Ted Kennedy

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. It is my understanding we are going to be on this bill as far as the eye can see. That is part of my problem on it. Is the Senator's amendment at the desk?

Mr. KENNEDY. I have this request at this particular time. We would be glad to look at the amendment. I am not familiar with the amendment right now. There are a number of others who have asked to be heard. I have been here all day, as well. We are trying to process these amendments. We have other amendments, but we will do the best we can. I plan on being around tomorrow. I don't know if we will be on this bill. We are having the debate on General Patraeus tomorrow. I plan to be here Monday. I plan to be here Tuesday.

Mr. KENNEDY. The Senator can call it up after the vote. There is no problem. Whether we will dispose of it is a different issue.

Mr. KENNEDY. Certainly.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, the hour has arrived and I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, this is not an omnibus tax bill, it is long overdue legislation to increase the minimum wage. It is not an opportunity for Members to present their tax cut wish list. It is Congress' opportunity to finally right the wrong of denying millions of hard working minimum wage workers a raise for 10 years. Since the minimum wage was last increased 10 years ago, Congress has passed $276 billion dollars in corporate tax breaks. In addition, Congress has cut taxes for individuals by more than a trillion dollars, with most of the benefits going to the wealthiest taxpayers. Unfortunately, for some of our Republican colleagues, there never are enough tax breaks for the wealthy. They have filed more than twenty five amendments proposing new or expanded tax cuts. Many of them would cost billions of dollars. The Republicans are attempting to hold the minimum wage increase hostage to their insatiable desire for more and larger tax cuts. It is a shameless strategy. The Kyl amendment seeks to extend the period of time when businesses can receive accelerated depreciation for leasehold restaurant and retail space improvements. The original amendment contained no offset. It would have cost $3 billion dollars. After being told by Democratic leaders that we would oppose any tax breaks that weren't paid for, Senator Kyl changed his amendment to include an offset. The problem is that the tax benefit he proposes to eliminate is much more worthy than the tax break he is seeking to create. He is proposing to eliminate a long-standing tax provision that allows employees of educational institutions to receive free tuition for their children. He wants to tax that free tuition. This would be a huge tax increase for hundreds of thousands of families with very modest incomes. They are teachers, food service workers, and maintenance personnel at colleges and schools across America. Many of them have worked for years in jobs with lower wages than they could have earned elsewhere in order to receive these educational opportunities for their children. Right now more than 150,000 students are attending college because of these benefits. More than one-fifth of all graduate students in our country receive employer benefits from the schools they attend, including tuition reduction. Senator Kyl's amendment would make it more difficult for these students to remain in school as well. To change existing law and suddenly make that free tuition taxable will mean that many of these people can not afford to take advantage of the free tuition. That would be grossly unfair. It would be eliminating a very legitimate pro-education tax benefit to fund yet another business tax break for the same wealthy interests that have already received so much. At a time when our Nation's competitiveness and the global economy depends on our ability to continue producing high skilled workers, making it more difficult for students to obtain an education just doesn't make sense. Senator Kyl's amendment would have an ironic result. It would mean that thousands of men and women, who toil at the most difficult jobs at our nation's colleges, will have no hope of seeing their children walk through those college gates themselves.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. KENNEDY. How much time is left and how is it divided?

