Cantwell Statement on Senate Passage of the Economic Stimulus Bill
Washington, D.C. - The U.S. Senate today passed an economic stimulus bill, H.R. 3090, by a vote of 85-9. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) voted in favor the bill saying it provided long overdue relief for laid off workers and invests in the next generation of our economy as businesses recover from the weakened economy.
"The package we are approving today will extend benefits to workers who need it most," Cantwell said. "It invests in the next generation of our economy as businesses recover from the weakened economy."
Cantwell noted that four provisions were particularly important for Washington state:
13-week extension of unemployment insurance 2-year extension of the wind energy production tax credit Targeted business tax incentives contained in this stimulus package: bonus depreciation for capital investments, and increased write-offs for business losses "Tax extenders" that promote research and development across so many industries in our country. Senator Cantwell's statement for the record follows:
Mr. President, I rise today to impress on my colleagues just how important this legislation is to the workers in the nation who have borne the weight of this recession that was so exacerbated by the September 11th incidents.
My colleagues have heard me say this again and again, but the Pacific Northwest has suffered extraordinarily in the past year. My state of Washington now has the dubious honor of having the second highest unemployment rate in the nation, behind our neighboring state Oregon.
We had a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 7.5 percent in January - and the insured unemployment rate is above five percent.
I have analysts in my state who foresee a wave of layoff notices in the pipeline and estimate that the state is going to hit eight percent unemployed when the February numbers come out later this month.
Why is this the case? Well, we have a number of factors at work. I would like to give my colleagues a better understanding of the economic circumstances affecting my state.
Even prior to the tragic events of September 11th and even prior to the recession that may have begun in the early months of last year, Washington's economy was facing hurdles.
We have seen significant layoffs in aluminum, agriculture, and high technology - due to persistent droughts, the high cost of energy, massive reductions in timber harvests, and declining export markets.
My state is the most trade dependent state in the nation on a per-capita basis, and September 11th had a devastating impact on the aviation industry. In October, the Boeing Company announced that that it will lay off an estimated thirty thousand commercial division workers. Approximately eighty percent of those workers are located in the state of Washington.
The first layoff of Boeing workers - nearly four thousand -- occurred on December 14th, and the company set a schedule of layoff notices for the following months that predicted twelve-to-fourteen hundred job cuts per month through June of this year.
But it does not stop there. We have seen from previous recessions that when a Boeing worker is laid off, approximately two more jobs are lost further down the supply line. So where does that leave us? When all is said and done, we will probably have at least forty thousand layoffs in our state that will be attributable to the events surrounding September 11th. Some projections suggest that the number may go as high as sixty-five thousand.
I mentioned previously our statewide unemployment rate of 7.5 percent, but even more unsettling is the fact that fourteen of Washington's thirty-nine counties have unemployment rates above ten percent. In Ferry County, we are facing 15.1 percent unemployment. That same figure is 13.3 percent in Franklin County, 16.8 percent in Adams, 12.1 in Chelan, 11.5 percent in Grays Harbor, and the topper is 17.1 percent in Klickitat.
If this is not an emergency, I do not know what is. That is why we have insisted, for months now that the Senate pass a simple unemployment insurance extension of at least 13 weeks.
It is extremely disconcerting for me to know that so many workers displaced after September 11th have already reached or are nearing the end of their benefits eligibility. Since Sept. 11th, about 1.3 million workers have exhausted their unemployment benefits throughout this nation. In Washington state alone, more than forty two thousand workers exhausted UI claims from September 11th through the beginning of March.
And at the same time, heavily affected states and workforce areas throughout this nation are running out of training dollars.
That is why I and my colleagues have fought for emergency training dollars; that is why we have fought against cuts in WIA funding that were proposed in the budget; and why we have fought for this temporary extension in UI benefits.
This is about giving workers a chance to get back on their feet. It should also be our priority to invest in training those workers, so that we'll be ready with the highest-skilled workforce when we get the economy jump-started again.
My state has taken an aggressive approach to retraining our workforce, and has invested state dollars to provide the necessary support for displaced workers to put food on the table while they get skills training.
This is the direction that our nation should be heading - and it is one that we should be encouraging as we finally take this step to get the federal aid to the states. With the help of the Majority Leader in February, we were able to pass a clean 13-week unemployment benefit extension that took into account the unique situation of states that have aggressively worked to provide more substantial benefits for displaced workers. The Majority Leader and his staff have been tremendously helpful in recognizing these concerns and ensuring that we were providing the maximum assistance to all states.
I want to be clear, I am extremely pleased that the House has finally come to the conclusion that workers are desperate for this 13-week federal support, and has finally set politics aside to do the right thing for our workers, and our nation as a whole.
Mdme./Mr. President, I have worked to ensure that the language of this legislation is consistent with the extended benefits offered by our state - so that one of the most heavily impacted states in the nation is able to fully benefit from what we are doing today.
I understand that the Department of Labor has promised to provide a letter of interpretation of the House-passed legislation that is expected to clarify these issues, and specifically, the technical order of benefits that workers will be expected to receive. I urge the Secretary to get this assurance to us immediately, so that our state can plan to meet the needs of workers who have exhausted or will soon exhaust their benefits.
It was my intent, and I understand it was the expressed intent of the drafters in the House, to provide the 13-week temporary federal UI benefit immediately after the expiration of regular state unemployment insurance benefits - which is typically 26 weeks.
While I am disappointed that the House language is not explicitly clear on this matter, as was the Senate bill, I am pleased to hear that the Department understands our intent and will reportedly carry out these provisions in keeping with that intent.
I will be watching to ensure that the Secretary follows through on this commitment and puts the Department's priority where it should be - on providing as much assistance as possible to the areas of this nation that desperately need it - and to providing it in a time frame that truly reflects the urgency of the situation.
Again, I appreciate the phenomenal work of the Majority Leader and the entire Senate in doing its work on this bill months ago; and now that the House has finally come to the table, I urge that we move quickly to get it enacted and get extended benefits out to workers who need it most.
Finally, I will add that I am pleased with the targeted business tax incentives contained in this stimulus package. By providing both bonus depreciation for capital investments, and increased write-offs for business losses, we encourage economic expansion and development. By giving workers the resources to invest in themselves through training, education and health care, we provide the means for this expansion.
Additionally, I am pleased that this package contains the so-called "tax extenders" that promote research and development across so many industries in our country.
The country is at an economic crossroads and the choices we make today will affect us for years. We must maintain our fiscal discipline and invest in the nation's future business, education and worker needs.
The package we are approving today invests in the next generation of our economy as businesses recover from the weakened economy.
Thank you, Mdme./Mr. President.
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