Barbara Mikulski

Ms. MIKULSKI

Ms. MIKULSKI. Madam President, this isn't only a women's fight, though we reserved this time. There are many good men in the Senate who will stand shoulder to shoulder with us, and I know the Senator from West Virginia would like to have 2 minutes before he presides. I yield him 2 minutes. Actually, I should yield him 77 percent of what we got, but he is for equal pay and so gets equal time as well.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Senator Heitkamp.

Ms. MIKULSKI. I thank the Senator for those comments.

Ms. MIKULSKI

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I rise in support of increasing the minimum wage. Congress needs to do away with wages that don't reward hard work and workplace policies that belong in an episode of ``Mad Men.'' This Congress needs to do two things to make sure we give a fair shot to everyone and build a stronger middle class: raise the minimum wage and pass the Paycheck Fairness Act. The minimum wage is at an historic all-time low. It has lost 30 percent of its buying power compared to its peak buying power in 1968. The minimum wage only pays $15,000 a year. That is $4,000 below the poverty line for a family of three. Increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour would pay $20,200 a year--lifting that family of three out of poverty. What does increasing the minimum wage mean for Maryland? Increasing the minimum wage will give 450,000 workers in Maryland a raise. Increasing the minimum wage will improve the lives of 210,000 Maryland children because their parent just got a raise. When we raise the minimum wage, we all move a rung up on the opportunity ladder. I am on the side of economic fairness and building a stronger middle class to bring opportunities to families across the Nation. That is why I am an enthusiastic cosponsor of the Fair Minimum Wage Act. This bill raises the minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $10.10 an hour over 3 years and indexes the minimum wage to inflation in the future. Everyone who works hard and plays by the rules deserves a fair shot at the American dream. That means raising the minimum wage so that hard work is worth it--because a full-time job shouldn't mean full time poverty. The minimum wage for employees who earn tips is barely over $2 per hour. The Fair Minimum Wage Act will slowly increase that base wage by less than $1 a year until it reaches 70 percent of the regular minimum wage. Women are nearly three-quarters of workers earning tips at their jobs. For a hotel housekeeper in the western Maryland mountains, a hairdresser on the Eastern Shore, or a restaurant server in Baltimore or Bethesda, this raise is economic security so that a slow week in an off-peak season doesn't mean below-poverty wages. The minimum wage is a women's issue. Women make up two-thirds of minimum-wage workers nationwide. Congress needs to raise their wages and make sure they are not being redlined or sidelined by outdated policies or harassed and intimidated when seeking justice for pay discrimination. Being a woman costs more, and women pay more for everything. Women pay more in medical costs than men--an estimated $10,000 over a lifetime. Women are often responsible for child care. Women even get charged more for dry cleaning. We are charged more for our blouses than men's shirts, and we are tired of being taken to the cleaners. When we earn less, we are asked to pay more. Women are almost half of the workforce and 40 percent of them are the sole breadwinners in their families. They are tired of being paid crumbs. Women continue to make less. Women are still making only 77 cents for every $1 a man makes. Women of color suffer even greater injustice. If you are African American, you earn 62 cents for every $1 a man makes. If you are Hispanic, you earn 54 cents for every $1 a man makes. Everybody likes to say to us: Oh, you have come a long way. But I don't think we have come a long way. We have only gained 18 cents in 50 years. By the time she retires, the average woman will lose more than $431,000 over her lifetime because of the wage gap. That affects your Social Security and pension. It weakens your retirement security. This is not about men versus women. It is about building a middle class. Wages have been flat for everyone. Men need a pay raise too. When they get it, we will stand shoulder to shoulder with them--because we all need a raise to raise our families. The Fair Minimum Wage Act is about putting change in the lawbooks and change in family checkbooks. Women of America, it is time to suit up, square our shoulders, put on our lipstick, increase the minimum wage for everyone, and fight the fair pay revolution. Amendments Nos. 2878, 2877, and 2875 Withdrawn