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I yield myself 5 minutes.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, we are going to be voting on the minimum wage this morning. Hopefully, the Senate will vote for what I consider to be a clean bill--a clean bill being legislation that will increase the minimum wage to $7.25 over a 2-year period. There will be another measure that will be voted on that Senator Gregg and Senator Conrad will address, which is a line-item veto. But the fundamental issue we have before the Senate is the issue of an increase in the minimum wage--an increase in the minimum wage which has not taken place over the period of the last 10 years, and which I am very hopeful we will get strong bipartisan support for. If you look over the history of the minimum wage, the nine different times we have raised the minimum wage, we have had bipartisan support for that increase. It has only been in the very recent years that Republican leadership has led the fight against it. We now have new leadership in the House and the Senate and the Democratic leadership that brought this matter forward. We offer an open hand to our Republican friends to support this program, which is so important to so many working families. From our earliest days, we have been a nation of strong values-- particularly fairness and opportunity and concern for our fellow citizens. While we are a country of individualists, we have always recognized that America is strongest when we all prosper together. One of the earliest governing documents in our history, the Mayflower Compact, talked about laws that would support ``the general good.'' Later, in the preamble to our Constitution, we pledged that our Government would ``promote the general welfare.'' That is our proud history. Our Nation has thrived because we have made a commitment to shared prosperity. The vote we will cast today is a measure of our commitment to these values. Minimum wage workers have been waiting for a raise for 10 long and difficult years. They have worked more than one job. They have saved every penny they can for the future of their children. They have decided each day what food they can afford and what bills they can pay. Americans understand fairness, and they know this is unfair. They have called on us time and again to raise the minimum wage, but time and again--year after year--this Congress has turned its back on working families. It is wrong that hard-working men and women cannot afford to put food on the table or heat their homes. It is wrong that our productivity soars, but our lowest paid workers fall further and further behind. And it would be wrong to demand a price of more and more tax breaks before these hard-working families get the raise they have earned. Congress has voted itself a raise eight times over the past 10 years, while minimum wage workers have received nothing. Congress never demanded a price for increasing its wages. So why should we demand a price for giving minimum wage workers a raise? What is good enough for Congress surely is good enough for American workers. I say Congress should do unto others what it has done for itself. And we have not just been doing for ourselves. Over the last 10 years, we have done a whole lot for corporate America. We have given them $276 billion in corporate tax breaks. We have done a lot for the wealthiest Americans, who have seen their incomes skyrocket with generous tax giveaways. Why can't we do one thing for minimum wage workers? No strings attached, no giveaways for the powerful--why can't we do this one simple thing because it is the right thing to do? Minimum wage workers are men and women of dignity. They do some of the most difficult back-breaking jobs in our society. They clean our offices. They serve our food. They take care of our children in preschools, and care for our elderly in nursing homes. They deserve a fair wage that respects the dignity of their work, and they should not have to live in poverty. President Kennedy once said: If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. We are a rich nation, but unless we do more to help the poorest Americans, we will not be able to save ourselves. We have an opportunity today to take one bold step toward solving the problem of poverty in this great Nation. Today--right now--we can pass the House bill and send it to the President. We can raise the minimum wage and give 13 million hard-working people hope for a brighter future. I hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will join me in voting for minimum wage workers today. This should not be a partisan issue. It is about standing behind our values. It is long past time to do the right thing and give minimum wage workers a raise. Mr. President, I withhold the remainder of my time.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I understand we have 7\1/2\ minutes; is that correct?

Mr. KENNEDY. I would like to wait. I yield to the Senator from North Dakota.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I thought it was about our debate on the minimum wage, but that is fine. I have 7\1/2\, and the Senator has how much?

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask the Chair to let me know when I have a minute and a half.

Mr. KENNEDY. We are at a very important moment for millions of working families in this country. It has been 10 long years since we have seen an increase in the minimum wage. During that period of time, I don't think anybody in this body could really understand the kind of pain and sacrifice these families have experienced and the kind of anxiety they have had every day, wondering if they are going to be able to provide for themselves and their families, and particularly for their children. I welcome the fact that it was our Democratic leaders who have this now before the Senate. We had a majority in the Senate for an increase, but we had the opposition of Republican leadership in the Senate and also in the White House. But now we have had 80 Republicans in the House of Representatives voting for a stripped-down bill. That is a reflection of the bipartisanship we used to have. We have seen historically where we had both Republican and Democratic Presidents who fought for an increase, including Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, the first President Bush, and Bill Clinton. That is the roster of American Presidents in the postwar period. But we have had the strong opposition of this President and the Republicans. Its impact has been devastating on families. If you look at what has happened to families, you will find out that the purchasing power of the minimum wage over the period of these recent years has just collapsed--almost to the lowest point it has ever been in terms of purchasing power. Look into the sixties, seventies, and the 1980s. With the Democrats in power, with the help of some Republicans, we helped keep it up. It was at the poverty level and it collapsed in recent years and we are trying to get it up to $7.25. That is still not adequate; nonetheless, it will make a big difference to working families, the 41 million Americans--28 percent--who work more than 40 hours a week. Nearly one in six workers work more than 50 hours a week. People are working longer and harder than ever before. If you look at what is happening in the industrial nations, look at the United States, we have increased more than any other industrial nation in the world. What happened? The wages of the poorest of the poor who are out there working 40 hours a week have collapsed, and what happened? They have been working longer and harder than ever before. What has been happening? They increased productivity for the American economy. Look at the past, where you had productivity and the minimum wage related year after year. But not now. We have seen the explosion of productivity, but do you think any of that has been passed on to hard-working people? Absolutely not. We are not going to let those who increased the productivity of the American economy share in it. That has not been the case. We also see the continued loss of workers. What has happened on the other side? Who has gotten the increase in the productivity. Imagine who: corporate profits grew 65 percent more over this period of time. They are the ones who have taken the benefit of the productivity. It used to be shared between the workers and corporations. Not anymore. They have been the ones who have opposed the increase in the minimum wage. We have seen what happened, as I pointed out, when we had productivity related to the minimum wage. We saw that the minimum wage was at the poverty level, and now we have seen it virtually collapse. What has been the impact on the American families? We have now seen that 4.1 million more American families have gone into poverty since 5 years ago. And, naturally, we have seen an increased number of children who have gone into poverty; 1.2 million more children have gone into poverty over the last 5 years, with no raise in the minimum wage. Increased numbers of families are struggling and working hard, working longer and harder than in any other industrial nation in the world, and still they cannot get out of poverty. As a result, we find this extraordinary achievement in the United States of America, and we have the highest poverty rate of children of any industrialized nation in the world. The list goes on. We can see this is reflected in the increased number of individuals who are suffering in terms of hunger in our country. You can go to food banks in my city of Boston--and we have food banks throughout Massachusetts and you hear the same thing. We are having to give more assistance to families who are working, and more and more of those are children living in poverty. It doesn't have to be this way. We are not going to answer all of the problems of poverty with this increase. We are telling hard-working Americans who work hard and take pride and produce that we in the Congress at this time are going to give you a very modest raise. They are entitled to it. It is saying to proud men and women who are doing a decent job that we recognize that and we believe in a society where people move along together. This is going to make a difference to children in our society because so many children are the children of individuals who work hard and are working at minimum wage. It will make a difference to women because the great majority of people who benefit from the minimum wage are women. So it will benefit women, and it will benefit children, and those people who go into the entry level, men and women of color who are getting a job. This is a family issue, a values issue, an American issue, and it is a fairness issue. That is why we want to have a strong vote here with the bare bill that sends a very clear message: $7.25 an hour for working families is not too much in the richest country in the world.

