Jobs
Floor Speech
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Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. I do. First of all, let me thank you for focusing not just tonight but so many days on the floor of this House on jobs, especially since the new majority has done nothing, absolutely nothing to create jobs for the American people since they have been in charge and, instead, want to gut Federal programs in a way that economists say will eliminate jobs and slow our economic recovery and put hardship on the American people.
Yes. I do want to say, first of all, that Democrats have a plan, and we know what it takes to make investments by building strong infrastructure and what our plan is called. And I want to thank our leader, the whip, Steny Hoyer, for summarizing it in the best way possible, and that is: Make it in America. I know he will talk about that, that we mean both making stuff here, which we ought to do, and I think Americans everywhere--and certainly in my district, they start nodding as soon as I say, ``We need to make it in America,'' and everybody, regardless of party, regardless of income starts to nod.
But this week, I am reintroducing a bill that I have had called the Patriot Corporations of America Act, which provides incentives to and rewards companies that are good corporate citizens of the United States of America. Right now, sadly, the United States gives billions of dollars in subsidies and tax breaks and government contracts to companies that outsource jobs, that exploit workers, that avoid their fair share of taxes. And this only encourages those companies to invest abroad instead of making it in America and using the best workers in the world--American workers.
The Patriot Corporations of America Act would help us reverse course by providing incentives to companies that create a real partnership with American workers and invest in our economic future. It would be paid for, this legislation, by closing corporate offshoring loopholes and reining in some of the new tax breaks for millionaires.
This bill would reward companies that voluntarily meet the following patriotic standards by moving them to the front of the line for government contracts and giving them a 5 percent reduction in their taxable income. To qualify as a patriot corporation, businesses must produce at least 90 percent of their goods and services in the United States; spend at least 50 percent of their research and development budgets in the United States; limit top executive pay to no greater than 100 times that of their lowest compensated full-time workers--pretty generous, actually; contribute at least 5 percent of payroll to a portable pension fund; pay at least 70 percent of the cost of health insurance premiums; maintain neutrality and employee organizing drives; and comply with Federal regulations regarding the environment, workplace safety, consumer protections, and labor relations, which they're supposed to do anyway.
So I think it's time for the United States to reward companies that show a dedication to the American workforce, and that's why I call it the Patriot Corporations of America Act. I certainly would invite all my friends on both sides of the aisle to support this kind of legislation that helps to make it in America.
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