Ted Kennedy

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I thank my friend from Pennsylvania for speaking in favor of this minimum wage amendment. This was an issue, I know, out in the State of Pennsylvania during the course of the campaign. Senator Casey was resolute in his commitment to the working families in his State and I am very grateful for his comments and strong support for this issue. As I understand it, we expect Senator Grassley is going to speak to the Senate, and my friend and colleague from Hawaii, Senator Akaka, is going to address the Senate. We are working out the consent agreement for the time for the vote. It had initially been set tentatively for noontime. Now, I want to tell our colleagues, it is going to be after the caucuses. We are working out the final time and we will make that announcement in a very few moments. But for the information of our colleagues, and their schedules, we will not be voting prior to the caucuses. We will be voting after the caucuses and we will be more precise in a very short period of time.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 2:45 today the Senate proceed to a vote on or in relation to Snowe amendment No. 103, as modified, with time from 2:15 to 2:45 equally divided and controlled in the usual form, with no second-degree amendments in order prior to the vote.

Mr. KENNEDY. I ask unanimous consent that the Presiding Officer of the Senate be authorized to appoint a committee on the part of the Senate to join with a like committee on the part of the House to escort the President of the United States into the House Chamber for the joint session to be held at 9 p.m. Tuesday.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I see my friend and colleague from Hawaii wishes to address the Senate on morning business time.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, we are going to go into a recess in a moment. We will come out of the party caucuses at 2:15. We are working on some additional amendments. The amendments of the Senator from Alabama, the Sessions amendments, we will try to include, if necessary, votes on those issues as well around the 2:45 hour. We are making some progress. We have a shorter evening tonight because of the President's State of the Union, but we want to move this legislation. It is not complicated. Everyone in this body, new Members who have arrived here, understands what the increase in the minimum wage is all about. It is not complex. Is it not difficult. It is not hard to understand. There is no reason we can't move this process quickly. If it is necessary to have votes, we are prepared to move along on those issues. We have listened this morning to those who believe that raw economic arguments ought to control the question of the minimum wage. We as a country have moved away from that. We have accepted the great traditions of Judeo-Christian teachings as well as the underlying teachings of all the religions that talk about responsibilities we all have for the least among us. In the Constitution of the United States, they have what is called the general welfare clause. The general welfare clause was written into the Constitution for those very purposes. The fact is, this country has rejected the law of the jungle as it applies to economic conditions for workers. In my State of Massachusetts, we had individuals at the turn of the last century, children, 10, 11, 12 years old, who were working 12, 15 hours a day, 6\1/2\ days a week. We had the exploitation of children, of women, the exploitation of workers. We, as a country and a society, have recognized that we can be the strongest economy in the world and treat people with respect and dignity. That is why the members of Let Justice Roll, an extraordinary number of religious leaders representing a wide group of churches, talk about what the Scriptures say about poverty in their letter. I ask unanimous consent to print the letter in the Record.

Mr. KENNEDY. They mention Matthew's great teachings. The questioner says: When did I fail to treat you well? And the Lord says: When you failed to treat the least of these among us. We are talking about a minimum wage, not an optimum wage. As the charts show, it has declined dramatically over a period of years, now at $5.15, far away from what it was in the 1960s and 1970s, right through the 1980s. We believe that in this country, with the strongest economy in the world, people who work hard 40 hours a week, 52 weeks of the year, should not have to live in poverty. An increase in the minimum wage is long overdue. Hopefully, we will have an opportunity in this body to express our views on this in the near future. If there are no further speakers, I suggest that we recess, according to the leadership's earlier request.

