Jobs & the Economy
Throughout the 117th Congress, House Democrats have partnered with President Biden to enact policies that expand economic opportunity for businesses, workers, and communities across America. Under President Biden and Congressional Democrats, the unemployment rate is at its lowest in more than 50 years with more than 10 million jobs created, helping more of our people get ahead in today’s economy and Make It In America.
Democrats pursue an economic agenda that helps American businesses create good-paying jobs and ensure that workers have the tools not only to get by but to get ahead in our global economy. From raising the minimum wage to providing skills training and apprenticeship opportunities to ensuring equal pay for equal work, from making childcare more affordable to making it easier to save for retirement, Democrats’ economic policies are aimed at helping workers and their families attain real economic security at every stage of life.
Democrats have also delivered historic legislation investing in infrastructure and greater access to high-speed internet, taking the lead in the clean-energy economy, and supporting innovation and entrepreneurship. The generational Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has already begun to expand economic opportunity for Americans in communities across the country and takes action to repair our nation’s roads, bridges, ports, and other infrastructure while creating nearly 1.5 million jobs annually over the next decade. It contains the first major American investment in climate resilience to help communities upgrade their critical infrastructure and mitigate the impact of climate change-driven extreme weather. Likewise, the Inflation Reduction Act also advances America’s clean energy goals, turbocharging clean energy research and transmission while promoting electric vehicle domestic manufacturing to reduce American dependence on gasoline while revitalizing our auto industry.
The CHIPS and Science Act includes bipartisan measures to revitalize the domestic semiconductor industry and spur research. By strengthening domestic supply chains, this law acts directly to accelerate American innovation in the long-term while acting immediately to address inflation and create good paying jobs. House Democrats will continue to champion skills training and education at every level – from early childhood learning through higher education – to prepare our people for success and advancement in a changing economy. In all of these efforts, Democrats will continue to look for ways to make access to opportunities more equitable and to combat the lingering effects of legalized discrimination that continue to make it harder for minorities to access credit for loans, seek investment capital for startups, and build wealth to pass on to the next generation.
With historic job creation under President Biden, House Democrats will continue to advance policies that expand economic opportunity for working families, support small businesses, and create better-paying jobs.
Tonight President Obama, Senator Reid, and Speaker Boehner announced that a deal has been reached to fund the government for the remainder of the fiscal year. I am pleased that Republicans backed away from their hardline position of shutting the government down over divisive social issues. I will carefully review the details to ensure it contains spending cuts that do not greatly harm our ability to create jobs and invest in our economy. I believe that we must reduce the deficit, but it can be done in a way that protects investments in our future. I want to thank the President and Congressional leaders for their efforts to reach an agreement.
I hope the Speaker can come forward and say, we're ready to move forward and keep the government open and we can move on. The fact of the matter is it's been self-evident for some period of time now that this issue was not over dollars. We made substantial cuts in spending. We know we need to make cuts. We need to effect efficiencies and bring this deficit under control. The fact is this has not been about dollars. It's about social policy. It's been about, in particular, as you pointed out, women's health issues.
Democrats have offered on the House Floor five times a clean continuing resolution to keep the government open as negotiations on a full year continuing resolution continue. So far, even though Democrats have gone 70 percent of the way to Republicans’ position, Republicans refuse to compromise over their divisive social agenda. As a result, Republicans are risking a shutdown that will harm the economy and negatively impact Americans.
Isn't it a shame, I tell my friend who just spoke, that his colleagues objected to unanimous consent request yesterday which would have taken care of the problem he raises today? There's not a person on this Floor that doesn't want to make sure that our men and women in harm's way and in uniform ready to be put in harm's way are paid on time. But we're playing a political game here—a game of got you, a game of my way or the highway—not a game of coming together from all over the country and trying to make laws for our country that require compromise.
We have a history, a pattern of the Republicans taking control and shutting down the government as they did in 1995. It hasn't happened since then, even when we had disagreements when George Bush and the Democratic Congress. It’s not an alternative we ought to be taking. I think we're very close. [Democrats] have come 70% of the way in terms of dollars. That’s a long way to go in terms of trying to reach compromise. Now as the President and Harry Reid pointed out, there are social issues which the Republicans are holding hostage the government.
We tried to have a unanimous consent for resolution that would in fact have kept the government open without question. The President would have signed it and the Senate would have passed it. It was what we usually do. That is a bridge to allow you to cross over and not fall into the river until you get an agreement. Unfortunately, it was not passed. And what we did pass is a resolution that the President said he would veto. Not on numbers, not on cutting spending, not on keeping troops in place, but social policy being adopted unrelated to numbers, which the President clearly indicated he was not for. I frankly think what we’re doing is playing chicken. We're driving down the road. We agreed to 70% of the cuts proposed. 70% of the cuts they proposed. And the other side says--the founder of the [Tea Party Patriots] said today that if John Boehner brought in $99 billion, he said that wouldn't be enough.
I want to say to the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, how often he and I have said, you know, when we have these impasses, we need a clean CR. This CR is unclean. This CR will not get us to where you say you want to get, Mr. Chairman, and that's not shutting down the government. Because you know and I know the President will not sign this bill. Why? Because you put in poison pills that you know are unacceptable to him. Why? So you can get the votes on your side of the aisle to vote for your bill to keep the government open. Why is that difficult? Because so many of your folks, unless they get 100%, are prepared to shut down the government.
I thank the Majority Leader for yielding. I share his view we ought to keep the government running, not only the sake of our economy but for the sake of all those that rely on the federal government. My friend has made the observation in the past that shutting down the government, and I believe the Speaker made the same observation, was not a national policy for us to pursue. I ask the gentleman because I believe that the resolution that we will be considering will not either pass the Senate nor be signed by the President. In light of that, and in light of the fact that the Majority Leader of the Senate and the Speaker have both indicated that negotiations are ongoing, would the gentleman agree to a unanimous consent that we, as we have done so often in the past, when the majority Democrats were in control of the House and the Senate, disagreed with President Bush, that we would have a “hold in place” unanimous consent Continuing Resolution, not changing the status on either side of the negotiations, for seven days, which would give the parties the opportunity to come to an agreement? My understanding from the Leader of the Senate is that we have agreed to some $70 billion in cuts, which is a substantial way toward what you wanted and a show that we share the view that we need to have fiscal restraint. So I ask my friend if I made a unanimous consent request that we continue the government authority to stay running until next Friday without changing the status quo so that neither party would be disadvantaged and that our government would in fact, as the gentleman observes is his objective, be able to stay in service to the American people.
…there is not a group that I’ve talked to, no matter how liberal, how conservative, whether it's a Democratic group, a non-partisan group, anywhere in this country and I’ve talked to a number of the heads of major corporations and I’ve talked to a lot of heads of small corporations… and all of them are appreciative of the fact that we have focused the Congress of the United States, the Administration and America on the importance of making things in America.
Republicans have announced that they are bringing to the House Floor a divisive and partisan spending bill, which will not pass the Senate. Their refusal to make tough choices moves us closer to a government shutdown, which will severely threaten our economic recovery. Instead of partisan maneuvering, we should be working to quickly find a compromise on a long-term spending bill that tackles our deficit. If that work needs a few more days, then we should pass a simple, bipartisan bill to keep the government open for the American people. Democrats are presenting such a bill as our alternative to the Republicans’ partisan patch. It is time for members of both parties who understand that ‘my way or the highway’ doesn’t work in a democracy to compromise and prevent a government shutdown.