To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to impose a 100 percent tax on bonuses paid by businesses that receive TARP assistance and are majority owned by the Federal Government.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I am here to tonight to claim the time on behalf of the Progressive Caucus. The Progressive Caucus come to the floor every week to talk about a progressive vision for America, to discuss what America is and could be, to embrace the idea that everyone does better when everyone does better, to embrace the idea that we should look at the world with courage, not with fear, that we believe in dialogue, we believe in discussion. We believe in people doing well, and we believe in radical abundance, not fear of scarcity, a progressive vision; yes, even a liberal vision of an America which is doing well because everybody is working. We are promoting broad-based economic policies that allow for a higher quality of life for all Americans.

Yes, the Progressive Caucus comes to the floor every week to talk to the American people and with our colleagues about these critical issues.

Tonight we have a great topic, but before I announce tonight's topic, I just want to say we are very, very happy and pleased to be joined by a dynamic advocate for the cause of human justice, none other than Congresswoman Gwen Moore of the great State of Wisconsin.

Congresswoman Moore, is that why it might be a good idea to support the Healthy Families Act, which is H.R. 1542, which is critical to guarantee workers up to 7 paid sick days a year?

I yield to the gentlelady.

I quite agree with the gentlelady from Wisconsin who pointed out that the Healthy Families Act is a great piece of legislation, something that is progressive, something that makes sense for America, much like legislation of the past which supported workers' rights. What this piece of legislation would do for Americans, it would allow Americans to recover from short-term illness, it would allow Americans to care for a sick family member, it would allow Americans to seek routine medical care, or to seek assistance related to domestic violence.

Some people might think, ``Oh, my God, that's going to cost us a lot of money.'' If people are that sick or in serious dire straits, they're taking the time off anyway. You're not planning for it, it's not in the schedule and there's no accommodation. If somebody can come in and say, look, straight up, I've got to take the day off because I'm sick and I have 7 days I can take, then what happens is you have greater productivity because workers are taking the time off they need to get well; workers are taking their kids to get the immunizations they need; workers are now actually engaging in preventive health care which means that they are not going to have to take extended periods of time off and thereby cut productivity.

By expending the money that it would take to provide the 7 sick days that are called for under the Healthy Families Act, businesses would save money. Businesses would be better off because we would have greater productivity and a healthier workforce over time. It's what my mother would call being penny wise and pound foolish to deny this legislation. But it would also be what my mother would call an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure if we were to have a great piece of legislation like the Healthy Families Act.

As you pointed out, as fear of the missed and inaccurately called swine flu is going around, and it should be called the H1N1 virus--not as catchy but it's more accurate--the fact is that such legislation at this time, so people could get the flu shots and checkups that they need, in times like this would be a great idea.

As you pointed out in your original 5-minute, it would help moms out, wouldn't it?

I do thank the gentlelady for nailing this point. It is so important. It is part of the progressive vision that we would have an important piece of legislation that would really help Americans like the Healthy Families Act. At a time when we are concerned about illness and sickness, this kind of bill would be embraced by a progressive vision. A bill that says, hey, look, you guys, let's give 7 paid sick days to workers. This is not unusual when you compare it to what workers get in Europe, for example.

It actually makes a lot of sense. You would have healthy workers, more productive workers, and as you pointed out, the gentlelady from Wisconsin, Congresswoman Moore, we would have people who go to the doctor rather than come in while they're sick.

Let me just point out a few other important facts; you already hit a number of them already. But according to that University of Chicago study that you referred to, one in six workers report that they or a family member have been fired, suspended, punished, or threatened with being fired for taking time off because of personal illness or to take care of a sick relative. The lack of paid sick days is a major public health concern.

