Floor Statements

I thank the gentleman.

Madam Speaker, I stand in support of this small business jobs bill. There is no cute title for this bill. It's simply about small businesses and jobs. It injects funding into small businesses in two ways.

First it does through the creation of a $30 billion lending fund for community banks. Many have complained that while community banks have money, they aren't positioned to lend. This fund makes favorable repayment rates contingent upon lending to small business.

Second, the bill provides $12 billion in enhanced tax benefits for small businesses, which will encourage hiring and investment. It will allow small businesses to carry back the general business credits for 5 years, and they will provide cash in hand today rather than sitting on the credits that they eventually cannot claim. All of this will allow small businesses which may be on the fence about committing new funds, new investments, upgrades in equipment, or retaining or rehiring workers to spend the funds necessary to get back to work.

This is a very decent, reasonable piece of legislation. We ought to embrace it. It will have ripple effects throughout our economy.

Mr. Speaker, it did not take a lot of courage for the Republican leader in the Senate to announce his tax cut plan last week, which would cost about $4 trillion. Handing out tax cuts is not a tough business.

Oddly enough, while he ensured that those households with incomes of more than $1 million would get a tax cut of $104,000 next year, he forgot about the households of working poor people who count on the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit.

Why? Because the GOP plan extends the estate tax cuts but doesn't extend improvements to the tax credits for low-income working families, which the Congress passed last year. In Massachusetts alone, 210,000 families will lose some or all of the child credit under the Republican plan and 167,000 Massachusetts families will lose all or some of the earned income tax credit.

I urge our Republican friends here to reject this plan from their Senate leader and to stand up for working families.

Madam Speaker, I rise to offer legislation to create additional savings opportunities for workers who do not have access to qualified retirement plans through their employers. I am pleased to be joined by several of my colleagues in offering ``The Automatic IRA Act of 2010,'' which will increase retirement savings for millions of workers. This proposal is based on one contained in the President's budget.

Over the years, Congress has improved incentives for employer-based retirement and pension plans by providing more flexibility, increasing the limits, and lessening the administrative burdens. Still, about one in four employees who have access to these successful retirement vehicles do not take advantage of them.

What is a much more difficult group to reach, though, are the estimated 75 million workers who do not have access to these employer- based plans. GAO estimates that half the private sector workforce has no access to an employer-provided retirement plan. That is why today, we are filing legislation to create automatic payroll deposit Individual Retirement Accounts, or Auto IRAs, for workers who do not have access to employer-provided qualified pension plans. Our bill would require employers to automatically enroll employees in an Auto IRA unless the employee opts out. These are ``set it and forget it'' payroll deposit accounts. Recent research from Fidelity showed that only one in 10 workers eligible for automatic enrollment in employer- provided plans proactively opted out of the plan. The non-partisan Retirement Security Project has estimated that the Auto IRA proposal could raise net national savings by nearly $8 billion annually.

This is especially important for younger and low-income workers, as GAO projects that under current law, 37 percent of all workers will retire with zero plan savings, and of young and low-income workers, 63 percent will have no plan savings at retirement. According to a ``retirement ready'' study from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) released last month, 64 percent of workers earning less than $30,000 a year will run out of money within 10 years of retirement. And this problem exists even among large employers with qualified plans. A recent study by Hewitt projecting the retirement needs of 2.1 million employees of 84 large employers finds that the baseline case for full- career contributing employees will only meet about 85 percent of their predicted retirement needs at age 65.

We are, of course, sensitive to any increased burden on small businesses, so the bill provides for a temporary tax credit for employers with less than 100 employees in order to offset the up-front administrative cost of establishing this program. Only employers with at least 10 employees, which have been in business for at least two years, would be covered by the bill. Further, the bill does not mandate any matching contributions by employers or any fiduciary responsibility for the management of the accounts. It is our sincere hope that once employers start participating, they will decide to convert these arrangements to the broader 401(k) plans. The IRA contribution limits are much lower than the 401(k) limits, so business owners may see incentives to switch to the bigger plans.

