Paycheck Fairness Act -- Motion to Proceed
Floor Speech
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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
REMEMBERING 9/11
Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, we gather here today in this remarkable place--a symbol of freedom and democracy for the whole world--to remember the tragic, horrific, unspeakable attacks of September 11, 2001, and we remember the innocent lives that were lost, the people of many different ages who worked to help the injured, brave heroes who have fought terrorism and extremism around the globe in the years since 9/11, and, of course, the victims themselves, many of them from Connecticut. This day has special meaning in Connecticut because it affects so directly and sadly the loved ones and families of people who sacrificed their lives as a result of that unimaginably cruel and brutal terrorist act. We remember them with pride. We remember their grace, civility, humanity, dedication to the public good, and their love for their families.
We have been striving since that terrible day to strengthen our Nation, to live proudly and unashamedly, consistently with our national values of peace, tolerance, and service. This effort requires commitment and sacrifice. It has required service at home and abroad from countless men and women who have served in uniform--our police, our firefighters, our first responders--believing that the best way we can honor the men and women who died on that day is to make America the best place it can possibly be. It is the greatest and strongest Nation in the history of the world, and it is so because people have always believed it can be made better, freer, stronger, braver. And that is what we have tried to do.
Today in the Senate, in the Committee on the Judiciary, I was proud to cosponsor and vote for a measure that will give those victims and their families some additional justice. The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act will hold foreign sponsors of terrorism that target America accountable in U.S. courts.
Obstacles have been raised in our Federal courts, obstacles on procedural grounds and technical issues, most recently in a Second Circuit case, In re Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001, which, in my view, misread Federal law to provide immunity to the Saudi Government and entities that claim to be associated with the Saudi Government against the 9/11 victims' claims alleging its support for those attacks.
This new legislation will make clear that terrorism is unsupportable and must be held accountable in our U.S. courts. It will erase the immunity and the procedural obstacles that can be raised and make sure that sovereign immunity as a doctrine provides no safe harbor, no haven for terrorism when victims and their families seek to hold those terrorist sponsors as well as terrorist groups accountable for their horrific actions.
That measure was passed with the tremendous leadership and support of its two main cosponsors, Senators Cornyn and Schumer. I thank them for their work, as well as our chairman, Senator Leahy, and ranking member, Senator Grassley, for their willingness to move this matter on September 11, and say to the victims and their loved ones: We will hold accountable the wrongdoers, and we will make sure the courts of the United States are places where justice is provided against terrorism.
We can also make America a better place by giving more Americans a fair shot. A fair shot is what America promises to men and women who live here now and men and women who come here. A fair shot is part of our basic principled existence. The terrorists struck the World Trade Center and they hit the Pentagon, but they missed America. What makes America great is those principled values.
As we gather today, we should say thank you to the brave men and women in uniform. The Acting President pro tempore is one of them, and I thank him. I thank my two sons who have served, one in the Marine Corps Reserve, deployed to Afghanistan, another now in the Navy. The fact is that the burden of this longest war in our history has been borne by less than 1 percent of our population. We owe all of them and their families our thanks, and we can best say thanks by giving them and all Americans a fair shot at the American dream.
A FAIR SHOT
I have just returned from 5 weeks in Connecticut, where I had the opportunity to listen to concerns of my constituents. The people of Connecticut are proud of this country, but they are also concerned about the great disparities that exist. No one is looking for a free lunch.
Nobody in Connecticut thinks there is a free lunch. But people believe in a fair shot and the chance to make a better life for themselves and their families. The present disparities are stark and dispiriting and daunting and, at the end of the day, unacceptable and deeply disturbing.
Our country has made important strides toward recovering from the economic crisis of 2008, but we are far from done. We are still very much a work in progress economically and socially. Unfortunately, as the Federal Reserve noted just last week, economic burdens continue to fall hardest on Americans who can least afford them.
The disparities in this country have a particularly severe effect on women. Today women make up 50 percent of college graduates, but in order to do so they take on an average $30,000 in debt, and they go on to work at places where they earn only 77 cents or 82 cents for every $1 paid to men.
When women are treated fairly, we are all treated fairly. When women are treated unfairly, we all suffer. When college graduates struggle under crushing loads of debt, our whole economy suffers and we are all poorer. These problems affect real people. There are real, attainable solutions available to us all.
