Tax Extenders Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. First, let me serve notice on the Republican side that I will be making a unanimous consent request about the extension of unemployment benefits so that Senator Bunning or someone else on his behalf will be on the floor if they care to object.

Let me say, before my friend from Iowa leaves the floor, one of the reasons we can't get to the issues you want is because we are in the midst of a filibuster by the Senator from Kentucky who has stopped us from extending unemployment benefits, COBRA benefits for 30 days. As I understand it, that filibuster now applies to a noncontroversial judicial nominee. So we have multiple filibusters holding us back from considering some of the measures you mentioned. I might say, some of them I find appealing and hope we can make them part of the package. The reason why your initial agreement with Senator Baucus met some resistance on our side of the aisle is that we thought there was a lack of balance. Although I support the tax extenders being extended for the remainder of the year in your initial agreement with Senator Baucus, the extension of unemployment benefits and COBRA was only for a few months. We felt that both should be extended until the end of the year. I hope we can reach that agreement when we come back to the amendment that is pending before us, as soon as the filibusters that have been initiated by the Senator from Kentucky are completed.

Let me say a word about those filibusters. We tried last week to extend for 30 days unemployment benefits that would run out across America, starting literally at midnight last night. There was one objection from Senator Bunning from Kentucky; he objected to extending unemployment benefits and COBRA benefits.

The net result of this one Senator's objection is to put us into a procedural process that could literally take days.

What happens to the people who were on unemployment during that period of time? They are cut off. Fifteen thousand people on unemployment in Illinois last night were cut off because of the Senator from Kentucky, and roughly 400,000 nationwide have seen their unemployment benefits cut off.

I met two of those people in Chicago yesterday. They have been unemployed for extended periods of time, and they have been spending literally every day trying to find a job. One of them has a little 3-year-old daughter. I asked him: What is going to happen now that you do not have your unemployment check?

He said: I don't know. The first thing I will do is default on my student loan. I will have to do that. I can't make my payment if I want to put food on the table.

So there are real-life consequences to your objection, and the real-life consequences are being visited on innocent people who, through no fault of their own, lost their job and cannot find one in an economy where we have five unemployed people for every job available.

In your State of Kentucky, my State of Illinois, and virtually every other State, these people are struggling. Some of them have reached the end of the rope. They are making decisions you and I would never want to face about whether they are going to have to give up a home--literally give up a home. And it could happen.

It is great to have a political debate in the Senate. We should. That is what the Senate is supposed to be about. But when the victims in the middle of the debate are unemployed people, I do not think that is fair. I do not think it is fundamentally fair. These people are trying--this one young man, David Seanior, showed me a list of 300 applications he had made to try to find a job during the last year. He said: I go online every day. This is a man who had worked for years, had a strong work record, until he was laid off. He said: I just can't find anything. I am desperate. I am trying everything I can think of, and now you are going to cut off my unemployment benefits.

Frankly, we came to the Senate floor last Thursday night to urge the Senator from Kentucky to reconsider his objection. The net result of this is going to create hardship all across America, and it gets worse by the day. We estimate that roughly 2,000 more people tonight will lose their unemployment benefits in Illinois. So by next Sunday, instead of 15,000 losing their checks, it will be up to nearly 30,000. By the end of March, the total is estimated to be 65,000 people who will lose their unemployment checks because of the objection of Senator Bunning of Kentucky and this initiation of a filibuster.

I do not think that is what we should do. This is an economic emergency facing this Nation. It is not the first time Senator Bunning has been asked to extend unemployment benefits that were not paid for. See, that is his issue: You are not paying for the unemployment benefits. You should not extend it.