Mr. KENNEDY

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

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, we still anticipate a vote at 2:45 p.m. As I mentioned, we are going to urge the Senate to accept the amendment offered by Senator Snowe. I think it is an important contribution to small businesses and their understanding of the kinds of rules and regulations that have been out there and do it in ways that are understandable and in a timely way and to ensure that the relevant committee is going to find out how that is being implemented. We are certainly in strong support of that concept and idea. I commend those who have been involved in it. We are going to vote at 2:45. We have amendments that are related to the Finance Committee. I talked with Senator Baucus during the noon hour. His staff is working on some that have been offered by Senator Sessions, and we are in the process of trying to work with the Senator to see what progress can be made, and the Finance Committee staff, as well as Senator Baucus, is attentive to those issues. Senator Roberts has an amendment dealing with childcare and small business. It was a subject matter he talked about during our hearing in the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. He will come over to the floor now and address the Senate about that issue. We have been trying to work with him. We think most of us have been strong supporters in terms of childcare. Senator Dodd has been a real leader with Senator Hatch in the past with the block grant childcare program. We have a childcare program that is also tied in with the Social Security program, and we have a very effective childcare program in the military which receives awards. It is very close, actually, to the bill that was initially introduced by Senator Dodd a number of years ago. We will have a chance to consider those amendments in a short period of time. I will take a few minutes now to review for the Senate what will be the first vote tomorrow, and that will be on what we call the line-item veto amendment. We had an excellent debate and discussion on that amendment yesterday. I refer any of those interested to read the Record, the excellent comments that were made on this issue by the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Byrd, and also the chairman of the Budget Committee, Senator Conrad, enormously, I think, comprehensive comments on it. I urge they read the comments of Senator Gregg as well, who is the proponent of the amendment. Senator Conrad and Senator Byrd made excellent presentations. We will be considering that early tomorrow. I hope those who are interested in the amendment will take a few moments and look back at the Record. It is a very complete record on that issue. I stand with Senator Conrad and Senator Byrd, for the reasons they have outlined, in opposition to the Gregg amendment. Next we will have a chance to vote on what we call a clean increase in the minimum wage. That means a vote on the increase in the minimum wage over a 2-year period to rise from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour. I strongly urge our colleagues to vote for what we call a clean bill on the minimum wage. I do so for a number of reasons. First, this is the area of need. It is among workers who haven't gotten a raise in the last 10 years. For 10 years, the longest time since we had a minimum wage increase, they have lost effectively 20 percent of their purchasing power, and they are working in tough and difficult jobs. These are men and women of great pride and dignity. They do hard, difficult, trying work, and they do it to the best of their ability. They deserve to have a raise. I don't think any of us in this country thought the minimum wage would be a permanent wage for millions of Americans, and yet, nonetheless, if one looks at the figures, effectively 40 percent of those earning the minimum wage were earning the minimum wage 4 years ago. That they have been able to make ends meet over this amount of time is extraordinary, particularly when they have members of their family to look after. This country has said if one works hard 40 hours a week, 52 weeks of the year, one shouldn't have to live in poverty in the richest nation in the world. That is an issue of fairness. It is a moral issue. As we demonstrated earlier, the Members of the great face of this country have all spoken about the morality of this issue. It is part of our Constitution that talks about the general welfare, how are we going to treat each other. It is as old as the Mayflower Compact. In my State of Massachusetts, before landing, the Pilgrims gathered together near Provincetown. Most people think they landed at Plymouth Rock, but they landed at Provincetown, MA. Before they landed--they had been at sea for close to 100 days, and many had died and many suffered from disease--they got together and talked about their Compact, their willingness to work together for a common purpose and common respect for their fellow human beings. That was going to be the essence of their whole life experiment in the United States. It is reflected in the actions that have been taken in this body with the minimum wage. On only one occasion in the last nine occasions when we raised the minimum wage have we added a tax provision. Again, the minimum wage has lost 20 percent of all of its purchasing power. It was a good deal higher in the sixties, seventies, and eighties. It has dropped and dropped significantly over time and has lost that purchasing power. Secondly, only once in 1996 did we pair a minimum wage increase with tax cuts. Previous increases had strong bipartisan support, despite the lack of tax cuts. In 1989, the minimum wage was raised with no tax cuts and passed by a margin of 89 to 8. In 1977, with no giveaways, an increase passed 63 to 24. We have seen what has happened. Only one time--it didn't happen in 1938, 1949, 1955, 1961, 1966, 1974, 1977, 1989--only in 1996. And look in the last 10 years what has happened in terms of the reduction of taxes for corporations and for small businesses. In corporations, it is $276 billion in tax breaks; small businesses, $36 billion; and no raise for minimum wage workers. We didn't hesitate. We were around here to provide tax benefits to small businesses and large corporations. Where were the voices to say let's give the minimum wage workers a little boost? Now, all of a sudden, we are trying to get minimum wage workers a little boost, and everybody is running around to get an increase in tax provisions. Fair is fair, Mr. President; fair is fair. We have seen what has happened in productivity. Over the last 10 years--here are the statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics-- profits are up 45 percent, productivity is up 29 percent, and the minimum wage is down 20 percent. These minimum wage workers haven't even had the opportunity to get an increase in their salaries in spite of the fact that we have seen a real increase in productivity. Historically, when we saw an increase in productivity, that was reflected in an increase in the minimum wage. That was all true in the 1960s, 1970s, up to the 1980s. As productivity increased, so did the minimum wage increase over a considerable period of time, but not in the last few years. As I have pointed out, a recent Gallup Poll found that 86 percent of small business owners do not think the minimum wage affects their businesses. Three out of four small businesses said an increase in the minimum wage would have no effect on their company. Many small businesses are already paying higher wages to recruit and retain quality workers. A higher minimum wage actually benefits them because it levels the playing field and allows them to compete with the bigger business. What we have found over time, when we provide a decent wage to workers--and this is demonstrated; I mentioned it here, I spelled it out in some greater degree on yesterday--what we find is we get workers who are loyal to the business. We find there is less of a turnover when there was an increase in the minimum wage to a living wage.

