Back to Work Bonus Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, you know, if there is one thing I have been hearing from my constituents lately it is this: We have to get people back to work so our economy can thrive and our people can make a living.
This isn't a new sentiment. I have heard this for months as I have traveled around the State. But what is new is the fact that we can't find people to work, and that is what I am here to talk about today.
Before the pandemic hit, we had the best economy in decades. The unemployment rate in January 2020 was 3.6 percent. Wages were up. Blue- collar wages were rising faster than white-collar wages for the first time on record. Unemployment for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans was at the lowest rate recorded, all thanks to President Trump's pro-growth policies and Republicans' tax reform law.
There is no debating that the coronavirus pandemic hit our economy very, very hard. Many companies and businesses in Alabama, including family-owned small businesses, have spent the past year hanging on by a thread as the pandemic held its tight grip around the country.
Some States opened with a skeleton crew, making the decision to lay off workers in order just to keep operating, and some were forced to shut down entirely. Either way, American workers lost out. A few industries were spared, and unemployment numbers shot sky high.
But a year later, as vaccines became widely available and we better understood what we needed to do to keep Americans safe, many job creators thought: OK, this is when the tight grip loosens, and there is the light at the end of the tunnel.
As more and more people are feeling safe--safe to go places they used to go and do things--businesses are eager to open and respond but, today, even as vaccinations go up and cases go down, the Biden administration is incentivizing people to sit on the sidelines, instead of encouraging them to join the workforce.
It is the opposite of what the Federal Government should be doing: Do the right thing now. And it is the opposite of what job creators want to do for millions of American workers. There are roughly 8.1 million job openings around our country, as we speak, but the Democrats would rather discourage folks from seizing the opportunity to go out and earn a living. That is exactly what the current unemployment payments do.
As part of their partisan stimulus bill, Democrats extended the $300 a week Federal unemployment benefit, a weekly payment, in addition to the State benefit that folks already get.
In Alabama, people could choose to receive, with no strings attached, up to $678 per week. That comes out to $16.95 an hour, which is even more than our Democrat colleagues' job-killing $15 minimum wage proposal just a few weeks ago. The result has been disastrous for small businesses across my State and throughout the country that are already ready to hire to meet the boom and demand for products and services.
On the national level, here is what the National Federation of Independent Business reported: ``Unfilled job openings continue to mount, as April is the third consecutive month setting a record high reading of unfilled job openings.''
On record job openings, April job numbers released last week weren't much better. The unemployment rate went up by 0.1 percent. Economists thought we would add 1 million jobs, but we only added a quarter of that amount.
Small business owners all across Alabama have been able to reopen, and customers are coming back. Now they need people to fill the jobs to keep the doors open.
Across America, businesses are no longer competing against other businesses. Now they have to compete against the government--government versus the private sector--and the government is stacking the deck against our small businesses and manufacturers. Businesses in Alabama are no exception to anybody else across the country.
Case in point, Al Cason is the President of Bud's Best Cookies in Hoover, AL. His father Bud owns the company and has been in the industry for 65 years. Normally, they have four production lines with two shifts, but because so many--so many--of their would-be workers are staying home, they can only run two lines, and they are cutting their production in half. We can't get enough to come to work, Al wrote me. The government is taking away workers from our business, and it has been in business for 65 years.
Wesley Averett from Enterprise Health & Rehabilitation Center in Enterprise, AL, wrote that his long-term care facility is ``unable to find the help [they] need'' due to the ``severe negative impacts stimulus and unemployment payments are [having] on the Alabama workforce.''
And then there is Sandra Walker from Lake Haven Assisted Living in Luverne, AL, who said:
Our salaries are competitive, but we can't compete with stay-at-home . . . no strings attached hand outs. . . . Business is back open but we can't survive without our workers returning to work.
These are both health companies, mind you, and they are the ones helping some of our most vulnerable citizens.
And here is what Anita Hilliard in Courtland, AL, told me. The company she works for employs people in convenience stores throughout northwest Alabama. She wrote: ``We have had to shut down some of our shifts'' just because we can't get enough people to work, and sometimes we have to shut down completely.
But here is what really stuck with me in her letter. She said: ``I am working and paying taxes to pay others more than I make myself.'' That is sad. This must end or we will lose the America that we have grown to know and love.
I couldn't agree with Anita more. America was built by hard workers, people like Al, people like Anita, people like Wes, Sandra, and millions more across the United States. But we will never jumpstart our economy if we keep going with this bad policy of incentivizing people to stay at home and sit and not work, rather than take employment opportunities when they are offered to them.
Our businesses need workers to meet customers' demands. This is truly a great thing after such a hard year. Our job creators have started to hope and see opportunity again. They have hung the ``now hiring'' signs on the door. They have posted the job openings. But we need to encourage folks to rejoin the workforce and to get back to work. Job creators are creating the opportunity. We just need folks to reach out and take it.
It should be easy for us to offer encouragement to folks to fill open oppositions. All we have to do is kick the ball through the uprights this time around. But Democrats in DC wanted to go it alone. They wanted to go it alone a few weeks ago. And with the recent stimulus bill that we passed we ended up with a workforce shortage due to the inflated unemployment benefits in an economy on the cusp of recovery that needs available workers.
Getting these folks back to work isn't just about the now. It is about helping them to see the future again. It has been more than a year for many who have been out of work. Taking the leap to get back in sometimes is scary, but we have to help the people take that leap. If we wait, these businesses and jobs they are now offering right now may not be there in September. Companies and small businesses are going out of work and going out of business.
That is why I joined my colleagues, Senator Crapo and Senator Risch, to sponsor the Back to Work Bonus Act. This bill would give back-to- work bonuses to workers who are able to safely return to work. This would be a one-time payment of $1,200 for those returning to full-time jobs and $600 to those returning to part-time jobs. Employers would verify the earnings and hours of those receiving the back-to-work bonuses. That sounds much more like an actual stimulus to me.
The Back to Work Bonus Act is a win-win-win--good for workers, good for employers, and great for our society. I am sure each of my colleagues has received similar pleas from small business owners across their State.
The Biden-backed unemployment benefits are crushing their hopes of getting back to a prepandemic high. We are even seeing some States take matters into their own hands. Earlier this week, I was glad to see Alabama be one of the first States to announce plans to stop accepting enhanced Federal unemployment benefits. As of today, at least 16 States have announced they won't accept the benefit to help employers and encourage folks to get back to work. This is a commonsense move to encourage folks to take the many job opportunities available.
Well, I, for one, think we should listen to the folks on Main Street. We can help them, and we can help millions of the unemployed. One way to do it is by passing the Back to Work Bonus Act.
I urge my colleagues to support this practical bill and get our country back to work. We need to remember: Opportunity through work is the foundation of our country.
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