Senator Bunning voted for the fiscal year 2008 war supplemental bill which extended unemployment insurance benefits for 13 weeks. He also supported ending debate and did not object to the voice vote of a measure to extend unemployment benefits for an additional 7 weeks for workers who exhausted their current compensation by March 31, 2009. That bill also extended benefits for an additional 13 weeks--half the duration of regular unemployment compensation--for workers in States with unemployment rates of 6 percent or higher. Neither of the extensions he voted for--one in a record vote and one by voice vote--had any budget offsets. So to argue that now we are taking a stand on principle, the fact is, twice, at least--I do not know if there were more times--the Senator has reached an opposite conclusion and agreed with the majority, the bipartisan majority, that we were truly in an economic emergency.

There is one other aspect of this which is troubling, and that is the first casualty of most people who are unemployed is health insurance. The employer is not paying it any longer. If you want to continue health insurance, COBRA lets you pay for it all, and it is too expensive--roughly $1,300 a month for health insurance for a family in my State of Illinois, and the unemployment compensation is about $1,100 a month. So do the math and understand that most people cannot do it.

So President Obama said, as part of our effort to turn this economy around, we will help people pay for their health insurance through COBRA. We will pay I believe the figure is 65 percent of the premiums so people will be paying one-third of their health insurance premiums when they have lost a job--still a substantial sum of money: $300 or $400 they would have to pay each month. But imagine if you had a sick child at home, and imagine that child needed at least the possibility of coverage should they be hospitalized for diabetes or cancer or whatever the cause may be. If you get a gap in coverage and you lose your health insurance because you cannot afford to make the payment, you could find yourself in a predicament where you not only do not have health insurance but the prospect of buying additional health insurance is next to zero.

Senator Bunning's objection cut off this benefit, this 65-percent benefit on health insurance. We have tried to extend it for 30 days. So that means these people will not only lose their unemployment check, they will lose this help with their COBRA benefit.

I have been, once in my life, in a predicament being a father with a sick child and no health insurance. Mr. President, I want to tell you, if there is something that tears you apart as a dad, it is going into a hospital with no health insurance with a sick baby. I have been there. I have done that. Thank God it happened years ago and my little girl made it through that episode.

But we are forcing literally hundreds of thousands of Americans into this situation because of the objection and the filibuster of one Senator from Kentucky. That is unfair--not only unfortunate but unfair. If we are going to fight a battle over our budget deficit and get involved in lengthy debates, as we can, there are plenty of chances to do it. We will have a budget resolution in just a few months. We will have a score--at least a dozen--of appropriations bills to fight this battle over, and I think the battle can be joined.

We said to the Senator from Kentucky: If you want to offer an amendment to pay for the unemployment benefits and the COBRA benefits, you are entitled to offer that amendment. You are entitled to come to the Senate floor, express your point of view on how this should be paid for, and to accept the will of the Senate. Let them vote on your amendment. If they agree with you, fine. If they disagree, it will be a matter of public record. You will have your day on the floor of the Senate, which is about the best most of us could hope for in this job.

But the Senator from Kentucky said: No, I am not going to do it because I might lose. Well, yes, you might win and you might lose, and that is what we all face when we come forward with an idea on how to deal with the budget deficit. I do not think it is fair to insist that it is my way or the highway when it comes to something as basic as unemployment benefits and health care for the people who are unemployed across America.

As I visit these unemployment offices and meet with these people, I find a lot of determined folks whom you would think would have given up a heck of a long time ago still trying. They consider it a victory if at the end of the day one of the posted jobs on the Internet leads to an interview. They are that desperate. Yet we are saying to them: We are going to cut off the money you need to feed your family in an effort to make a point about deficit reduction. That, I think, is unfortunate.

We have asked for an extension of unemployments benefits repeatedly because we are in the worst shape in our economy in 75 years, and a lot of people are struggling to make ends meet. I know there are those who argue that at some point we have to cut off these unemployment benefits. But I would ask them to consider this as well: Unemployment assistance is the most direct infusion of money into the economy. Those who are economists tell us the first dollar you give in unemployment assistance is going to be spent immediately. It is not going to be banked, saved, or invested. These folks need it, and they will spend it the day after they get it, for obvious needs, and that creates more economic activity.