Employers have the option of choosing a private sector manager for the Auto IRAs, while allowing each employee the right to transfer, or simply allowing the employee to designate the provider at the outset. As a default, employers may also send these contributions to the Treasury Department for the purchase of newly created Retirement Bonds, or R-bonds. Employer-provided retirement plans are highly popular among workers, and in a 2009 survey for AARP, by two to one, respondents said employers should be required to provide a retirement savings plan for their employees. This bill merely requires the employer to set up the mechanism for employees to save on their own.

The automatic enrollment feature is not new. It builds upon the success of 401(k) auto-enrollment, promoted by the Pension Protection Act of 2006. Many of the workers who will benefit from our bill will likely be moderate to lower-income workers. GAO recently studied the impact of auto-enrollment on workers savings levels and found that universal access to retirement savings with automatic enrollment would result in 91 percent of all workers, and 84 percent of low-income workers, with accumulated defined contribution savings at retirement. EBRI's ``retirement ready'' study found positive benefits already from auto-enrollment and auto-escalation of contributions in 401(k) plans, particularly for those aged 56 to 62 years old who have a 47 percent chance of not having enough money at retirement, down from a 60 percent chance just seven years ago.

The Auto IRA proposal, which was jointly developed by Brookings Institution and Heritage Foundation scholars, has garnered widespread support, including AARP and the Minority Business Roundtable, and has been endorsed in editorials around the country.

Of the 75 million American workers who have no access to an employer plan, over 40 million work for employers of at least 10 employees. And, only 10 percent of these workers actually seek out their own IRAs or other retirement savings vehicles. The Auto IRA bill that we are proposing will reach this critical

group of workers and hopefully help them start on the road to retirement security. We urge our colleagues to join us in supporting ``The Automatic IRA Act of 2010.''

Madam Speaker, I rise today to introduce legislation to improve the retirement savings of hard-working union members. Specifically, members of the Inter-Local Pension Fund of the Graphic Communications Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters do not have access to some of the same retirement provisions that other workers do. And I think it simply makes no sense.

The Fund, formed in 1950, is a 501(c)(18) pension trust that provides benefits to 12,500 active and 20,000 retired union members. Sixty-eight local affiliated unions participate in the Fund, and benefits are financed entirely by employee contributions and the earnings thereon. Section 501(c)(18) provides a tax exemption for a pension trust created before June 25, 1959 and funded solely by employee contributions. Further, the pension plan of which the trust is part must satisfy certain nondiscrimination tests. The Fund appears to be the sole remaining section 501(c)(18) pension trust in existence.

Madam Speaker, my legislation would simply apply the same cap to annual contributions to 501(c)(18) pension trusts that applies to annual elective deferrals in 401(k) plans. Those caps for workers in 401(k) plans are also adjusted for inflation. Without such parity the Fund's pension value will continue to decline. These workers deserve to be on equal ground as 401(k) participants.

Additionally, the legislation makes available to the Fund the same exception from the debt-financed real property rules currently available to section 401 pension trusts allowing for better diversification of assets.

In closing, Madam Speaker, these provisions will allow the Fund to better serve its union members and do so in sync with its tax exempt purpose of providing self-funded employee benefits. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation.

Madam Speaker, in December, and again in May, this House passed legislation to extend a set of expiring tax provisions providing billions of dollars in tax relief to millions of American families. That tax bill passed the House and has been stymied in the other body, where only two Republican Senators have stood up to their party's filibuster against these tax cuts. The $250 deduction for teachers is an important incentive for people who educate our children and buy classroom supplies out of their own pockets, but it has expired. Let me tell you who's suffering in the meantime: 124,000 teachers in Georgia cannot deduct $31 million in classroom supplies for our children; 26,000 teachers in Nevada cannot deduct $6.6 million in expenses; 113,000 teachers in North Carolina cannot deduct $28 million of classroom costs; and 314,000 teachers in Texas cannot deduct $81 million in expenses to educate our children. More than 3.5 million elementary and secondary teachers cannot deduct more than $908 million they will spend this year out of pocket.

