individual and have independents and maybe taking care of a parent, something like that, you gets dz 18,000 -- $18,000 in that standard deduction. why is that important? by doubling that standard deduction, we go from seven to nine not itemizing, we -- that means doing your tax return on maybe just a one-page form. that means you're not only reducing rates, but you're also greatly simplifying the tax code. we keep other provisions that are very important for families as well and in fact enhance them. for example, the child tax credit is doubled. so not only do we double the standard deduction, but we also double the child tax credit for families. we go from $1,000 to $2,000 per child. that's going to make a huge difference. $2,000 in the child tax credit is going to make a huge

difference for families. also to make sure for family business, family farms, that kind of thing, small business, we double the estate tax, the death tax unified credit and we include the step-up in basis. hugely important to make sure that you can transition a small business or a farm or ranch from one generation to the next. to save for college, we enable the 521 savings accounts to continue for parents that are saving for that college education. another one that's very important is we encourage businesses to provide paid family and medical leave by giving them a tax credit to partially offset an employee's pay while caring for a child or a family member. other things that we keep in terms of deductions that are very important again to hardworking families. the mortgage interest deduction. we make sure that they can continue to deduct the interest

on their home morning. the deduction of charitable contributions. obviously very important for the greater good of our society, that people can continue to contribute to their charities that they believe in and support and that they can deduct those charitable deductions. the child dependent child tax credit, the adoption tax credit, earned income tax credit. we make sure that people can continue -- can continue to contribute to their 401(k) accounts. very important. their retirement accounts. 401(k)'s, being able to contribute on a basis that's tax advantaged. and medical expense deduction. obviously for our seniors, that's very important or for somebody that has a medical condition or an illness, being able to deduct those medical expenses, again extremely

important. as i say, this is about making sure hardworking americans not only can really have tax relief but also the pro-growth aspect, that they see the rise in wages and income. that's what i want to talk about with this third chart. that really goes to supporting our businesses across this great country. you know, small business is really the backbone of our economy. small businesses, farms, ranches, small businesses are the absolute backbone of our economy. so as we provide tax relief, we need to make sure that for small businesses which typically are pass-through businesses, okay, and what we mean by that is the income flows through the business, and then it's taxed at the individual level.

so part of the reduction that we're providing in terms of the tax relief that we're providing to small businesses really comes from the reduction in the individual rates, as i've already gone through. because that income is flowed through. and when i talk about pass-throughs, you're typically talking about it can be a partnership. it can be a subs corporation, a limited liability partnership, corporation. these are all pass-throughs. so when the income flows through that small business to the individual, because we've lowered the rates, that already provides a lower net tax on those small businesses and the people that own and work at those and invest in those small businesses. but the other thing we do is we provide a distribution deduction or a reduction in the taxable amount as far as income distributed by those businesses. and that's 20%.

we've gone through various iterations. we started about 17%. we'd hoped to move it higher. in fact, i think we're going to end up right around 20%. what that means is when income is flowed through that pass-through business, 20% of it is deducted before you calculate the income. so, for example, if you flow through $1,000, you'd be taxed on the $800. now you apply those lower tax rates that i talked about, and you can see clearly you've significantly reduced that tax rate on these small businesses. and why is that so important? well, that enables those small businesses to keep more of their hard earned dollars to invest in plant and equipment. it enables them to hire more people, like maybe some of these great young people we have here working as pages. enables them to raise wages and income to grow their business.

maybe for an entrepreneur to start up a business, right. so it's those dollars that instead of going to taxes stay with the business, they're invested in the businesses, create more jobs, more opportunity, and higher wages. that's the pro-growth aspect of this tax relief that i mentioned at the outset. now, the other way that this tax relief is really pro-growth is also for larger c corps bringing down that rate. smaller businesses use the c corps as well. but by bringing down that rate, we make companies in make more competitive in the global economy. so for companies that do business not only here in america but in other countries around the world, they have to decide where they're going to invest. are they going to invest and grow their plant and operations here in america or are they going to grow their plant and

operations somewhere else? and, of course, if they grow here, they're hiring people here, right? they're paying wages and salaries here in america rather than in some other country. so we want those companies that do business internationally or globally, we want them growing their operations here, not overseas. and right now economists estimate that something in excess of $2.5 trillion, $2.5 trillion is currently held overseas by these companies and is not brought back to the united states and invested here because we have one of the highest tax rates in the world. our corporate tax rate is one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world. and so when we talk about the current 35% tax rate, companies look at that and they say well, why would we bring back earnings from ireland or -- you know, you pick a country anywhere in the