So you are not only doing the right thing that a caring nation does when so many of us are facing hard times, it is an economic stimulus--No. 1, incidentally, by the Congressional Budget Office--in terms of what we can do to get this economy moving forward. It is not just a matter of helping those who are helpless; it is a matter of injecting money into the economy in the most efficient way.

I am afraid this has happened before. The last time the Senate extended unemployment, the other side of the aisle objected three times--the leaders on those three occasions. Incidentally, that extension of unemployment benefits was completely paid for. So it appears whether it was paid for or not paid for, there is objection on the Republican side of the aisle.

I do not get it. I do not understand it. President Obama is doing his best to get this economy moving forward. He inherited a weak economy that was losing 700,000 to 800,000 jobs a month. Things have improved somewhat, though they are not where we want them to be, and I believe we ought to be standing behind the people in our Nation who are struggling to find a job and get back to work. Many of them are trying to keep families together and care for their children.

Last week, nearly 500,000 Americans filed for unemployment for the first time. The number surged to just below 500,000 last week. It climbed more than 12 percent over the past 2 weeks. I wish that were not the case but it is. So you see, the economy is still struggling. I believe the first thing we ought to do is to care for our own. If someone came to the floor with an emergency request now because of a drought, a flood, a hurricane, a tornado, we would honor it. We do that almost on a regular basis because at some point you say: First, help these poor people. Then deal with the budget challenge it brings at another time.

But now, when it comes to helping our own, the citizens of this country who are out of work, that, unfortunately, is not the case. Right now over 4.6 million Americans continue to collect unemployment. That is up 6,000 from the preceding weeks--the number of claimants.

In addition to the filibuster initiated by Senator Bunning hurting those who are unemployed, it is also going to have an impact on the Small Business Administration. Most everyone agrees the key to bringing this economy forward is helping small businesses stay in business and create jobs. The Small Business Administration loans money to small businesses, which during difficult times need a helping hand.

The Senator's filibuster and his objection has closed down SBA programs that provide credit to small businesses. What are we thinking to stop assistance to small businesses at this moment in our history? Most of us believe this is central and essential if we are going to turn the corner and move forward. Yet the Senator from Kentucky has objected.

It also has some ramifications in cutting back on money that is available for transportation. I do not know if the Senator is even aware of what he has done when it comes to his objection, but in my State and many others, we are finding that people are losing their jobs today. We have been running our Federal transportation program with short-term extensions since September 30 of last year--almost 5 months. These stopgap extensions were underfunding our transportation system and hurting our States, cities, counties, and workers. The short-term extensions created an unstable environment in the Federal transportation program.

We passed a yearlong extension in last week's jobs bill, but the House could not pass it on time to keep the Transportation Department authorized. So we came to the floor to pass a 30-day extension of transportation law along with the COBRA and unemployment benefits. Senator Bunning's objection has basically shut down the highway trust fund, the Federal highway trust fund.

This is uncharted territory. We do not let surface transportation legislation expire. It has not happened before. The Department of Transportation is shutting down highway reimbursements to States. That means hundreds of millions of dollars that should be flowing from the Federal Treasury to these States are not.

The Department of Transportation is furloughing nearly 2,000 employees without pay as of today because of Senator Bunning's objection. The Department of Transportation is removing Federal inspectors from critical construction projects, forcing work to stop on Federal lands.

DOT's safety agencies, such as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, are furloughing employees who work on safety programs--programs that stop drunk driving, reduce traffic injuries, and increase child passenger safety--because of the objection of the Senator from Kentucky.

In my State, we are going to lose 50 Federal Highway Administration employees--furloughed today. These workers have been instructed not to report to work until we pass this extension.