A better educated child means a better job down the road. This tax deduction benefiting our Nation's teachers has been forgotten and cast aside by the Senate Republicans. I urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to

contact their Senators and tell them that the Tax Extenders bill means jobs.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

To my friends on the other side, I do think it's instructive to have the discussion about Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. I think it's very helpful to America because we tried the Bush years, and the argument now is to return to the Bush years.

Now, let me point out in this legislation, that Mr. Rangel and I worked to develop Build America Bonds. More than 800 cities and States have taken advantage of those bonds. In Massachusetts alone, we have issued $1 billion worth of Build America Bonds, and we saved $170 million in interest costs, which means that you can invest in education, health, and public safety.

Mr. Frank and I worked to allow small banks to hold more municipal bonds by expanding the small issuer exception, thereby lowering the costs of these bonds.

Now, to show you the success of bipartisanship, in the development of this legislation, Mr. Ryan and I worked to exempt private activity bonds from AMT, a pretty good piece of initiative. With that, 38 airports around the country, including Cleveland, Milwaukee and Houston, have taken advantage of that opportunity. Thousands of jobs have been created nationwide when the country really needs it. These bonds are also used for student loans, and protection from alternative minimum tax means lower rates on borrowers. In Massachusetts alone, 26,000 students will benefit.

Now, Mr. Tiberi, a Republican, and I worked on the New Markets Tax Credit exemption from the alternative minimum tax. Since its inception, this program has generated over $15 billion of private sector investment in some of the poorest communities in America. I want to say that there are Republican Members of Congress who have communities who have taken advantage of the New Markets Tax Credit initiative. We have freed up investment in struggling neighborhoods, Mr. Speaker. With Build America Bonds, we have offered tremendous opportunities for local projects.

Mr. Speaker, in December and again in May, this House passed legislation to extend a popular set of expiring tax provisions providing billions of dollars in relief to millions of American families. This tax bill passed the House and has been stymied in the other body where only two Republican Senators have stood up against their party's filibuster for these tax cuts.

The State sales tax deduction has provided parity for families living in States without an income tax.

Let me tell you who's suffering: 600,000 families in Tennessee cannot deduct $1.3 billion of State sales taxes; 2 million families in Florida cannot deduct $3 billion of State taxes; 2.2 million families in Texas cannot deduct $4 billion in State sales taxes. Nationwide, more than 12 million families cannot deduct $19.5 billion in State sales taxes.

This deduction will spur purchases for cars, boats, and school supplies. But time is slipping away. We need to tell the other side to move these Senators on the tax extenders bill because it means jobs.

Madam Speaker, in December and again in May, this House passed legislation to extend a popular set of expiring tax provisions providing billions of dollars in relief to millions of American families. That tax bill passed the House and has been stymied in the other body where only two Republican Senators have stood up against their party's own filibuster against these tax cuts.

Let me tell you who's suffering in the meantime: 42,000 families in Kentucky cannot deduct $108 million in college tuition fees; 86,000 families in Arizona cannot deduct $166 million in tuition fees; 304,000 families in Texas cannot deduct $708 million in college tuition fees. Nationwide, more than 4 million families cannot deduct $10.5 billion in college expenses.

A college degree means a better job for your kid. I urge our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to contact their Senators and tell them that Tax Extenders means jobs.

I thank Mr. McDermott.

I stand in full support of this emergency legislation that will restore the safety net to millions of American families. Those families have been waiting for this relief since June. Their faith in us has been tested, but today we are going to extend the help that they need.

I have spoken many times on this floor of the legendary mayor of Boston, James Michael Curley, a great orator. Curley spoke with great empathy about the forgotten man, and that's whom we're talking about today, the forgotten man and the forgotten woman, those individuals who have worked hard and played by the rules and have every reason to believe that America ought to provide them assistance in this difficult time.

He also would suggest that, in simplicity, the great ally of our civilization was a full stomach. We need to be reminded of that grim economic statistic for those who are outside the mainstream.

Let me also remind our friends here on the other side, in record time, in October of 2008, this Congress came to the aid of Wall Street. It didn't take us long to embrace the Troubled Asset Relief Program of George Bush to keep standing many of those institutions that helped create the problem that we currently find ourselves in.

