so high that many companies 
are simply not hiring. I would love to hear his thoughts.
  Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I thank Senator Portman for the 
incredible job he has been doing as a champion of efforts to create 
more private sector jobs in this country, to make it easier and cheaper 
to create private sector jobs, for the private sector to create the 
jobs we need. Senator Portman showed significant leadership in his 
campaign last year in Ohio developing the Portman jobs plan. He went to 
factories and small businesses all across the State of Ohio because he 
knows small businesses are the engines that drive the economy.
  Seventy percent of the jobs created in this country are created by 
our small businesses one at a time. When there are government rules, 
regulations, redtape, and increased expenses, it makes it much harder 
because it does not provide the certainty the small businesses of this 
country need to create those new jobs. They may not be willing to take 
the additional risk and additional expense because of the unknown 
concerns.
  I think that is one of the points that is highlighted in this 
wonderful plan Senator Portman has put together, along with the members 
of the Republican Party. A big part of this plan has to do with the 
rules and regulations that come out of Washington, DC--rules and 
regulations that may not even be connected to laws that were passed in 
this body but rules and regulations put forward by this administration, 
by people who have a different view of how America works.
  I was encouraged over 100 days ago when the President said he had an 
Executive order that would try to eliminate some of the redtape. Here 
we are 100 days later, and it is just another broken promise from this 
administration. The redtape continues to hold American small businesses 
hostage.
  We are trying to cut through that redtape. The American people 
realize it. The administration may not realize it, but the American 
people realize it. When the American people were questioned just this 
last month about whether there are too few regulations or too many 
regulations and the impact on business, a majority said there are too 
many regulations on our businesses.
  How much money does Washington spend on regulations? I will tell you, 
Madam President. Government spent a record $55 billion developing and 
enforcing rules last year--$55 billion developing and enforcing rules 
last year. That is just the spending of government. What is the impact 
on businesses around the country? For every $1 the government spends to 
put forth and enforce these rules, it costs businesses of this country 
$30. That is over $1.5 trillion expended by businesses across the 
country. That is a drag on our economy, making it harder for them--not 
easier but harder and more expensive for the private sector to create 
jobs. There is $30 of business expense for every $1 spent on rules and 
regulations out of Washington.
  People are worried because it is going to get worse. There are still 
224 rules in the pipeline that have been labeled as ``economically 
significant.'' What is an economically significant rule? It is a rule 
that has an impact on the economy of over $100 million. There are 224 
of them coming down the line. Is it a surprise that the unemployment 
rate continues to be so high? It is because of the rules and 
regulations of this administration.
  What do the American people believe about this situation? Over 70 
percent of the American people believe several different things about 
the effect of the rules. I will tell my colleagues what they are. This 
is polling from just last month. They will tell you that additional 
environmental regulation increases the price of energy for items such 
as gasoline and electricity. Seventy percent of Americans believe the 
rules coming out of Washington increase the costs of items such as 
gasoline and electricity--the energy issues. How much is the pain at 
the pump costing the American family this year? About $800 per family 
this year in higher gasoline rates than last year. If you are a family, 
that has an impact on your quality of life. It has an impact if you are 
trying to deal with bills, kids, and a mortgage. But there are a lot of 
regulations out there. The American people see this.
  Also, over 70 percent of the American people know in their hearts and 
believe that small businesses--the job creators of this country--are 
impacted much more than the large businesses of the country. But it is 
the small businesses we want to help.
  The other point that more than 70 percent of the American people 
believe, in a poll by the Tarrance Group, is that if regulations make 
it too expensive to keep jobs in America, businesses will continue to 
move overseas. Businesses will continue to move overseas.
  There is so much uncertainty with the rules and regulations coming 
out of this town that it is paralyzing the rest of our country. That is 
just on the rules and regulations aspect that people can see. There are 
so many rules and regulations that are still coming.
  I was at a hospital in Cody, WY, talking about health care. I 
practiced medicine for 27 years, taking care of families all across the 
Cowboy State. I was visiting a hospital in Cody, WY, and they said they 
were trying to figure out one aspect of the health care law--
accountable care organizations. It is 6 pages of the 2,700-page law 
that was crammed through in the middle of the night, with Americans 
saying: No we don't want this. The people who do regulations took 6 
pages of the law and came up with over 400 pages of regulations. They 
just came out about a month ago. The hospital administrator said: We 
are having to take money away from patient care, from helping with 
nurses and therapists to pay for consultants to try to explain these 
rules and regulations to us so we can abide by them.
  Those are the kinds of regulations and rules on steroids that I 
continued to hear about as I traveled in the last week or so at home 
visiting with people, visiting the communities, listening to what 
people have to say and the concern and the uncertainty because what is 
coming out of Washington is a drag on our economy. It is preventing us 
from making it easier and cheaper for the private sector to create more 
jobs.
  People all across the country are concerned, and that is why I am so

