Floor Statements

Mr. President, you know, this pandemic has made it clearer than ever that our economy is working great for those at the very top but not for our workers.

Saturday actually marks the 12th anniversary of the last time that we raised our Federal minimum wage. Twelve years. That is unacceptable, and our workers really deserve better. No one working 40 hours a week should be making wages so low, their family is living in poverty and they can't even afford to pay for even their most basic needs. It is past time that we finally give workers, who are the backbone of our economy and have kept us going through this pandemic, a hard-earned and much deserved raise.

Another important step the Senate can take to build back an economy that is stronger and fairer and works for everyone is to ensure that Agencies like the National Labor Relations Board work effectively and protect workers' rights. Jennifer Abruzzo is the type of dedicated public servant who will make sure the NLRB is enforcing the law and protecting the rights of workers.

I urge all of my colleagues to join me in voting to confirm her as general counsel of the NLRB. She has dedicated her career to upholding the law and protecting workers from unfair treatment. She has won victories against companies that attempted to undermine workers' right to organize and call for better wages. She has 23 years of experience at the NLRB, including her time serving as acting general counsel, the role she is now nominated to fill.

It is clear she has the right experience, qualifications, and values for the job, and we need her to be able to get to work right away because we have seen 7 years of--we have seen years of unprecedented Republican obstruction of the NLRB nominees. There has been an empty Democratic seat on the NLRB for nearly 3 years, and there wasn't a single Democrat on the Board from late 2019 to mid-2020. That obstruction tipped the scales of justice in favor of big corporations, and workers have suffered the consequences.

When workers stand together to form a union, it is the NLRB that makes sure the election is fair. If a worker is fired or unfairly punished because they want to join or form a union, the NLRB is tasked with protecting their rights. If companies refuse to negotiate fairly with unions fighting for higher wages and better benefits or a secure retirement or safer working conditions, it is the NLRB that protects unions and union workers who have helped build our country's middle class.

Working families simply cannot afford an NLRB that fails to protect workers' rights when they are threatened. So we have to confirm nominees like Jennifer Abruzzo who will protect workers' rights and make sure their voices are heard if we are serious about building back a stronger, fairer economy. If we are serious about standing with working families, then we need to confirm Jennifer Abruzzo as general counsel of the NLRB and then get to work increasing our Federal minimum wage.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the vote scheduled to occur at 11:30 a.m. begin immediately.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that upon disposition of the Nanda nomination, the Senate resume consideration of the Liang nomination at 5:30 today and the Senate vote on the motions to invoke cloture on the Liang and Remy nominations in the order listed; further, I ask that the cloture motion on the Cunningham nomination ripen upon disposition of the Remy nomination.

Madam President, I was proud to vote to confirm Jocelyn Samuels to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last year when she was confirmed in a bipartisan vote, and I am proud to do so again.

The EEOC has a critical role to play in protecting workers' rights and addressing inequities in our economy which disproportionately disadvantage women, people of color, people with disabilities, and more. For example, it is responsible for enforcing discrimination and harassment laws and works to address the gender pay gap.

Workers need a champion at the EEOC fighting for them, and Ms. Samuels has proven over her nearly two decades of experience with the Federal Government and her recent service as a Commissioner of the EEOC that she is that champion.

From pushing to pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act as vice president of education and employment at the National Women's Law Center to leading civil rights efforts at the Department of Justice and Department of Health and Human Services, to working as a staffer on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and a senior attorney at the EEOC, she has spent her career working to address discrimination and ensure no one is treated unfairly because of their age, sex, including sexual orientation and gender identity, race, religion, or disability.

I was pleased to see her nomination advanced out of our HELP Committee with bipartisan support, and I hope to see similar bipartisan support for her final confirmation.

Madam President, I would also like to urge my colleagues to join me in voting to confirm Seema Nanda as Solicitor for the Department of Labor--another nominee who was advanced from the HELP Committee on a bipartisan vote.

Ms. Nanda has served in the Department of Labor previously as Deputy Chief of Staff, Deputy Solicitor of Labor, and Chief of Staff. She previously served as a career attorney in the Department of Justice, where she fought to defend immigrant workers from discrimination and held employers accountable for unfair hiring practices. She has proven herself to be an excellent choice for this important role.

We take some hard votes in this Chamber. These should not be among them. Workers are the backbone of our economy, and that means every one of us should be fighting for them and voting to confirm Commissioner Samuels and Ms. Nanda, who will fight for them as well.

I yield the floor.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Madam President, today's workers are really struggling through one of the most unequal economic crises in modern American history. With millions out of a job and millions more struggling to get by, it is clear that workers need a Deputy Secretary of Labor who is committed to building back a stronger, fairer economy. They need someone who will work diligently to make sure workers have a fair and just workplace, a livable wage, a secure retirement, safe working conditions, access to accommodations, and are treated with dignity and respect, which is why I am so glad to support Julie Su's nomination.

