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 STIMULUS PLAN” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Labor was published in the Senate section on pages S562-S563 on Feb. 4, 2008.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
ECONOMIC STIMULUS PLAN
Mr. REID. Mr. President, each day newspapers around the country tell us news stories of America's economic troubles--and there are economic troubles. I was told by Senator Corzine, before he became Governor--and he made millions and millions of dollars on Wall Street--regarding the market, that you can always understand when the economy is in big trouble when there are large fluctuations in the stock market. If his words are meaningful, and I believe they are, that is what we have had to deal with lately--wide fluctuations in the stock market.
Today, I looked before I left for the floor, and the market was about 100 points down. Last week, it was up several times by more than a hundred points and then down a few hundred points. That is not an economy that is feeling good about itself.
Housing foreclosures are dramatically up in cities and towns throughout the country, including an astonishing rate in Reno, NV, of more than 600 percent. In Las Vegas, it is 200 percent. In Florida, it is 275 percent. In California, with 37 million people, it is up more than 300 percent.
Gas prices are well above $3 per gallon throughout the country. The average price is $3.02 a gallon. Some States are significantly higher, and California and Nevada feel that very much.
Heating costs are skyrocketing. This is the time when especially the Northeast depends so much on heating oil. Those prices are hard to handle for people.
Friday, the Department of Labor's jobs report showed that 17,000 nonfarm jobs were cut in January. With the cost of heating homes, this is very difficult.
I was able to spend some time at home in Searchlight after Christmas. I paid the bill last night. In Searchlight, NV, $480 was the cost of my bill for heating our house. I wasn't even there all that time. Mr. President, I can pay that bill, but some people cannot. So they have to make a choice between staying cold or not paying the bill. Most of them stay cold because they know they cannot get out of paying their bill.
Again, Friday, the Department of Labor jobs report showed that 17,000 jobs were cut in January. These are 17,000 husbands, wives, sons, and daughters who don't have a job. They wonder what they are going to do.
After 8 years of economic growth during the Clinton years, the Bush administration's 7 years have shown anemic job growth. Now job growth is nonexistent, negative. During the Reagan years, about 22.5 million jobs were created. With troubling statistics such as we have had these past 7 years--yes, there have been jobs added, but they have been very weak--and growing economic challenges in our daily lives, it is no wonder that polls show the American people are now more concerned about the economy than the intractable war in Iraq. Congress cannot solve this problem on its own with a single piece of legislation, but we can and must help.
Last week, the House sent us a plan that was a good first step. It was a first step, but we have a chance now in the Senate to make the plan better. On a bipartisan basis, Senators Baucus and Grassley have worked together to send us a bipartisan package we can all support, and we should support it.
The Finance Committee package sends stimulus checks to 21.5 million senior citizens, who would get nothing from the House bill. Most of them are living on fixed incomes, but they are facing high living costs, as I have mentioned with the heating bill for my little home in Searchlight, and medicine and groceries, which are anything but fixed. Give them the money, and these seniors will spend that money.
This Finance Committee package sends checks to 250,000 disabled veterans, who were left out of the House plan. These wounded American heroes are struggling to make ends meet, and we should not leave them out. Give them the money, and they will spend it.
The Finance Committee will extend unemployment benefits for those who lost their jobs in this economy. You are entitled to unemployment benefits for 13 weeks. When that runs out and you don't have a job, you are in big trouble. We have a lot of people in big trouble. The House bill doesn't do anything for the unemployed. Economists tell us that this is the single-most effective way to stimulate the economy. Give the unemployed this tax break, and they will spend it.
The Finance Committee bill is business-friendly--much more so than the House bill. It gives small businesses a greater ability to immediately write off purchases of machinery and equipment. When we give these tax rebates and we give these business-friendly tax incentives, it will create jobs, and in many instances it will allow people to have money, and these people will spend this money. It helps larger businesses with ``bonus'' depreciation or an extended carryback period for their past losses to recoup cash for future investments. Give them the tax break, and they will spend it. This bill will help big businesses, small businesses, medium-sized businesses, manufacturers, home builders, and a whole panoply of businesses that are struggling today.
The Finance Committee legislation addresses the housing crisis by including $10 billion in mortgage revenue bonds to be used by States to refinance subprime mortgages. This legislation was originally put into place to help build new homes, but we don't need that now. We have an inventory of tens of millions of homes. We need help in refinancing homes. The President talked about this in his State of the Union Message. This is in the Senate Finance package. Everybody should support it--Democrats and Republicans.
The Finance Committee bill includes an extension of energy efficiency and renewable energy incentives, which will create jobs, expand the clean energy industry, save consumers money on their energy bills, and begin to help stem the tide of global warming.
Mr. President, I am going to offer a substitute, as I explained, to my Republican counterpart to the House-passed legislation. It will incorporate the measures reported by the Finance Committee last week on a bipartisan basis together with the addition of LIHEAP. This will include the House-passed language on housing, plus the items we put in the bill. It will increase the conforming loan limits for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as the loan limits for FHA-backed mortgages which will allow many more homeowners to refinance and will reduce mortgage interest rates in many parts of the country.
This amendment will allow about $1 billion to help low-income Americans heat their homes through the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which we call LIHEAP. This Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which speaks for itself, provides some relief to people from having to choose between food and medicine or heat. There is more we can do, but this is a step in the right direction.
All Americans should know that as a result of our debate, their rebate checks will not be delayed a single minute.
Under the terms of the House plan, the Internal Revenue Service will determine the size of payments based on 2007 tax returns, which are not due until April 15. That gives us the opportunity to work together to create a better plan without any need for concern.
The Finance Committee's bipartisan work helps build on the bill sent to us by the House of Representatives and makes it much better--fair to seniors and disabled veterans--and, as important as that, more effective in stimulating the economy with the breaks it gives to businesses.
That is the bottom line. It will do the job. It will work. People say: Why do we need to go to conference? We have to go to conference anyway. The House-passed bill allows the benefits to go to undocumented people. I don't think Senators want to vote for that provision. A vote this afternoon is simply a vote to proceed to the House bill. We have to go to conference anyway because of that provision; that is, rebates for undocumented persons.
We have a chance to stimulate the economy and help more struggling Americans. I hope we can all work together, Democrats and Republicans--
in fact all Senators--to build on the good work done by the House of Representatives by supporting this bipartisan Finance Committee legislation. It is good legislation.
This is it. People need not look further. If the package does not pass, that is the end of the line. That will be it. It will be a shame. We will have to look at something else after we dispose of this stimulus package to try to do something to stimulate the housing industry, give unemployment benefits, to do something about LIHEAP. It would be a shame that we would miss this opportunity. The Republicans should join with us. The bill has to go to conference anyway. Let the conferees determine, working with the President, what we should do to stimulate the economy. We believe ours is a Cadillac package. It is what the American people need. It is what the economy needs. It is fair. It is just. It is quick. The House bill is, as I said, a step in the right direction but a very small step.
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