[[Page 6560]]

happy to be here with Senator Portman today and his efforts, his 
leadership on a jobs plan that is one that focuses fundamentally on the 
things that will get government off the backs of the American people 
and let the American people get back to work. I thank Senator Portman 
for his leadership at a time when we see a government that is borrowing 
too much, spending too much, and growing bigger every day. I am very 
appreciative of his efforts to get things back under control and get 
the decisionmaking out of Washington and back to the hometowns and 
States across the country.
  Mr. PORTMAN. Madam President, I thank Dr. Barrasso. I appreciate the 
amount of time he has put into this regulatory issue and the relief 
small businesses need on the regulatory front. It is obvious he is out 
talking to businesses, and it is directly related to jobs because we 
cannot get the jobs back unless we reduce the cost of doing business 
that comes from these regulations.
  Madam President, how much time do we have remaining in this colloquy?
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. There is 12 minutes 7 seconds on 
the Republican side.
  Mr. PORTMAN. I thank the Presiding Officer.
  Madam President, as I said, we are also joined by Senator Cornyn of 
Texas. I am going to ask him in a minute to say a few words about the 
jobs plan. The input he has put into it has been terrific because he is 
the guy who understands, again, the importance of small business, the 
importance of us creating an environment through Washington laws and 
regulations that helps create jobs, and that it is not Washington that 
is going to create the jobs but the private sector that is going to do 
it.
  I ask my colleague from Texas to say a few words about his thoughts.
  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I say to my colleague from Ohio, what a 
welcome idea of refocusing on the No. 1 issue in America today, which 
is too many Americans out of work. Of course, we saw the growth numbers 
for the first quarter of this year: 1.8 percent--hardly vigorous enough 
to create the kind of economic expansion and job creation we need.
  As we are dealing with the spending issue, we have to deal with 
growing the economy. That is exactly what the Senator from Ohio has 
proposed--a comprehensive plan to try to figure out how to get people 
back to work and to try to get the kind of economic growth that will 
help us deal with this debt crisis we are in.
  The one thing I especially like about the plan, although I like all 
of it, is the embracing of a notion of a balanced budget amendment to 
the Constitution. The Senator from Ohio has had a distinguished career 
not only in the House but as U.S. Trade Representative and also as 
Director of the Office of Management and Budget. He knows the budget 
numbers and the intricacies of that better than just about anybody 
here. He knows the difficulty we have had, whether Republican 
administrations or Democratic administrations, of living within our 
means.
  Now that we are spending so much money we do not have--about 40 cents 
on every dollar, with $14.3 trillion in debt and huge deficits--we have 
to figure a way out of that situation. I think the best way to do that 
is to put this proverbial straitjacket on Congress and force us to do 
what every family and every business and 49 States do, either because 
of constitutional or statutory provisions.
  I wish to say in conclusion how much I appreciate the good work he 
has done. Senator Portman has been here a short time, but he brings a 
lot of experience and a lot of wisdom on these issues, particularly on 
getting America back to work.
  Mr. PORTMAN. Madam President, I thank my colleague from Texas. He is 
absolutely right. When we look at the budget deficit and the debt and 
the impact it is having on our economy today, it is clear we need 
constraints. Forty-nine States have a balanced budget requirement. When 
I am back home talking with people in our cities and counties, in their 
struggles with balancing their own budgets, they ask me: How can 
Washington continue to spend so much money it does not have? Forty 
cents of every dollar Washington spends today is borrowed money. 
Clearly that restraint is needed.
  It is important to get the economy back on track. Often we talk about 
the record budget deficit and the $14 trillion debt in terms of its 
impact on future generations. As the father of three, I am very 
concerned about that, as we all should be, because we are mortgaging 
their future, the excessive spending today that they are going to have 
to pay back.
  It is not just what is going to happen in the future. Our deficits 
and debts have gotten so big that there is an impact on the economy. 
There was a study done recently by a couple of respected economists--
Rogoff and Reinhart--which says, in looking around the world, where a 
country's debt is up to 90 percent of its total economy, you have about 
a 1-percent decline in the GDP or the growth in the economy. Our growth 
was only 1.8 percent last quarter. That means it should have been at 
least 2.8 percent but for our debt and deficit because now our gross 
debt is 100 percent of our economy. So we are over that 90-percent 
threshold, and we are impacting our economy today.
  When we think about it, with all the government borrowing out there, 
it is crowding out private borrowing. There are fewer jobs being 
created in America because the government is playing a bigger and 
bigger role, crowding out the ability of small businesses to get a 
loan.
  I also join a lot of other folks in this Chamber on both sides of the 
aisle in my deep concern about the possibility of a debt crisis if we 
do not deal with these historic deficits and debts. That could send our 
economy into a tailspin with sky-high interest rates, with inflation 
that is already rearing its ugly head again in this country. We need to 
address this issue because it is the right thing to do for future 
generations--it is really a moral issue--but also because it does 
impact what is going on today in our economy and our ability to get 
this economy back on track and create jobs. It is so important to 
American families and, as I said earlier, so important for us dealing 
with the fiscal problems because we have to both restrain spending and 
grow the economy, increase economic activity, which will increase 
revenues.
  Madam President, can you give me a warning when we have 5 minutes 
remaining in the colloquy today?
  I would like to turn back to my colleague from Tennessee who started 
this off this morning talking about the importance of this job plan.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, would the Senator have some more 
comments on the plan and about what has been said by some of our other 
colleagues?
  Mr. PORTMAN. I thank my colleague very much.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. To the Chair, if the 5-minute warning could be for the 
end of the 25 minutes because I intend to take 5 minutes after that.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. There is 6 minutes remaining in 
total on the Republican side.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. I will take 1 minute and then conclude. I wish to 
thank Senators Portman, Cornyn, and Barrasso for this. We will be 
hearing often from Republicans who want to make clear what we are for 
as well as what we are against, and I thank the Senator from Ohio for 
his leadership.
  I wonder if, in the last 30 seconds or so, he wants to focus on trade 
and jobs, which has been his specialty.
  Mr. PORTMAN. First of all, I thank my colleague from Tennessee for 
helping to promote this idea. Again, we are looking to reach out to 
Democrats in this Chamber, in the House, and working with the 
administration, to actually get this done. We need to get the American 
economy back on track.
  I just heard the Senator talk about trade, and we talked about that 
earlier. But as was said earlier, we need to increase exports because 
exports equal jobs. If we look at these three pending trade agreements, 
which the administration has yet to send to Congress--and we can't move 
unless they do