Ms. MIKULSKI

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, before my colleague leaves the floor, I want to express my appreciation for his statement today and in particular when he spoke about the Judy Center, which has meant so much in Maryland to show the way childcare should be addressed. The Judy Center is a family-oriented organization that is focused on children. Their so-called wraparound services help the child not only with all that is necessary in a well-run childcare facility, but they also work with the family, strengthen the family, and help the family by giving them information about other opportunities to improve their life, such as educational benefits. I think it is a national model. If I had my way, I would like to adopt the Judy Center model throughout America. Again, I thank the Senator for speaking about the Judy Center. I also thank my friend for his steadfast advocacy for children, the way he has worked for the children's health program, particularly focusing on the dental services for that little boy Deamonte, the child who died. He is a real fighter. Senator Cardin is also well known for getting rid of lead paint poisoning in Maryland. So now he wants the lead out of bureaucracy and the lead out of the Senate. Again, I thank him for his comments. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the bill.

Ms. MIKULSKI

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I am going to give a recap of where we are and then note the absence of a quorum as we sort through our amendments. This is the second day of the Senate's consideration of S. 1086, the child care and development block grant reauthorization on which 1.5 million American children depend, including 20,000 children from the State of Maryland. We have been working on this bill for over 2 years, and now it is our second day of moving this legislation. We have made an impressive amount of progress. Yesterday the Senate agreed to nine amendments--three by rollcall vote and six by voice vote. We had a great group of bipartisan amendments. Of the nine amendments that were adopted, three were sponsored by Republicans, two were sponsored by Democrats, and four amendments were bipartisan. The amendments yesterday improved the underlying bill. They streamlined Federal early learning programs; made sure tribes get the funding they need; required States to develop childcare disaster plans; and ensures that CDBG, as it is known, also serves an often much-overlooked population--foster care. We also had a healthy debate on the floor in which women Senators came down to show their support for this bipartisan bill. Today we hope to continue our due deliberation of amendments. Last night we identified approximately 29 to 30 amendments that remain. It is the hope of the chair and ranking member that sometime today--around 11:30 a.m., before the lunch--we will move to votes. We expect to have voice votes, possibly a rollcall vote, and I will give a further progress report. The timeline for all amendments is closed. We are now sorting through those amendments to see which we can adopt by agreement or adopt by a voice vote so we can move ahead. I also say to my colleagues, there are many who have excellent ideas about childcare issues, and some are relevant to children but not necessarily relevant to this bill. As we wrap up the legislation, we hope to focus only on germane amendments to the bill today, and those other ideas, as meritorious as they are for consideration, that they either be withdrawn or find another vehicle for discussion and consideration. We thank our colleagues for the quality of the amendments that have been brought forth. It shows that the Senate--on both sides of the aisle--has been thinking about children and has actually been listening to this compelling need around childcare and its availability and affordability, its safety and helping children get their education. Not all of the amendments--although they are focused on children--are relevant to the block grant, which is a voucher program to help low- income women qualify for childcare. I will give further updates as the morning progresses and we sort through this. In the meantime, we invite Senators to come to the floor and talk about this very important topic facing American families. I note the absence of a quorum.