As we try to prevent the spread of the H1N1 virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC, has issued important guidelines that are sound and prudent: if you get sick, stay home; if you get sick, don't go to work or school; limit contact with other people. But how can you do this, I ask the gentlelady from the great State of Wisconsin, if it is going to cost you economically, if you are already close to the edge economically, if that job that you're on says that you don't have health insurance? You are paid by the hour, and you know that if you don't work, you don't get no money, you don't get paid. What, then, do you do if you do not have a bill like the Healthy Families Act? I think it is important that we get such legislation.

I yield back to the gentlelady.

If the gentlelady would yield.

Well, I think what you are saying is so very important. It is part of a progressive vision for America. It is part of the idea that, hey, we all do better when we all do better. You are not a sucker or you are not a person who is gullible if you believe that it is a good idea to look out for your fellow Americans. You are a person who may be a very savvy business person because you know that by supporting the Healthy Families Act, it may cost you a little bit to give paid sick leave days for some of your low- and medium-income workers, but it will allow you to keep that dry cleaners going over the long term; it will allow you to keep your small business moving, your store, whatever it is that you may be doing, your lawn care business. You may be able to stay out there because you know you have workers who can take the day off and go get that checkup, who can take the day off and look after that child so that when they are at work, you have an alert, healthy worker. It makes so much sense.

And as we began this health care debate, I noticed that one of our colleagues was doing a 5-minute speech, talking about how he is against a public plan. Well, I want to tell everybody, and I think it's important to note that when you talk about comprehensive health care reform, part of it has got to be giving low-income and medium- and moderate- workers paid sick days. Let's face it, if you are an executive, if you are at the top of the food chain economically and you are sick, you can take a day off. But what if you are a line worker, what if you are at the front desk, what if you are a low-wage worker, what if you are a minimum-wage worker? That's when you don't see many of the bennies going around. Or you could take a day off, but you're not getting paid for it. And in that case, you are forcing the worker into a terrible choice: lack of income or health. Which do you want to pick today? And that is something that people are too close to the edge to make a decision on.

I yield back to the gentlelady.

Will the gentlelady yield?

What is presentee-ism? Is it anything like absenteeism? I yield back.

Well, thank you for that important statistic because we have got to count up the bill.

The real difficulty in a bill like the Healthy Families Act is that we know that some people who are just looking to the next quarter, the next minute, the next moment, and if they are going to have to spend a little bit of money in the short term, they are going to say, well, that is going to cost money. Well, you know what? Not doing it is going to cost way, way, way more money.

So the Healthy Families Act is a part of a progressive vision. It is just like the Wagner Act, which guaranteed workers the right to organize, just like Social Security, just like Workers' Compensation, just like a number of important programs and pieces of legislation passed in America that may have been considered liberal--or even radical at one time--but Americans have come to rely on and expect from our government. It is part of what we do as Americans together: we share. We allow in the marketplace that you can do your own thing, you are free to come up with your idea and make your money, but certain things we do together. We defend the Nation together. We defend our streets with the police together. We provide justice through our courts together. We make sure our elderly are not eating dog food through Social Security. We do this together. We make sure that people whose parents die have survivor benefits through Social Security. We build infrastructure together. And this is another thing we should do together. We should come together and say that 7 days of paid sick leave a year is a very modest request, particularly for low- and moderate-income workers. And it pays tremendous dividends down the line.

If the gentlelady would allow me, I just want to share a couple of stories from my own State of Minnesota.

Chrissy from Minnesota. Chrissy says, ``I am currently a stay-at-home mom''--happy Mother's Day, Chrissy--``however, prior to that I worked as a natural foods manager in a conventional grocery store for 6 years. This company offered no sick leave at all to any of its employees. Many people often work sick out of necessity.''

Chrissy, we are trying to do something about it.

Amanda from Minnesota: ``I am fortunate enough to have sick time at my job at the University of Minnesota. When I was in my early 30s, I was totally healthy, exercised regularly, was at a healthy weight, and suddenly developed a rare kidney disease requiring multiple trips to multiple clinics to get multiple diagnostics. This took a lot of time away from work. Thankfully, I was able to get paid for this time. If I didn't have any income, in addition to the stress of the condition, it would have been unbearable.