As a labor lawyer, Julie Su fought to defend Thai garment workers who were trafficked into the United States and forced to work behind barbed wire and under armed guard. Then she pushed to change the law to make sure corporations were held responsible for working conditions in their supply chains.

As California labor commissioner, Julie Su cracked down on wage theft and launched a multilingual campaign to help workers understand their rights and feel safe about speaking up about employers who stole their wages.

As California's secretary of labor, Julie Su has implemented increases to the State minimum wage, created good-paying, high-quality jobs, expanded access to benefits for gig workers and workers who are paid low wages, and protected essential workers who are bearing the brunt of this pandemic.

It is clear that her experience in leading one of the largest State labor departments in the Nation, her decades-long commitment to fighting for workers' rights, and her personal story as the multilingual daughter of Chinese immigrants have given her the experience, background, and values to be a successful Deputy Secretary of Labor.

She is the right person for the job, and I urge our colleagues to join me in voting to confirm her because, right now, too many workers still lack crucial protections and rights and struggle to make ends meet, especially women, workers of color, LGBTQ workers, migrant workers, and workers with disabilities.

To build back an economy that works for everyone, not just the biggest corporations and wealthiest individuals, it is critical that we have a fully staffed Department of Labor and leaders who are committed to protecting workers. So it is critical that we confirm Julie Su as Deputy Secretary of Labor without delay.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I ask for the vote that is scheduled at 2:30 to begin.

Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I have 8 requests for committees to meet during today's session of the Senate. They have the approval of the Majority and Minority leaders.

Pursuant to rule XXVI, paragraph 5(a), of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the following committees are authorized to meet during today's session of the Senate:

Committee on Armed Services

The Committee on Armed Services is authorized to meet during the session

of the Senate on Tuesday, July 13, 2021, at 9:30 a.m., to conduct a hearing on nominations.

Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

The Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, July 13, 2021, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing on a nomination.

Committee on Finance

The Committee on Finance is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, July 13, 2021, at 9:45 a.m., to conduct a hearing on nominations.

Committee on Foreign Relations

The Committee on Foreign Relations is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, July 13, 2021, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing on nominations.

Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

The Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, July 13, 2021, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing on a nomination.

Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship

The Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, July 13, 2021, at 11:30 a.m., to conduct a hearing on a nomination.

Select Committee on Intelligence

The Select Committee on Intelligence is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, July 13, 2021, at 2:30 p.m., to conduct a closed briefing.

Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights

The Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, July 13, 2021, at 2:30 p.m., to conduct a hearing.

Mr. President, reserving the right to object, right now, experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are continuing to update their mask requirements based on the latest developments, including requirements related to travel. They need us to be reinforcing their science-based work to keep people safe, not overruling it.

We cannot pretend this pandemic is over. This virus is still spreading; it is still mutating; it is still costing lives; and it is still leaving survivors with long-haul symptoms. And the new Delta variant is more contagious, more likely to send people to the hospital, and already in our country.

We have made great progress on vaccinations, but there are still people who are not vaccinated, as well as people who cannot yet get vaccinated. We know masks remain a simple, effective way to protect everyone, especially in small crowded spaces--in an airplane, on a bus, or a train.

Getting rid of mask requirements for travel before the experts tell us it is safe to do so is not going to get people to their destinations any faster, and it is not going to end this pandemic any faster. Instead, it will draw things out. It will cost time, and it will cost lives. To get everyone safely through this pandemic, we need to listen to the experts and let them do their jobs; therefore, I object.

Mr. President.

Mr. President, reserving the right to object, let me just say that over the last year, we have heard constantly that you should ``stay home when you are sick.'' It is good advice, of course, and the right thing to do for public health, and I certainly encourage people to do it. But what I thought about every single time was, what about the workers who can't just stay home? There are a lot of them.

Right now, 32 million American workers do not have access to a single paid sick day. Let me repeat that. Thirty-two million people in the United States will lose pay if they stay home because they are sick or because they have to care for a sick loved one. Only 20 percent of private sector workers in the United States have paid family leave through their employer, meaning millions of workers will lose pay if they give birth or have a sick child, for just a few examples.

What I hear from workers in these situations is that they need to know they have the ability to take time off without worrying about losing their paycheck and without worrying about whether their boss will allow them.

That is why I am on the floor today to object in the strongest terms to the misleadingly titled bill the Senator from Utah just proposed. His bill would allow employers to offer workers' comp time instead of time-and-a-half pay when workers put in overtime.

Here is why this won't work when it comes to taking paid leave. Under this bill, the so-called Working Families Flexibility Act, workers would have no guaranteed right to use the comp time they have earned even when there is an emergency. And it actually gets worse from there. Under this bill, if a worker's claim is denied, their only option to fight back is to request that their comp time be cashed out, and the employer has a whole month to comply. As of March 2021, more than half of Americans said they were living paycheck to paycheck. A month is not going to work for them.