Second, the Illinois Department of Transportation will not be receiving Federal reimbursement for projects because of this objection by the Senator from Kentucky. They were scheduled to submit the next Federal bill for reimbursement as of tomorrow. The Illinois Department of Transportation will submit a bill of about $25 million for work already completed to which they are entitled. But because of the objection of the Senator from Kentucky, that bill cannot be paid. There is no question that my State is entitled to it. I imagine the State of Kentucky has a similar situation. The question is whether there is anyone there to process it, and because of his objection, there is not.

Delays in Federal reimbursements will make it difficult for the Illinois Department of Transportation to pay the contractors and workers on these projects.

So the ripple effect of this is the money doesn't go back to the construction companies or to the workers and their families, leading to unemployment.

The Senator from Kentucky is opposed to extending unemployment compensation. The unemployment rate, incidentally, in the construction industry is 24 percent nationwide. Laying off more construction workers at this time is exactly the opposite of what we ought to be doing in this economy. Future work on Illinois transportation projects could be in jeopardy if we do not pass an extension. The Illinois Department of Transportation is scheduled to release the largest bid lettings on April 23 for projects underway this construction season, and so the construction season will be delayed.

I am trying to give the whole picture. As we wait for the Senator from Kentucky to agree to a short-term extension of these critical programs, we are jeopardizing jobs, more people will be unemployed, and we are jeopardizing future projects which will be shortchanged because construction seasons are limited.

This 1-month extension of transportation law--and that is all we are asking for--has already had overwhelming bipartisan support in the past, and the 1-month extension itself costs nothing. Last week, we passed a 1-year transportation fix as part of the jobs bill.

The following groups have written letters urging us to move on this extension: the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, the Associated General Contractors of America, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Laborers International Union, and the American Automobile Association.

The House did its work last week and passed this 30-day extension, sending it over to us, where we learned Thursday night that the Senator from Kentucky was going to object. Nine of us took to the floor Thursday night and made a request several times for him to withdraw his objection, which he refused to do. I made another request on Friday morning on the floor and the Senator continued his objection and then several today.

So I am going to make the 11th request of the Senator from Kentucky, on behalf of the people I represent in Illinois, some 15,000 who have lost their unemployment checks because of his filibuster, and 400,000 across America who are wondering: What happened? What did we do wrong here? Why aren't we receiving the check we need for the necessities of life?

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 4691, the 30-day extension of provisions which expired on Sunday, February 28, including unemployment insurance, COBRA, flood insurance, the Satellite Home Viewer Act, highway funding, SBA business loans and small business provisions of the American Recovery Act, SGR and poverty guidelines, received from the House and at the desk; that the bill be read three times, passed, and the motions to reconsider be made and laid upon the table.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?

Mr. BUNNING. I object.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, keep in mind we have repeatedly offered to the Senator from Kentucky an opportunity for a vote: Bring your approach to the floor. Let the Senate decide. Accept the decision of the Senate, win or lose. That is the most any Senator can ask for. Yet he wants more. He wants a guarantee that he wins. Well, there is no guarantee you win in the Senate. There is no guarantee you win in baseball. You do the best you can. Under these circumstances, I think what we have reached is a point that is difficult to understand and explain.

I would like to invite my Republican colleagues--all of them--to come to the floor and express themselves on this. If they believe we should cut off unemployment benefits, health insurance benefits, close down the U.S. Department of Transportation's work in the States, close down the SBA programs for small businesses, I hope they will come and express that point of view. They should, if they feel that way. If they feel, as I do, that this is unfair and unfortunate, if they will come forward and join us on the floor, we can try to build up some momentum for moving this issue forward.

There are people in every State of the Union who are suffering today because of the objection of one Senator, because of the filibuster of one Senator, and that is a sad indication of what has happened in the Senate; that we have reached this point and that even offering an up-or-down vote on an amendment is not enough.

What the Senator is looking for is a guaranteed result. We can't give him that guaranteed result.

I yield the floor.

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