``I am not so naive to believe that this is a reality of every workplace. I am very much aware of the fact that many people face struggles similar to mine on a daily basis. It is time to guarantee workers paid time to care for themselves so they are able to get their work done efficiently at no risk to themselves or their coworkers.''

Or what about the situation that Cindy is in. Cindy from Minnesota: ``I work a part-time job for a university as a researcher. In my category, sick leave is all discretionary and flexible; however, no paid vacation days accrue ever for me. The only way I feel legit in scheduling a week's vacation is if I am never sick and make up those hours pre and post.'' That's from Cindy.

I offer these stories because I think it is important to point out that the Healthy Families Act is going to help Americans all over the United States. Real people are suffering because of a lack of paid sick days. This is in keeping with the protection for workers' right to organize, Social Security, workers' compensation. This is right in line with every important and progressive step Americans have made in order to improve the quality of life for your average Americans. This is like the minimum wage; this is like workers' rights; this is like civil rights; this is like women's rights. This is what we should do at this time. It is part of a progressive vision that we are going to work to make a reality for Americans.

I yield back to the gentlelady.

Will the gentlelady yield for just a moment?

I just want to say that if we were to pass the Healthy Families Act, then the medium to larger businesses would provide these 7 days. Now, Big Business has a way of setting a trend for small business. So if big businesses did this, perhaps small businesses with fewer than 15 employees would say, hey, it's working for them, it's the industry standard, it makes sense, we might just do it voluntarily.

I yield back to the gentlelady.

I thank the gentlelady for yielding.

Let me tell you about Leslie from Minnesota. Leslie says: ``I used to wait tables full time. And there are rare occasions where you can get paid sick days, like when I worked for a large chain hotel. However, most people don't realize that you will be paid your hourly minimum wage, but not any compensation for lost tips, which is the vast majority of your money earned as a wait person. In fact, most servers barely seek a paycheck; it is eaten up with taxes taken for declared tips--yes, you are required to declare tips. It is a myth that you can conceal this information.

``So even if you do get paid sick leave or paid vacation--which is unlikely--it is not in your interest to use it. Servers basically cannot get paid unless they are physically at work. And restaurants are such hectic places that if you are short staff, the quality of service suffers everywhere. Customers in restaurants are notoriously unsympathetic to details like this.''

Just another quick one, Kari from Minnesota: ``My kids are ages 2 and 3, and the child care center doesn't take them when they're sick. Neither my husband nor I have paid sick days. Please pass the Healthy Families Act.''

And I yield to the gentlewoman.

Well, you might end up being charged with negligence. Knowing that you're sick, knowing that you're contagious and still going to work, potentially some smart lawyer might figure out a way to sue you for negligence because you exposed them to an illness. Of course, it could be taken up by workers' compensation, but somebody's going to have to pay something somewhere. And the fact is, clearly, if you've got an on-the-job illness or injury, it would be a workers' comp claim. So the bottom line is it is something that we all need to be concerned about.

I want to thank the gentlewoman from Wisconsin. As she knows, she is one of my very favorite Members of this House of Representatives, and I want to wish the gentlewoman, Gwen Moore, a Happy Mother's Day, and I also want to thank her for her very important presentation on global health for mothers.

I just want to say that we have a duty and obligation to present a progressive vision for America. Which way forward? Well, the way forward is to be more inclusive, to bring more people into the warm embrace of the American people's generosity. The way forward is peace and dialogue. The way forward is to have a better America, a higher quality of life for everybody because everybody does better when everybody does better, as the late great Senator Paul Wellstone said.

So, with that, it has been another progressive message, and I want to thank the gentlewoman.

Thank you, Mr. Ellison.

I would start out by acknowledging all of the tremendous work that the 9 to 5 Organization, founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has done around the issue of the importance of providing sick pay to workers.