I have participated in more than a dozen roundtables across the State of Connecticut, roundtables at colleges and universities where I have heard story after story from them--and also roundtables in high schools--about their struggles to stay on top of their debt. They understood, every one of them, that they were taking on a significant burden but not one that is insurmountable, not one that will cripple them financially for the rest of their lives.
I heard from Gillon, an honorably discharged Army veteran who is now studying law. He wrote to me to say:
Despite having done everything that society tells us while growing up is the right thing to do, I'm still saddled with over $132,000 in federal school loan debt. My total monthly payments amount to nearly a third of my take-home salary each month, with no end in sight.
Dean, who has three children, earned a master's degree to try to move ahead in his career. A year after graduating, he is $55,000 in debt, and he is struggling to support his family even though he and his wife work four jobs between them--four jobs and he is struggling to make ends meet, to put a roof over his family's head.
Along with my friend and colleague Senator Murphy, I met last week with Susan Herbst, the president of the University of Connecticut, and with a number of UConn students and recent graduates, on the campus. They shared with me how excited they are about the vast and limitless opportunities afforded them by this great university.
I sensed the excitement while I was there of this great campus, making me envious for the time they are spending there in studying and exploring the tremendous reaches of human knowledge, both practical and theoretical, and yet the difficulty of how affording a college education has constrained and constricted the professional climate beyond that campus. As heady and glorious as the days on campus may be, there is an overhang of doubt and debt that restricts the reach of their lives. It restricts the reach of our economy because it constricts consumer demand, it restricts the reach of their ambitions to start businesses, and families to buy homes, and to move ahead with their lives. And that is a problem for all of us.
There are ways for Congress to address this problem. We can pass the legislation I am pleased to cosponsor with Senator Warren of Massachusetts which would allow borrowers to refinance student loan debt. We can pass Senator Franken's legislation to ensure that debt obligations are explained in clear, comprehensible terms so students know what they are taking on. I am developing a proposal to improve the flexibility of loan forgiveness for students who pursue careers in public service such as teaching, public safety, or firefighting.
The current program requires students to work a full 10 years in these professions for any debt forgiveness. Any debt forgiveness hinges on those full 10 years. I believe shorter periods of work should allow for loan forgiveness in proportion to the time they spend on the job. There are ways to make public service a quicker and easier means for loan forgiveness.
There are other methods as well that we should pursue to enable college affordability. Paycheck fairness is basic to America. There is no reason that American women make only 77 cents per every dollar made by men. Male health care workers in Connecticut earn on average almost twice as much as women performing the same job. Men working in finance earn 61 percent more than women with the same position.
This shocking gap persists when controlled for education, experience, and other job-related factors. The data demonstrates unavoidably and inescapably that women make less than men in 97 percent of professions.
The event I attended in Connecticut, which was a meeting of the Connecticut Permanent Commission on the Status of Women, chaired by Antonia Moran, highlighted the shameful lag in women's compensation. Many women with college degrees told me about their personal struggles.
Lori Pelletier, the executive secretary-treasurer of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, explained how carefully crafted union contracts can often make a difference, but everyone agreed that better laws to address the problem are needed.
Fortunately, my distinguished colleague Senator Mikulski, who is here on the floor today, has introduced the Paycheck Fairness Act. It will bring into the 21st century, more than 50 years after the Equal Pay Act was signed by President Kennedy, the gap of full equality. It will improve the remedies available to victims of discrimination. It will prohibit employers from punishing workers who share salary information. It will require any differences in pay to be determined only by job-related factors. It will improve training and education regarding how to take action against discrimination.
Pay equity is good for families, it is good for the economy, it is good for America, and it is a matter of fundamental fairness. I thank my colleague Senator Mikulski for her great work on this issue. I am proud to stand here with her today and with so many other colleagues, because it is basic to a fair shot in the United States of America.
I know American people are counting on all of us to help make America better, to keep faith with the great men and women who have served in our military around the world, who have served and sacrificed--the loved ones of 9/11 victims, of all the victims of terrorism who have perished since and before 9/11. To make America better is what we can do to keep faith with them. To give Americans a fair shot should be our mission today and every day.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
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