[[Page 6561]]

that--they would create, alone, between 250,000 and 380,000 jobs, 
depending on what numbers you look at. Think about that, hundreds of 
thousands of jobs are ready to be created right now by knocking down 
barriers to our workers, our farmers, and our service providers just in 
these three instances alone.
  We also need to provide the President with the authority to knock 
down more barriers by giving him trade promotion authority. So I call 
on the administration to send us those agreements--free up those 
agreements--and allow us here in America to be able to create more jobs 
by expanding our exports, by leveling this playing field between these 
three countries--Panama, Korea, and Colombia--and then let us get busy 
on having the United States even more engaged in international trade, 
expanding exports and, therefore, creating jobs.
  Let me review quickly these seven core areas and then turn it back to 
my colleague from Tennessee.
  We do need to focus on the fiscal situation, as we have talked about, 
to be able to help the economy. Our Tax Code needs to be reformed to 
create economic growth. We can do that. We know there is a way to do it 
without raising taxes and by reforming the code and making it more 
progrowth; the regulations we talked about that are stifling so many 
small businesses in this country; the competitive workforce, retraining 
is critical, and we can do a much better job taking the existing 
Federal resources and directing them toward retraining for jobs that 
are actually there; expanding exports, we just talked about; of course, 
powering America's economy by using more of our own domestic 
resources--renewable but also traditional uses of energy; and, finally, 
getting health care costs down, as Senator Barrasso talked about.
  If we do these things, we will create more hope and opportunity at a 
time when it is so desperately needed. We should be able to do it 
because they are commonsense ideas.
  I thank my colleagues.

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