People may not realize it, but workers nationwide have no sick pay. That is particularly relevant right now when you consider the beginning of this global pandemic, the swine flu. We had school closings all across the country. Parents were forced to take off work to take care of their children because of the quarantine conditions that were ordered by health departments. Not only did they do it because they were responding to a potential health crisis, but families living on a budget now have to deal with the decreased wages they are experiencing.

And, of course, when children become ill, parents can't afford to miss work so they go to work anyway and infect other people at work. They send their kids to day-care and infect other children. And, of course, employers suffer, many of them who are small businesses because they find that there is a loss of productivity.

One of the greatest losses of productivity for an employer are employees who are sick. And they become sick because other workers are unwilling to lose a day's pay because of a little cold that turns out to be either the swine flu or maybe even worse, the regular flu that is quite deadly and quite contagious.

This drives up medical costs, and God forbid that a spouse or a child falls gravely ill or is seriously injured because that worker then has no choice but to immediately seek medical help and take the loved ones to a doctor or hospital, and more absenteeism occurs and they maybe end up losing their jobs because small businesses cannot really afford to have their businesses shuttered while people are ill.

In my district, 51 percent of the African American male population is jobless, and it is the largest racial disparity in unemployment and poverty in the country. Forty-three percent of the city's workers earn less than $20,000 a year, and many are among the 122,230 Milwaukeeans, which make up 47 percent of the private workforce, who do not have sick days.

Last year in my district, the city of Milwaukee approved a binding referendum on the 2008 ballot that called for private employers in the city to provide paid sick leave for all workers, and this was due in part to the diligent effort of the unions and the community groups led by the National Association of Working Women, 9 to 5. And so now, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is one of only three cities in the country to require private employers to provide paid sick days.

It is smart economically because the lack of paid sick days is hurting Milwaukee's economic development.

Thank you for yielding.

This is a very important piece of legislation offered by the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro). I am so proud to be an original cosponsor. This makes so much sense.

Let me tell you what happens. The reality is when people don't have paid sick time, they cheat. They lie. When they are really sick, they don't come to work anyway. And worse, they neglect basic health care needs. They don't get their kids vaccinated. They don't take care of their teeth. They don't catch diseases and get basic health care like mammograms. They don't get them and catch these diseases early when they don't have built-in sick days. There is no employer on this planet that would wittingly deny someone basic health care knowing that an early detection of cancer would have saved their lives but for the fact that they didn't have paid sick days.

Absolutely. There is also a class issue here. Seventy-nine percent of low-income workers, nearly half of our private sector workers, have no paid work sick leave. I think it is something that we take for granted as we move up the hierarchy that we can go to the dentist or we can have good prenatal care when we expand our families.

A University of Chicago survey in 2008 found that one in six workers were fired for taking personal time off for illness for themselves or a sick relative. That is absolutely egregious. Like you said, it is penny wise and pound foolish. Say you own a small business, a small dry cleaners and someone has the flu and they come to work and infect everyone, then you have to shutter the business because you can't run a business like that yourself, instead of allowing that person to stay home during that infectious period of time. You are absolutely correct.

Well, you know, gentleman from Minnesota-- thank you for yielding--it's human nature: people make economic decisions and they prioritize, unfortunately, those economic decisions over health decisions.

I think people feel lucky, that maybe they won't spread disease, that maybe if they give their kid a couple of aspirin they will feel better and they can just send them on to school anyway, because the consequences of taking off work are very imminent, that they won't be able to make this month's rent. Remember, I said 79 percent of those folks who have no paid sick time are low-wage workers, they can't risk losing that money, that $80 that day, that $65 that day, they can't afford to do it. They don't have a relative or a neighbor or a friend who can stay home with their children while they are sick so they can go to work. And so they just roll the dice, they roll the dice. And again, that lump that just didn't feel quite right in their breast, you know, they ignore it.