Mr. KENNEDY. Our time has expired. That is interesting. Have we reserved the last 5 minutes for debate on the Snowe amendment?

Mr. KENNEDY. I thank the Chair.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, have the yeas and nays been ordered?

Mr. KENNEDY. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, the Senator from Kansas has an amendment. He has brought it up during the course of meetings of our Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and he has been advocating for it for some period of time. He wishes to address the Senate at this time, if we could have order so that the Senator could be heard.

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, if the Senator will yield, maybe we could have order. We are making good progress on this legislation. This is an important amendment. The Senator has spent a good deal of time, and we welcome the opportunity to hear him on it. We would ask our colleagues and friends if they would be good enough to take their conversations to another part of the Senate so we can hear the Senator.

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, I thank my friend and colleague for his excellent presentation. He has been the leader of the children's caucus and a leader on this issue of childcare. We have 14,000 family members now waiting, parents who are waiting for childcare slots in my State of Massachusetts. I have listened to the Senator give the statistics nationwide. This is all related to work. It is obviously related to lower income because those at the lower income levels have less opportunity as far as affordability. I can remember when the Senator first offered the childcare legislation. I remember the debates we had about limiting the childcare legislation. We debated for about 10 days or so while it was constantly adjusted, altered, and changed. Eventually, it passed. The childcare block grant has done an enormous amount of good. The Senator has been very much involved in the other childcare programs that have come out through the CDBG and the other Social Security programs. There is a third childcare program, the one in the military. If you read back in the history books, that particular program passed by over 90 votes. This, effectively, was the legislation the Senator from Connecticut introduced. Today, when we have comparisons about which childcare programs work the best, everyone points to the military. The Senator from Connecticut can give the reasons for it. The point is, this is a matter of enormous importance to working families, with the whole change in the workforce, the increasing number of women in the workforce, the increasing number of women with children, the increasing demands upon those women, in particular, but not exclusively. We appreciate the fact that the Senator from Kansas would give focus and attention to this issue. We wish to work with the Senator. We can do part of the job in terms of the authorization. We are going to rely on him to help get limited resources to make sure we bring life to this program. I thank the Senator for his statements and comments. We look forward to hearing from my friend and colleague from Wyoming, hopefully, urging acceptance of the amendment.

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, I see the Senator from Alabama looking for recognition. He has filed some amendments. Hopefully, I will have an opportunity to discuss some of those.

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, I expect we will vote at a quarter to 5 or so on the Sessions amendment. I will vote in favor and urge my colleagues to vote in favor. Americans who have worked hard and played by the rules for a lifetime deserve a secure retirement. They deserve to be able to enjoy their golden years, spend time with their families, and rest after a lifetime of hard work. We need to be sure they have the income they need for gasoline, prescription drugs, and other needs of daily living. As my friend and colleague, Senator Enzi, pointed out, we passed a comprehensive bill last year. It was the result of years of work by the HELP and Finance Committees. That work took steps to strengthen our pension system and increase retirement savings, but we still have a long way to go. Half of Americans have no type of pension plan at all in their workplace. And today, Americans have negative savings rates for the first time since the Great Depression. In order to guarantee a secure retirement for Americans, we need to ensure that the three legs of retirement security are all there: Social Security, private pensions, and personal savings. Each one of these legs plays a vital role, and we need to strengthen all three--Social Security, private pensions, and personal savings. I know the Senator from Alabama has proposed ideas for creating and expanding personal savings. Our staff has been talking about these ideas and many proposals are being developed by Senator Baucus, Senator Bingaman, Senator Conrad, and others. I look forward to continuing to work with Senator Enzi, Senator Mikulski, and Senator Byrd on our Retirement Security Subcommittee. This is an area of enormous concern for working families in this country--what is going to happen during their golden years. They look forward to Social Security, and we are going to have to address that issue. We are going to have to address the Medicare issue, which will begin to run out of funds in, I believe, 2018. We know that defined benefit programs have been collapsing over the years, and 401(k)s that have tried to fill in have not played the role that defined benefit plans played in terms of giving answers to workers, and we have seen that the personal savings accounts brought out during the discussions by Senator Enzi and Senator Sessions have been in rapid decline. The indicators are all moving in the wrong direction, in terms of a firm, secure, dependable, and reliable retirement program for working families in this country. We should find ways to work to encourage a change in that policy. At the appropriate time, when the Senator comes back, we will dispose of the Senator's amendment. We are at an appropriate time. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that at 4:45 p.m. today, the Senate proceed to a vote on or in relation to the Session's amendment No. 106, as modified; that there be 2 minutes of debate equally divided and controlled between Senator Kennedy and Senator Sessions prior to the vote; and that no second-degree amendment be in order to the amendment prior to the vote.

