Protecting Volunteer Firefighters and Emergency Responders Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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Madam President, we were here last evening on this topic for consideration by the Senate. The amendment I was offering that the Senator from Rhode Island has objected to in my view is one of the many amendments that could be considered in this legislation--certainly should be considered by this Senate. While I am certainly interested and willing to have a discussion about the extension of unemployment benefits, it seems to me that this Senate ought also to be looking at issues that would reduce the chances that individual Americans--workers across the country--need that extension. We ought to be doing the things we are not doing here in the Senate. In fact, in my view, this Senate and this President have done nothing to increase the opportunities for Americans to keep their jobs, to increase their employment opportunities, to get a higher wage, to expand their economic opportunity in this country.

The amendment I was offering, which has been objected to, is one of those many examples of legislation that, once again, gets ignored on the Senate floor. It is not considered by any committee and is not allowed to be made in order.

Again, the process in the Senate has broken down so that individual Senators who have good ideas, at least who believe they have good ideas about how we can make life better for Americans, are not being enabled the opportunity to offer those amendments for consideration by the Senate.

In fact, there have now been 70 amendments offered to this legislation. It appears that none of those 70 will be considered while we consider this issue of extension of unemployment benefits. The amendment would, in my view, increase the opportunity for every American to find a better job.

We know that if we are going to increase economic activity, create jobs in this country, the statistics show, the facts show, academic and real-life experiences demonstrate that entrepreneurs--individuals who have a dream to start a business, who work in their garage or their backyard or their barn, decide that they have something they can contribute to the consumer in this country and they pursue that dream--have the best opportunity that we have in this country to create jobs for other Americans.

So the amendment I offered would be legislation called Startup Act 3.0. This is not just the Senator from Kansas or not just a Republican Senator in the Senate offering this amendment, it is a bipartisan amendment offered by me and one of my Democratic colleagues, but the underlying legislation actually has more Democratic sponsors than it has Republican sponsors. Again, it is the kind of thing that one would expect some consideration in the Senate.

Unfortunately, this legislation was offered 3 years ago, shortly after I came to the Senate. So my frustration is not that just this opportunity today is being denied me and my colleagues who support the concept of promoting entrepreneurship, but it has been denied for certainly more than 2 years, almost 3 years, when we have facts, academicians who tell us these are exactly the kind of things that would increase the chances that Americans are better off today and in the future.

This legislation deals with the regulatory environment, the Tax Code, access to capital, federally funded research put into the hands of the private sector more quickly, the opportunity for Americans to better compete in the battle for global talent, all things that are just common sense and my guess is would be agreed to. If we would ever have a vote on the Senate floor about this concept, I would not be surprised that overwhelmingly my colleagues would support this.

There is nothing in here that is a partisan issue. There is nothing in here that is significantly controversial. We can argue or debate the details, we can improve this legislation, but we are never given the chance to pursue that goal. It is certainly disappointing to me that once again legislation that would address the underlying problems we face in this country, the inability of Americans to keep jobs, improve their job circumstance, and create a brighter future for the next generation of Americans, is something this Senate, for the last 3 years, has determined does not have merit for even consideration, either in a committee or on the Senate floor.

For those who are interested in the details of this legislation, I would refer them to my remarks on the Senate floor last evening.

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