And it shows up in so many other data in statistics. You find poor people who succumb to illnesses and die of diseases that could be cured, not because they are more susceptible to diseases, but because they don't catch them early enough. And of course that raises the cost of health care.

We heard our colleagues talking about the high cost of health care earlier. Well, of course health care costs more once your kidneys fail and you end up on dialysis because you didn't have a simple high blood pressure pill that could have been diagnosed earlier. Of course it costs more when you don't catch cancer at its earlier stages. Of course it costs more when diseases are allowed to fester to a point that you wind up in a very expensive ambulance and an emergency room instead of a sensible doctor's visit.

We have had children in this country who have died from what started out to be an abscessed tooth, something that could have been prevented with regular visits to the dentist. We have so much proof that when you increase copayments, when there are any economic consequences of seeking health care--and not having paid sick days is an economic consequence--when there are economic consequences, people delay health care until it becomes a fire.

I will yield.

All right. Thank you for yielding, gentleman.

Senator Edward Kennedy and Rosa DeLauro have worked collaboratively on this bill, and they have actually calculated, through their studies, the cost of what they call ``presentee-ism''--I guess that's the opposite of absenteeism--at work.

Presentee-ism is the opposite of absenteeism: when you show up to work sick, knowing you're sick--because of your own self-interests of not losing a day's pay--infecting everyone at work. This costs our national economy $180 billion annually. Showing up sick costs $180 billion annually. And so for employers, this cost averages $255 per employee

per year and exceeds the cost of absenteeism and medical and disability benefits.

I yield back.

Thank you for yielding.

Those are very compelling stories, and I have some here, too. But before I talk about individuals' testimonies from Wisconsin, I just want to make a point that this legislation recognizes the importance of not hamstringing small businesses. All businesses with under 15 employees would be exempt. So perhaps my example of the dry cleaners wasn't appropriate, but certainly when you have under 15 employees, those employers are exempt from providing the 7 days of sick leave.

Yes.

Well, actually, data is conclusive that our national economy would experience a net savings of $8.1 billion a year with just providing employees with these 7 days of sick time. Because as you pointed out, gentleman, productivity is extremely important. I can remember at the time when my mother died, I was showing up at work and just staring at the wall. I was not well because of the extreme grief I was experiencing, and I was at work. And my bosses told me to get up and go home, please. And so when I came back, I was much more focused on my job. You know, that loss of productivity is not good.

The other thing is that we are human beings. And employers experience a lot of turnover because they don't have employee loyalty because they don't have a basic sense of empathy in humanity. There is no way in the world that I would want to work for an employer who couldn't empathize with my grief over having lost my mother and wouldn't give me a day or two to pull myself together. So productivity is what is lost when we don't provide sick days.

I yield back to the gentleman from Minnesota.

I can tell you, gentleman from Minnesota, I have to wonder what the legal ramifications are of folks coming to work knowingly, knowing that they are sick. I mean, there's a chorus of public officials who give directives to people, saying that if you have symptoms of a pandemic, for example, the H1N1 flu virus, that you should stay at home. We hear the Centers for Disease Control say that if you're sick, if you have symptoms, stay home. We hear Dr. Richard Besser, the Acting Director of the Centers for Disease Control elaborate that you don't go to school, you shouldn't get on airplanes or other large public transportation systems if you're ill. We hear

from the White House, the Press Secretary's saying clearly we all have individual responsibility for dealing with this situation, and we should all be practicing good hygiene practices and stay at home. We hear the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, telling us, again, the government can't solve this alone. We need everybody in the United States to take some responsibility. If you are sick, stay at home. We hear President Barack Obama in his 100 Days press conference saying that the key now is to make sure that we maintain good vigilance and that everybody responds appropriately and stays at home. If your child is sick, keep them out of school. We hear this over and over and over again.

So in my final words here, I would just ask you, as an attorney, as a member of the Judiciary Committee, what are the implications of knowing that you're ill and showing up at work because you don't have a paid sick day?