American Jobs Act

Floor Speech

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I rise today to speak in support of the American Jobs Act. Rarely is our economy discussed these days without mention of the 14 million Americans who are currently out of work and searching for a job. But as you know, I am from your home State. This is not just a statistic. It is real people--people who are struggling, people who have had their hours cut, people who may have worked at a job for a very long time and, poof, it is gone away. That is what this is about.

Two years after the recession officially ended, unemployment is still stubbornly high, at 9.1 percent--9.1 percent. When we factor in those who are working part time because they cannot find a full-time job, that number goes much higher, up toward 16 percent.

Now, my home State, the State of Minnesota, is much better. We have an unemployment rate of 7.2 percent. But there are still too many people out of work or who are struggling with reduced hours at their jobs. While no group of workers has been spared by the high rates of long-term unemployment, the hardest hit have been older workers, those with a high school diploma, and then those I am sure you have seen in the construction trades. They have been hit very hard.

We also have had issues with our timber industry in northern Minnesota. We have had some trouble in our iron ore mines, but they are bouncing back. The biggest problem I have heard of is for those in the construction industry.

It is my firm belief that the role of Congress is to promote the interests of the American people, and the American people have said loudly and clearly that we need to focus on initiatives that stimulate job creation--in particular, private sector job creation. In fact, the majority of Americans want us to pass the American Jobs Act that we are debating today.

When Americans are asked about specific provisions in the bill, that message is even clearer: 74 percent say they support providing money to State governments to allow them to hire teachers and first responders; 65 percent say they support cutting the payroll tax for all American workers; 64 percent say they support increased spending to build and repair roads, bridges, and schools.

Of course, no one knows that better than me and my State. I live just a few blocks from that bridge that collapsed in the middle of a summer day. I said that day: A bridge should not just fall down in the middle of America. But that is what happened. So, obviously, people in my State understood the need to continue funding bridges and roads.

Fifty-eight percent of Americans say they support cutting the payroll taxes for all American businesses. But passing this bill is not the right thing to do just because it is popular. It is the right thing to do because it will have a positive impact on our economy.

Economists from across the political spectrum agree that steps taken in this legislation would increase economic activity and add jobs. According to Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's:

The plan would add 2 percent points to GDP growth next year, add 1.9 million jobs, and cut the unemployment rate by a percentage point.

That is an economist's words, not mine. It would accomplish this by initiating targeted measures, many of which have garnered overwhelming bipartisan support in the past. The employee payroll tax cut that would be extended under the American Jobs Act was originally introduced by my friends, Senator Schumer and Senator Hatch. It was ultimately included in the HIRE Act, which ultimately passed the Senate by a 68-to-29 vote early in 2010. Just over a year ago it was extended again. This time, 139 House Democrats and 138 House Republicans joined to support it. In the Senate, 37 Republican Senators joined 43 Democratic Senators in voting for the extension.

Cutting the payroll tax for all American businesses is another idea that has gained strong bipartisan support. In fact, it has been the centerpiece of several jobs packages put forward by my colleagues on the other side of the aisle.

We all know the neglected state of our Nation's infrastructure. Crumbling infrastructure just does not threaten public safety, as it did in Minnesota when that bridge collapsed, it also weakens our economy. Congestion and inefficiencies in our transportation network limit our ability to get goods to market.

We all know one of the main ways we are going to get out of this downturn is with exports. Well, to truly have the kind of exports we want to see in this country, we have to be able to get our products on a truck or get them on a train and get them to a port and get them across the sea or get them on an airplane. The only way we are going to do that is if we have a transportation system that matches the economic system we want to have.

The congestion, the inefficiencies in transportation exacerbate the divide between urban and rural America. They constrain economic development and competitiveness. They reduce productivity as workers idle in traffic.

Americans spend a collective 4.2 billion hours a year stuck in traffic--4.2 billion hours a year stuck in traffic--at a cost to the economy of $78.2 billion or $710 per motorist. Think about that, over $700 per motorist simply because of people waiting in line on our highways.

What better way to get our struggling economy back on track than to build the 21st-century transportation network our economy demands, while creating jobs in the construction industry, which, as I mentioned, has been one of the hardest hit industries. The American Jobs Act would establish the infrastructure bank as a new financing authority to help address some of our Nation's most important transportation projects. Roads, freight rail, and water projects in my State of Minnesota and across the Nation would benefit from access to loans and loan guarantees from this public-private partnership.

This approach has bipartisan support in the Senate, as do the other proposals I discussed. In March of this year, U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue endorsed the idea saying this:

A national infrastructure bank is a great place to start securing the funding we need to increase our mobility, create jobs and enhance our global competitiveness.

So pieces of this bill have been supported by the chamber; pieces of this bill have been supported by my Republican colleagues. In fact, the major provisions of this bill have been supported on a bipartisan basis. There are other great ideas in this bill as well, such as an extension of the bonus depreciation, which would allow businesses to continue to immediately write off the cost of investments in new property and equipment.

I have to say this was the one thing--when I met with our small businesses over the last few years, this was the one thing they kept mentioning, that this was very helpful for them and would create an incentive for them to invest in equipment.

This bill includes a returning heroes tax credit for veterans, which would provide a tax credit up to $9,600 to encourage companies to hire unemployed veterans. At a time when the percentage of unemployed veterans of Iraq stands at 11.7 percent, the importance of a provision such as this is clear. There is no reason that those people who have served our country should have to come back to the United States and not have a job. When they signed up to serve our country, there wasn't a waiting line. When they come back to America and they need a job or they need college or they need health care, there should not be a waiting line. I am glad this provision is included in the bill to create an incentive to hire returning veterans. The post-9/11 time period is most important when you look at the unemployment rate.

With our economy struggling and 14 million Americans still out of work, Minnesotans want Congress to put the politics aside and come together to move our economy forward. It is time to step forward and show some leadership, and it is time for us to work together to show the American people that Washington isn't broken--that, instead, we are willing to put aside politics to do what we were elected to do, to do what is right for America.

I urge my colleagues to vote for this important piece of legislation that would put Americans to work and help our struggling economy get back on track.

I yield the floor.

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