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. KENNEDY. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 107 Withdrawn

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, in about 6 or 7 minutes, we will be having a vote, and then I would expect the President's State of the Union Address will place demands on the Members, so that will mean we will probably move over until tomorrow. As I mentioned earlier, I hope our colleagues will vote in support of the Sessions amendment for the reasons I have outlined. I think an important message ought to go out to families and to workers all over this country and many others who have worked long and hard to try and urge the Senate of the United States to move on the minimum wage issue and raise the minimum wage, as it has been stuck for the last 10 years at $5.15. There are people who have knocked on doors, there are people who have stuffed envelopes and there are people who have phoned into radio stations and people who have written letters to the editors and people who have met with Members of Congress all over this country. People have marched, attended parades, and demonstrated. They have spoken out for fairness and justice for workers. Tomorrow we will have a real opportunity to respond to that. I am very hopeful, as a result of the votes tomorrow, we will be well on the way toward this body supporting action that has taken place in the House of Representatives and a vote for an increase in the minimum wage. There will be those who will go to bed tonight who have been working long and hard for $5.15 an hour. They may work one job, and many of them, 300,000 Americans, work two full-time jobs. They probably keep saying a prayer, and they are keeping their fingers crossed that in the Senate, tomorrow will provide at least some additional breath of hope to them and to their families, to their loved ones, that can make a difference in terms of their lives and what a difference this can make. As we have mentioned, it may be more than a year's worth of groceries to some families or it may be the tuition for a community college. It could be 20 months of child care for some workers. It could be heating and electric bills for 19 months, all measured in a few months, for things that so many of us, certainly in this body, take for granted. But out there in so many communities across the country, people fight and struggle to try and achieve those goals. So this is a very important vote. We have important votes and some not so important votes in this body, but tomorrow will be one of great importance and consequence. I think it will be a defining issue about what kind of society we are; what is the measure of our decency and the measure of our humanity in this body. So I am very hopeful as to the outcome, and we urge our colleagues to give us their support. We will have an opportunity to make comments tomorrow morning briefly before we vote on these measures. We thank all of our Members for all of their cooperation and their help to Senator Enzi and myself over the last several days. So with that I would indicate to our colleagues that in approximately 2 minutes or so we will begin the vote on the Sessions amendment, an amendment which both I and Senator Enzi support. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I thank the Senator, my friend from Hawaii, for his excellent presentation. I pay tribute to him for his extraordinary work on behalf of the veterans of this country. He has been the real leader in the Senate on this issue, particularly for those who have suffered the wounds of war. He has been a tireless advocate to make sure we get the very best focus and attention to them. We have listened to him frequently. I hope the Senate will pay close attention to his words and his findings and his urging for this body. I thank him for his comments, as always.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Armed Services be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, January 23, 2007, at 9:30 a.m., in open session to consider the nomination of LTG David H. Petraeus, USA, to be General and Commander, Multi-National Forces-Iraq.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 at 9:15 a.m. to hold a hearing on Iraq.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 at 2:30 p.m. to hold a hearing on Iraq.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Veterans' Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, January 23, 2007, to hold an oversight hearing on DOD/VA Collaboration and Cooperation to Meet the Needs of Returning Service members. The hearing will take place in room 418 of the Russell Senate Office Building.