There are millions of people, those who have served in Vietnam, those who have served in Afghanistan, and those who have served in Iraq and other theaters around the world, who are struggling in this economy. America is about building a community, a place where no one wants to be abandoned and no one wants to be left behind.

The great bounty of God's work has been to ensure that people in America, regardless of their political differences, have enough to eat and shelter. This opportunity to extend unemployment benefits for the American people ought to meet this moment, and I urge adoption of this measure.

Mr. Speaker, I stand in support of this job-creating legislation. This legislation before us today is going to advance American manufacturing competitiveness in an increasingly global economy, and it furthers our goal of doubling exports over the next 5 years. Yet we hear strong opposition to this legislation today. Let me tell you something: It's Orwellian what you just heard--or, in street parlance, it's a reach.

There is clearly an opportunity for us to get past some of the pettiness of this institution and move forward on legislation that at one time would guarantee 400 votes. There is nothing that we are attempting to hide with this legislation. The markings have been posted on the Internet. Now, our opponents have even authored some of these provisions. They have decided, if somehow they help an American company, that it's dirty business.

One of the provisions that I've offered in this bill today helps a manufacturing company in my district--and by the way, it's headquartered in a Republican Member's district, a Member who, apparently, is going to vote against it today, and we are going to hear opposition that doesn't stand up under the magnifying glass.

These tariff reductions are simply taxes on imports, but these imported products are based upon no American manufacturer making them; so it only raises taxes on the cost of an American importer who uses the raw material to create a marketable product for sale. This bill will lower production costs and increase American manufacturing competitiveness.

Now, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers and others have said this is a job booster, estimated to increase the GDP by--listen to this--several billion dollars. This has been a model for bipartisanship in the past, for transparency and for good policy that promotes American manufacturing and jobs, which ought to be our current and lasting priority--but today, things have changed.

There is no other bill, no other legislative process that requires the same magnitude of disclosure that this legislation does. No other bill requires the certification that this legislation does. It is a model for sunlight and transparency. Yet some today will urge a

vote against this legislation? I'm not one of them. I am glad to stand here and to support the provision that I have offered that will help a company in my district that supports 500 very good jobs.

I urge adoption.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in full support of this emergency legislation that will restore the safety net to millions of American families. Those families have been desperately waiting for this relief since June. Their faith in us had been tested, but today, I am pleased to say we can extend them the help that they need.

My colleagues have heard me speak of the legendary mayor of Boston, James Michael Curley. A truly gifted orator.

Curley spoke with great empathy about the forgotten man, those individuals who for whatever reason have found themselves outside of the mainstream of economic life. He also would suggest that, in simplicity, that the great ally of civilization was a full stomach. And we need to be reminded of that with the grim economic statistics that America is currently witnessing.

Now, also another very pertinent reminder here that I think that we all ought to recall: in October of 2008, in record time this House voted to come to the aid of Wall Street. It didn't take us long, with the Troubled Asset Relief Program, to keep standing many of those institutions that helped create the problem that we find ourselves currently in.

Is that relevant today? There are millions of people across this country who have simply found themselves without work. What does that do to an individual who has spent a career, and after 30 years finds the job is gone? And we treat them as though they are simply a statistic after perhaps they served us in an honorable manner in Vietnam, or currently in Iraq, or Afghanistan, or other theaters around the world?

America's about building community, Mr. Speaker. America's about a place where nobody's to be abandoned and nobody's to be left behind. The great bounty of God's work has been to ensure that most people in America have shelter and food. This opportunity to extend unemployment benefits for the American people ought to meet this moment.

I urge adoption.

Mr. Speaker, I want to join all of you in wishing Social Security a happy 75th birthday.

Social Security and Medicare are two of the most successful legislative accomplishments in the history of the world. But not everyone in this body is celebrating Social Security's overwhelming success.

There are many in this body on the other side who would like to privatize Social Security. Remember the Bush plan--to tie Social Security to the fluctuation of the stock market. This is a gamble we should not take.