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

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, we are in the process of sorting out the amendments that are pending, again, to see what we could accept by UC, what we could accept by voice vote, and those that might require a rollcall vote. The chairman and the ranking member of the committee, Senator Harkin and Senator Alexander, are discussing this, and we are looking forward to some type of votes on or about 11:30 a.m. But I see there are a lot of amendments out here about streamlining this and duplicating this and others--very thoughtful--but I wish to clarify exactly what is the Child Care and Development Block Grant Program. This is a program that meets a particular need to help people have access to childcare, and we are strengthening the quality requirements. It does not solve all of the childcare problems in the United States of America. The overall need of childcare for both poor women and middle-class women or families is well known. It is one of the agonizing choices families need to make. The Child Care and Development Block Grant Program--and this is why we are looking at a variety of other issues. We have on the books the childcare tax credit bill, where many of us hope to expand the deduction. Senator Gillibrand has others. But today we are focusing on the child care and development block grant. It is the primary Federal grant program to provide childcare assistance for working families. It was passed originally in 1990, under George Herbert Walker Bush. Before 1996, there were four childcare programs for low-income families. All of them had different eligibility criteria and work requirements--exactly what we have talked about here, the need to streamline. Three were targeted to families in or at risk of being in the welfare system. One was targeted to low-income families outside of welfare. But in 1996 under welfare reform, on a bipartisan basis, we created one unified program to serve low-income families with one set of eligibility criteria and work requirements. It was then streamlined. The overarching purpose of the childcare bill in welfare reform was to give parents aid, substantial assistance, so they could go from welfare to work or get the training to go to work. It has been a very successful program--a very successful program. One and one-half million children in America benefit from it; 20,000 in Maryland alone--a substantial waiting list if we had more vouchers. What we are doing in this bill is reauthorizing, following the spirit of 1996, streamlining and taking now what we know--new knowledge and best practices of how to help children in childcare be able to be safe, have a sense of security and stability, and then also enhance their ability to learn. We know now--all the research shows--from infancy to age 5 is one of the greatest growth spurts for brain development in a person's life. Vocabulary development and so many other things occur. So what our bill does is help improve that, but we do not so overmandate to the States that we do not allow for local flexibility. So we are trying to streamline the bill, have a better emphasis on quality, without stringent new Federal mandates, and at the same time streamline this legislative process by moving through our amendment process. I now look forward to conferring with my colleague. Members should stay tuned. If they would like to speak on this or the matter of childcare, we welcome them. We have had an open amendment process. We have had an open dialogue. We have had an open floor. I think this has been very constructive. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. Mr. BURR addressed the Chair.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Yes.

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

Ms. MIKULSKI. I want to give an update. We had originally thought we would be voting around 11:30. We are going to delay that until on or about 12:15--nothing fixed, nothing mandatory. People have said: Well, what are you all doing? Look at the Senate floor. Where is the action? This is a compelling issue. Actually, there is a lot of action going on in the sense that we are reviewing over 20 amendments that are still outstanding to see what could be accepted by unanimous consent, what could be accepted by a voice vote, and what requires a mandatory rollcall vote. So there is a lot of discussion going on, and Senators and their staffs are talking. It is not to be debated; it is to be discussed right now. I think it is so healthy. This is one of the first times in a couple of years where we have had an open amendment process. In some ways we are getting adjusted to how that actually works. This is terrific. So just because you do not see Senators in intense debate, there are intense conversations about how we help children, how to not create new bureaucracies, how we have the sense that all this is child focused and yet not creating lots of new mandates or whatever. So this has been really very good. I compliment Senator Harkin, who is the chair of the full HELP Committee. It is under his leadership that Senator Burr and I held some hearings. His advocacy for children is so well known. If we can move this bill today, we will have accomplished two major goals. We would have reauthorized the Child Care and Development Block Grant Program, made improvements and new reforms, and refreshed the program. At the same time I think we have improved the process in the Senate to show we can govern by moving bills, by offering amendments, by discussion and by debate. But we could not have done it had Senator Harkin not been willing to establish such a great tone with Senator Enzi and Senator Alexander while Senator Burr and I did this. This is the way the Senate ought to be. There were differences. But differences do not mean that you have to be filled with rancor and ranting all the time. At the end of day, when all is said and done, people want us to get more done and less said. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Ms. MIKULSKI. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Oh, I am sorry, I thought the Senator from Oklahoma was involved in a conversation with the Senator from Iowa.

Ms. MIKULSKI. No way we want to inhibit the Senator's ability to speak.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Will the Senator yield to me before he offers his amendment?