Anyone who is serious about making sure workers can support themselves and care for themselves and their families should reject this bill and work with my colleagues and me to pass Senator Gillibrand's FAMILY Act and the Healthy Families Act Congresswoman DeLauro and I introduced. Our legislation would actually truly give workers flexibility and the weight off their shoulders as they navigate the kinds of tough times we all encounter in our lives.

Look, when this pandemic struck, we saw how costly not having paid leave has been for our workers, for our families, for our businesses, and for our country. Millions of workers were forced to choose between the well-being of themselves and their coworkers and their families or their paycheck. Millions were infected, and millions more--especially women and workers of color--were forced out of their jobs in large part due to lacking paid leave or quality, affordable childcare options.

This pandemic has really made it more clear than ever: It is far past time we made paid leave a right for all, not just a privilege for some.

Now is not the time for more false choices and stress for our workers. It is a time to get real solutions over the finish line, so I object.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Madam President, construction is hard, dangerous work, and too often, when it comes to wages for workers, we see a race to the bottom, where workers and communities lose.

Prevailing wage requirements, such as we have in this bill, help make sure that construction jobs created by the Federal Government come with a fair wage that supports our local community.

Prevailing wage requirements have long had bipartisan support, including in this bill. This amendment would strip those protections for construction workers at the same time we need to help rebuild our country's infrastructure.

The workers and the communities that build our bridges and our highways and other critical infrastructure deserve the protections and benefits prevailing wage provides.

I urge my colleagues to oppose amendment No. 1858.

Vote on Amendment No. 1858

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I and Senator

Schumer be permitted to complete our remarks prior to the next vote.

Mr. President, you know, it has been more than half a century since the Equal Pay Act became law, and 12 years since President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, but women in the United States still, on average, earn only 82 cents on the dollar compared to their male counterparts, and the wage gap is far greater for women of color because, even though the Equal Pay Act and the Lilly Ledbetter Act were critical steps forward, there is clearly a lot more we have got to do.

Right now, an employer can brush aside reports of pay discrimination by saying things like, ``Well, he was a better negotiator'' or ``They work in different buildings.'' I mean, what does that have to do with it?

And too often, a woman's history of being paid less means she gets paid less in the future because her past salary can be used to determine her future salary, regardless of what her counterparts are making or her new responsibilities, and that has real consequences for women and their families.

Today, 4 out of 10 mothers with children under the age of 18 are their family's primary or sole breadwinners. As families rely more on women's wages to make ends meet, the gender pay gap has an even greater impact on children.

For example, over the course of just 1 year, the wage gap for Latino women averages almost $30,000 less compared to what a White man earns. We are talking about women losing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of their working lives, and that is money that could go to pay the bills, put food on the table, buy a house, start a business, save for retirement, get an education, and so much more.

Instead, women struggle with lifelong financial effects, including higher poverty rates as compared to men. Women are being shortchanged, plain and simple.

And this pandemic, by the way, has made things worse. Millions of women now, as we know, have left the labor force, and many have fallen behind just as caregiving responsibilities have disproportionately fallen on them.

According to one study, a woman who was earning about $47,000 a year before the pandemic, could lose nearly a quarter of a million dollars over her lifetime, assuming she is able to return to work this year.

The pandemic has set women--and in particular, women of color--back even further and made clear just how urgent it is for us to act because, you know what, if women don't recover from this crisis, our economy will not either, which is why we desperately need to close the wage gap.

We have got a responsibility to finally make sure women are paid fairly for their work so women can build financial security for themselves, for their families, for their communities, and so our economy--so much of which is driven by women, by the way--can fully recover from this crisis.

We have been fighting for the Paycheck Fairness Act for quite some time, but for those who need a reminder, here is what it would do simply, very straightforward: It will close the loopholes that allow pay discrimination to continue and protect workers from retaliation for discussing their pay; it will limit the use of prior wage history in the hiring process so pay discrimination cannot follow workers from job to job; and it will increase transparency and accountability so workers know whether they are being treated fairly and so they have the evidence to hold their employers accountable if they are not.

These are commonsense steps, and that is why this bill already passed the House with bipartisan support, and it is up to the Senate now to get this done because the reality is each and every Senator represents a State where half of the population earns less than they deserve, and that is ridiculous.

It is past time we end this injustice. I urge my colleagues to join me in voting to finally put money women have earned fair and square in their pockets where it belongs and take an essential step toward ensuring our economy can build back stronger and fairer from COVID-19.

There is absolutely nothing controversial about making sure every worker gets paid fairly for their work. Women have been waiting long enough. They need the Paycheck Fairness Act now more than ever. Let's get this done