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Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I first thank the Senator from Connecticut, Mr. Blumenthal, for his words on what the middle class is facing and his particular advocacy on behalf of women. It is well known and much appreciated.
I come to the floor today to talk about middle-class people who are trying to play by the rules. But before I do, on this auspicious day, September 11, 2014, I wish to pay my respects once again and express my heartfelt sympathy to the families of people who died on September 11 throughout this country--at the World Trade Center, at the Pentagon, in Pennsylvania--to the wonderful first responders who risked their lives and many themselves who perished, to those who were wounded or sick and bear the permanent burden of their response to that awful tragedy, and to the families of the loved ones who have to live with it every single day--who have an absent chair at Christmas or Thanksgiving, or Hanukkah, whatever faith holiday where families gather and remember.
The Nation cannot forget what happened that day and it cannot forget why it happened, and we cannot forget the people who were there and paid this terrible price of terrorism.
I express my sympathy, my condolences, to say one way we can honor them is to make sure we don't have another terrorist attack in the United States. But what they were doing that day is to believe in America, and that brings me to what I want to talk about today.
THE MIDDLE CLASS
Yes, people talk about when we are out on our break we are on vacation. But I have been moving around Maryland, and one of the things I see and hear that is so clear is that, No. 1, the middle class is worried whether it is going to stay middle class. Those who want to be middle class worry if there is going to be an opportunity ladder for them to achieve middle-class status, where they can earn a decent living, raise a family, and make a contribution to their community.
They are repeatedly told: If you work hard and go by the rules, you will do OK. They are becoming increasingly skeptical of that, because they feel the very rules of government work against them and the very climate of government stops any change to be able to help them. They either feel that we are irrelevant or we are working against them.
That is why they say: All we want is for America to be America again, where if you work hard, go by the rules, you can have a pretty good life and make a pretty good contribution to this great country of ours.
So when they talk about these issues and if you talk to the old-timers--particularly those who are facing families in long-term care--they worry about the very cruel rules of government that tell them to spend down their life savings until they are eligible for Medicaid; that if you worked hard and you saved, you are actually penalized for that--except for legislation I passed 25 years ago--that if they had gone and squandered their money, they would be better off and more eligible.
Then there are the young people who want to be able to go to school where they can make something of themselves and make America a better place to live.
I held student roundtables, along with my colleague Senator Cardin. People talked to us about the careers they wanted. At Bowie State, four of the young people who were part of the roundtable want to go into nursing, both men as well as women. They think: I could help people. We have a nursing shortage in this country. Yet the very obstacle to them being able to afford to pay for their education will prohibit it.
Why is it that education is so expensive in this country when we look at tuition, books, fees? And then what is it that we do? First of all, we make sure that Pell grants aren't year-long. You can only go two semesters. But if you want to go during the summer to ace that class that you have to do for compliance purposes for graduation, or that especially hard class--you only want to take one class a semester--your government won't help you finish sooner or finish better. We won't help you. We can give tax break earmarks, but we can't give tax breaks or help there.
Then when they look at their student debt and the interest rates they carry, they ask me: Senator Mikulski, why is it that you can refinance a yacht but I can't refinance my student loan?
And I say: Well, you know, we are stuck on the motion to proceed, and we are two votes short of the filibuster; but then we will go backward if we do this.
They don't want to hear this parliamentary wonky stuff. What they want to hear is: We believe in them and we need them and we want them, and we are going to help them for what they believe we are going to help them achieve to be able to get a student loan. But underneath it all is that work should be worth it and work should be rewarded.
That brings me then to paycheck fairness. One of the other rules they feel is against them is: The rules are rigged against you if you want to fight for equal pay for equal work. If you want to fight for equal pay for equal work, you can be retaliated against, you can be humiliated, you can be harassed, you can be fired, simply because you are asking the person standing next to you at the water cooler or the computer printout machine: How much do you make? That simple question, how much do you make, can trigger a whole retaliatory effort against you. That is the rule, and all it is you want to know is what kind of dough the person next to you is making. This is why we once again are bringing up the Paycheck Fairness Act.
The Paycheck Fairness Act is to fill and close the loopholes that came about in the original Equal Pay Act. We have been at this for 50 years. When this fight started under Lyndon Johnson, women made almost 50 cents for every dollar men made--and after 50 years, gee, we are up to 77 cents per every dollar. And for Latino women, African-American women, other women of color, it is even worse.
People might say: Didn't you fix this when you did the Lilly Ledbetter bill?
The Lilly Ledbetter bill that we did pass restored the law to where it was before the Supreme Court decision. This updates and strengthens it. What it does is it deals with this whole issue of retaliation. The Lilly Ledbetter bill did not address employers who are currently able to legally retaliate against workers who share salary information. This legislation stops employers from being able to sue or punish workers for comparing wages.
It also helps restore congressional intent. It makes sure that employers who claim that differences in pay based on any factor other than sex are dealt with. This legislation limits employers' ability to exploit this loophole by requiring that this defense can only be used when it is related to job performance and is necessary for business.
This bill creates a fair playing field, simply knowing what the next person earns and being able to work and to negotiate for equal pay for equal work. The Paycheck Fairness Act fixes the law to keep discrimination from happening. It would have helped keep Lilly from having to sue in the first place.
This bill puts an end to the incentives that cause employers to think that paying women less is just a cost of doing business. It gets rid of the secrecy that makes it harder to uncover pay differences. Why should pay be such a secret unless you are ashamed to say what it is? Why would you want to keep it a secret? Maybe it is because you don't want to brag that you pay the men more than the women. Maybe you are too ashamed. Maybe you think it will lead you to an EEOC lawsuit. We want to end secrecy at the job place, where you know what the person next to you makes--you have a right to ask.
I have heard from women all over America and I have heard from men--men who work so hard, particularly for their daughters; men who have jobs they hate so their girls can go to school and have jobs they love. Men want equal pay for equal work. They want it for their spouses, they want it for their widowed mothers, and they want it for their daughters.
Listening to the cases--Donna Smith of Maryland's Eastern Shore worked as a retail clerk. She was told not to discuss her pay, but when she found out she was being paid less than a male cook and was doing the exact same job, she filed an EEOC complaint. And what happened? While she fought for her pay, they were fighting her with agitation and humiliation.
Latoya Weaver sent a letter to me. She is a single parent with three children, working in guest services at a hotel. She found out her pay of $8 an hour was $2 less than the males doing the same job. Two dollars when you are at bare minimum makes a pretty big difference. She filed an EEOC lawsuit. Although she only received compensatory damage because of the discrimination, the company's policy against discussing pay means it could happen again.
I could give example after example. I have been talking about this for a number of years. It is time. In the Senate, after all is said and done, more gets said than gets done. But this time, in the next 72 hours, we could actually vote to move the bill to the floor, to continue the debate and discussion and actually right the wrongs in equal pay for equal work. This is why American women want a fair shot. All they want is to be paid exactly the same--equal pay--as their male counterparts.
Mr. President, knowing of your own steadfast advocacy for the middle class in this country and an opportunity ladder in this country, we have to stop and make sure the rules government creates do not rig the game against people who are working hard and trying to play by the rules. The rules should work for the people and not for the government or for those who want to hold down wages or opportunities.
We are not going to accept women being paid less. We have paid attention to this problem, we've listened to the voices of the people, and we have a solution in the Paycheck Fairness Act. I look forward to working with my colleagues to see if there are amendments, whatever we could do to move this process forward. I would love a unanimous vote out of the Senate to have paycheck fairness finally in our lawbooks and in women's checkbooks. It's time to end pay inequity. It's time for Congress to act.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
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