It is an extraordinary American success story. For those who are simultaneously trying to educate college-aged children and the thought of caring for elderly parents, let me give you the actuarial reality. It's impossible. Simply put, the reason that Mom and Dad are not living in your attic is because of Social Security and Medicare. It is the greatest achievement in legislative history domestically for all American families.

Happy birthday, Social Security.

Thank you for yielding, Mr. Chairman.

Some of the best speeches that I have ever listened to and/or read come from the legendary mayor of Boston, James Michael Curley. And Curley spoke with great empathy about the forgotten man, those individuals who for whatever reason have found themselves outside of the mainstream of economic life. He also would suggest that, in simplicity, that the great ally of civilization was a full stomach. And we need to be reminded of that with the grim economic statistics that America is currently witnessing.

Now, also another very pertinent reminder here that I think that we all ought to recall: in October of 2008, in record time this House voted to come to the aid of Wall Street. It didn't take us long, with the Troubled Asset Relief Program, to keep standing many of those institutions that helped create the problem that we find ourselves currently in.

Now, why is that relevant? There are millions of people across this country who have simply found themselves without work. What does that do to an individual who has spent a career, and after 30 years finds the job is gone? And we treat them as though they are simply a statistic after perhaps they served us in an honorable manner in Vietnam, or currently in Iraq, or Afghanistan, or other theaters around the world?

America's about building community, Madam Speaker. America's about a place where nobody's to be abandoned and nobody's to be left behind. The great bounty of God's work has been to ensure that most people in America have shelter and food. This opportunity to extend unemployment benefits for the American people ought to meet this moment.

Mr. Speaker, we had an opportunity yesterday to witness another it-will-never-happen moment. Thirty-eight years after 13 unarmed men and women were shot dead on the streets of Derry in the north of Ireland, on a day now known as Bloody Sunday, the families and relatives of the victims have found the justice they've been seeking for decades. They learned the truth yesterday about what happened during a peaceful civil rights march in the Bogside community in January of 1972. And they heard the British Prime Minister David Cameron say that their loved ones were innocent and that the actions of the parachute regimen on that day were unjustified and wrong.

If Bloody Sunday was a defining day in the history of the troubles, let us hope the publication of the Saville Report will be transformative and cathartic moment for the people in the north of Ireland.

Today we remember those who lost their lives marching near Free Derry and Rossville Flats. We remember Bloody Sunday and those who were wounded. The innocent people have now been exonerated.

For those of us who stood up with those families over the course of almost four decades--and I was a staunch supporter of those families-- this is a moment of satisfaction. And at the Guildhall yesterday in Derry, people cheered the vindication of their loved ones who died on that tragic, tragic day.

I thank Mr. Levin for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I stand in support of this small business bill before us today. In addition to the several tax breaks that Mr. Levin has pointed out, the bill will create a lending fund for our community banks to crop into. That's perhaps the most salient part of this proposal, to get capital flowing, to get capital back into the marketplace so that there's an opportunity for small businesses across the country to take advantage of what heretofore has become a dried up resource, and that is the availability of capital.

While the data tells us the economy is improving, our small businesses back home are still struggling, and much of that is due to the fact that lines of credit have tightened up or in many instances simply gone away. Now, those businesses are doing their best to keep everyone on the payroll even though sales are slow in an attempt to climb back, but the regulators have kept a strong hand and hold on banks that otherwise might be lending.

Now, conceptually, I don't know how you can be opposed to this legislation. Community banks provide more than half of the small business loans in America that are less than $100,000. In Massachusetts alone, commercial bank lending to small businesses through the SBA guarantee program has doubled over the last year. This legislation will help even more.

If you really care about small businesses and entrepreneurship and growing the economy, the essential argument here is how do we get these small business people back on their feet. The proposal here is to provide some tax relief. Greater lending possibilities with the prospect of encouraging small businesses to grow and invest is a very important part of what's incorporated in this very piece of legislation.

Now, always we would find amongst the 435 of us in this institution a different way to do it, but that's not the proposal in front of us.