Ms. MIKULSKI. Well, actually, I want to comment on how I want to work together with the Senator. Go ahead and offer the amendment, and then I would like to comment and not engage in klutzy conversation by asking questions. I think we are on the same broadband.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Before the Senator from Oklahoma leaves the floor and we proceed to a voice vote, et cetera, I wish to thank him for his steadfast advocacy in getting more value out of the taxpayers' dollar for the taxpayers' contribution to the Federal Treasury. He has been a well-known advocate for the consolidation and streamlining of existing programs, and I salute him for that. Going back to 1996, we actually started this with streamlining childcare bills. In 1996, because I was here during the welfare reform debate and passage, we had four different childcare bills, with four different eligibility requirements, with four different levels of bureaucracy. So the money was going into the bureaucracy's determining eligibility rather than into childcare. In the 1996 welfare reform bill, we consolidated so that we have the child care and development block grant. That is how we got to where we are. The Senator from Oklahoma talks about how he has data that cuts across eight different Federal agencies. I pledge to him, as the chair of the Appropriations Committee, to actually sit down and look at this data, to put our heads together. And really, with money as tight as it is, the stringent budgets we are under, particularly when it comes to funding the kinds of compelling human needs that are in health and human services and education, we want to get more value for the dollar. We don't want to get more bureaucracy for the dollar. So I say to the Senator from Oklahoma that we appreciate his withdrawing his amendment. We know the Senator from Wyoming Mr. Enzi has offered an amendment to get a report as well. But as we look at our appropriations for this year, I invite my colleague, with the greatest sincerity--and I pledge to him my word as a Senator--to sit down and review these documents and see how we can put this suggestion he has into action. I look forward to it, and, quite frankly, I am eager to see what we can get done. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Ms. MIKULSKI

Ms. MIKULSKI. Madam President, I want to first and foremost express my thanks to the chairman, and his colleagues, for this bipartisan bill--a long overdue effort that clearly is the result of a painstaking, patient effort by the committee to reauthorize the Child Care and Development Block Grant. I wanted to discuss very quickly one provision, section 8(b), that I feel needs additional clarification. Given that the overall priority of all of us to increase quality while ensuring that States can effectively navigate the federal standards--while maintaining their authority to set their own standards--would the Senator agree that the intent of this law is not to rewrite other existing Federal laws or evade requirements of other Federal laws that might diminish services for children?

Ms. MIKULSKI. I thank the chairman. HHS Rulemaking

Ms. MIKULSKI. Madam President, if the Senator will yield, as we close into the final minutes of this bill, I just want to say that today will be a great victory for America's children because we will pass the child care and development block grant. I think it is a great victory for the Senate to show that we could govern ourselves with an open amendment process. We could do it diligently, we could do it deliberatively, and we could do it with courtesy and civility. This is the way the Senate should be. Within 2 days we have arrived at a great bill, with cooperation and civility on both sides of the aisle. I hope this becomes a model for the way the Senate will conduct itself for the rest of the session. I have been very proud to be part of this bill. I thank Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, my Republican counterpart on the children's committee, with all of the due diligence we did for a year and a half. I also thank Senator Lamar Alexander for his steadfast leadership and input, and of course I thank Tom Harkin, our leader, who, as he wraps up his Senate career, will never wrap up his advocacy for America's children. I thank all of our staff for the great work they did in the 100 meetings with stakeholders and the 200 meetings with us. Madam President, I am ready for the vote and yield the floor.

Ms. MIKULSKI

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Armed Services be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on March 13, 2014, at 9:30 a.m.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on March 13, 2014, at 10 a.m.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on March 13, 2014, at 11 a.m. in room SR-253 of the Russell Senate Office Building, to conduct a hearing entitled, ``The U.S. Aviation Industry and Jobs: Keeping American Manufacturing Competitive.''

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on March 13, 2014, at 10 a.m. in room SD-215, Dirksen Senate Office Building, to conduct a hearing entitled, ``Innovative Ideas to Strengthen and Expand the Middle Class.''

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on March 13, 2014, at 11:15 a.m., to hold a hearing entitled, ``Keystone XL and the National Interest Determination.''