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, what is the issue now that is before the Senate?

Mr. KENNEDY. I yield myself 1 minute. Madam President, we have the opportunity for the first time in 10 years to pass an increase in the minimum wage that will affect a million of our fellow citizens. The workers who work for the minimum wage are people of dignity. They take pride in their work. They work hard and try to do a job. This is a women's issue because the great majority of those who work and receive the minimum wage are women. It is a children's issue because so many of those women have children. Therefore, it is a family issue, it is a value issue, and it is a civil rights issue, because so many of those who enter with the minimum wage are men and women of color. Most of all, it is a fairness issue. In the United States of America, we understand fairness. With the strongest economy in the world, for men and women who are going to play by the rules, work 40 hours a week, they should not live in poverty in the United States of America. Vote yea on this amendment and we will make a downpayment in bringing children, women, and others out of poverty in this Nation.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, would the Senator yield on that point?

Mr. KENNEDY. If I could ask the Senator--I know we are on a short time and perhaps the Senator from West Virginia would yield us 3 more minutes? Would the Senator do that?

Mr. KENNEDY. I thank, as always, my friend and colleague. But on this point the Senator from Maryland makes about the lowest paying jobs, the lowest paying jobs in America are predominantly filled by women is the point the Senator was making. We find 87 percent of maids are women; food servers, 66 percent; cashiers, 75 percent; and childcare, the point the Senator was making, is 93 percent. The point the Senator has so eloquently made is that women have an interest in raising the minimum wage because of the enormous impact it has on women generally. I hope the Senator in her time will comment about the impact on the children of these women.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, parliamentary inquiry.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I know my colleague has already been recognized. There is no time limitation, is there?

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that he may be able to speak for as long as he needs to.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I know how difficult of a decision this is for Senator Kerry to make. And today, I say to the people of the country how proud all of us in Massachusetts are of John Kerry, and his outstanding service in the United States Senate for our State and for our country. Throughout his career, he has been a true hero in every sense of the word. He has been my colleague since 1984, and I have deeply valued the opportunity to work side-by-side with him, but most of all I'm proud to call him my friend. Over the years, Vicki and I have grown so close to John and his wonderful wife Teresa and his loving daughters Vanessa and Alexandra. They are a special family, and their friendship is one we cherish. We heard just a few moments ago why he was able to galvanize the country, and earn such tremendous support, in the 2004 Presidential campaign. The eloquence, the passion, the insight, the knowledge of history, and awareness of public events--these qualities we saw on display just moments ago in this Chamber--these are the qualities that characterize and define the career of John Kerry. Now John has decided to continue to devote his passion, his interest, and his energies toward bringing our troops home from Iraq safely, and how fortunate they are to know that he will devote all of his energies to that cause over the next months--hopefully not years. All of us in Massachusetts look forward to his continued service in the United States Senate for years to come and to his voice and his vote working here for the working people of Massachusetts, for their jobs, for their health care, for the education of their children, for the betterment of their environment, and for their hope for a better quality of life. He's been there for us in the past on so many of these critical concerns, and we take comfort in knowing he'll be there for all of us in the future as well. I know this has been a difficult time for John. I congratulate him on an outstanding presentation this afternoon, and for his courage and determination. I congratulate him for continuing to want to make a very important difference on the overarching and overriding issue of our time, and that is how we can remedy this catastrophic mistake of Iraq and bring our servicemen home safely. I'm grateful to be able to call John Kerry my colleague and friend, and look forward to working with him for years to come.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, as I understand, there are two speakers. I would like to ask unanimous consent that following the two speakers, Senator Enzi identify the Senator from Colorado, Mr. Salazar, to be recognized.