The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“Economic Growth (Executive Session)” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Labor was published in the Senate section on pages S2708 on May 8, 2019.
The Department provides billions in unemployment insurance, which peaked around 2011 though spending had declined before the pandemic. Downsizing the Federal Government, a project aimed at lowering taxes and boosting federal efficiency, claimed the Department funds "ineffective and duplicative services" and overregulates the workplace.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
Economic Growth
Madam President, on one final matter, I talked about leaving the
``outrage industrial complex'' behind and returning focus to the issues that impact the everyday lives of the American people. That is what my Republican colleagues and I have been focused on all along, and we are continuing to see that focus pay off.
For the better part of the last 2 years, the Labor Department's monthly jobs report has regularly pointed to an economy that has been opening new doors for millions of Americans. It has reinforced what we have known to be the case--that the pro-growth, pro-opportunity agenda enacted by the Republicans has been helping America's working families, job creators, and entrepreneurs write a remarkable new chapter of prosperity.
Here are just a few of the headlines to emerge following last Friday's jobs report: ``Real gains in the paychecks of average workers''; ``Torrent of job offers, bigger salaries offer more proof U.S. labor market is still red-hot''; ``U.S. unemployment fell to 3.6 percent, the lowest since December 1969.''
Yet there appears to be plenty of disbelief among Washington Democrats that things like rising wages, consumer confidence, and fierce competition for skilled American workers are causes for celebration. At least, that is what their recent policy proposals have left us to assume.
From a massive Federal experiment in one-size-fits-all health insurance to a Washington-dictated ``green'' overhaul of American homes, cars, and jobs, the Democrats seem determined to make the current wave of prosperity and economic opportunity short-lived. They are peddling a wholesale shift away from the free enterprise tradition that has unleashed prosperity and opportunity throughout American history, and they are doing so at the very time that daily headlines confirm those principles are still working to literally lift up American families.
In my home State of Kentucky, the unemployment rate has reached its lowest level on record. Communities across the country are tapping into new opportunities for growth, and families and job creators nationwide are benefiting.
So Republicans will continue working hard, laying the groundwork for American free enterprise to seize on this truly extraordinary moment.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