world. why would we bring those earnings back and pay that really high tax versus just reinvest overseas or somewhere elsewhere the tax is much lower and we can be more competitive? so that's what we're having to deal with. that's why we lower the corporate rate because that then creates incentive for them to come back, invest those dollars in plant and equipment in the united states and create more jobs here in america. and in so doing, as they bring those revenues back which is called repatriation, they what? they generate tax revenues that helps us provide more tax relief for hardworking americans. so that's what i mean. that's the two-fer aspect. it's making sure individuals have real tax relief so they keep more of what they earn but it's also about making sure that they earn more, that their wages and income grow, and that there are more jobs and opportunity here in america. and that is absolutely the focus of this tax relief plan and what we're working to achieve. as i said, both the house and

senate have passed versions of this tax relief bill, and now we're working to get the very best product we can through the conference committee and making real progress. and we need to continue now to work together and to get this tax relief done. we've been working on it for a long time. there's a lot of effort that's going into it, but it's time now to finish it up this week, to vote on it, and get this tax relief passed before the end of the year so that as americans go into 2018, they know that they're going to be able to keep more of their hard earned tax dollars and also have a vibrant economy where there's going to be more jobs and opportunity and higher income and wages. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: for the information of the senate, under the previous order, 30 minutes of postcloture time remained on the willett nomination as of 4:00 p.m.

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. mrs. shaheen: mr. president, i was interested to hear my colleague from north dakota, my friend from north dakota, talking about this tax bill because sadly, there's not been a lot of bipartisan work on the bill. and i really agree that there's a consensus that tax reform is long overdue, but we need tax reform that simplifies the tax code, that bolsters the middle class, and that helps small businesses create jobs. i think those principles could have been the basis for really good bipartisan work here in the senate and in congress generally to come up with a bill that would have done all of those things. but unfortunately, the legislation in front of us does none. the result is a partisan tax bill written in secret without public hearings, that adds to the national debt, that punishes the middle class and small businesses, and gives massive

tax cuts to corporations and the wealthy. last week i came to the floor to share the concerns of granite staters about this legislation. they were amplified at a forum that i had on monday at southern new hampshire university where i heard from students, graduate students from higher education leaders in the state about the damage that this bill would do to our state and to our national economy. now, i've heard some reports today that there are going to be some changes that come out of this conference that may address some of the concerns about the bill's impact on education. i hope that's true because unfortunately, i haven't heard what those changes are. i don't know that any democrats here have heard what those changes are. and unfortunately the negotiations like the bill are being done in secret and the future of students and so many people in new hampshire and the country hang in the balance.

in particular, what i heard at the forum with the students and educators was that the bill as it passed the house and senate would raise taxes on new hampshire students and would make it financially impossible for many of them to continue their educations. as passed, the house tax bill would eliminate the ability of individuals to deduct the interest that they pay on their student loan debt and nationwide student loan debt has roughly tripled since 2004. it now totals a staggering $1.3 trillion more than the total credit card debt in the country. and for us in new hampshire, it's particularly burdensome because new hampshire's 2016 graduating class had the highest per capita student loan debt in the country, an average of $36,367.

and the republican leaders' tax bill would make this crisis far worse not only for current students but for those who graduated many years ago but are still burdened by student loan debt. it would prevent nearly 80,000 granite staters from deducting interest on their student loans. the house legislation would also make it far more expensive to get an advanced degree because it eliminates tax-free waivers for tuition assistance. i'm hearing recent reports that this provision may be taken out of the final bill. i certainly hope that's the case because as it's currently written, it would put graduate schools -- graduate students financially out of reach for the cost of their education. a dartmouth student pursuing a ph.d. in biomedical sciences wrote to us that counting tuition waivers as earned income would raise his yearly taxes by more than $10,000.

he said that he would no longer be able to afford rent and groceries and that he would have to consider dropping out of school. as the associate vice president for student financial services at franklin pierce university told me, ken ferrara, he said in no uncertain terms that tuition waivers are not income and that it's wrong to tax them. could i not agree more. tyler kaine is pursuing a master's degree in environmental engineering at the university of new hampshire. he told me he already owes close to $40,000 in student loans. he works nearly 60 hours a week. after paying rent and other expenses, his stipend leaves him with less than $200 a month. now, if his tuition waiver becomes taxable, that would be a tax increase of $2,500, and it would wreck his budget leaving him with a $33 a month hole. along with many of his graduate

student colleagues, he would have to consider dropping out of school. it makes no sense to increase the burden of student debt and to impose new taxes on graduate students struggling to get by so that we can give the biggest corporations in this country and the wealthiest a tax cut. it's estimated that by 2020, two-thirds of all jobs in the u.s. will require some form of higher education. and yet today fewer than 45% of americans have at least a two-year degree. as i talk with small business owners across new hampshire, one of their biggest challenges is finding skilled workers. the last thing we need to do is to make education more expensive and unaffordable for millions of young americans. as one new hampshire businessman told me, he said it's like eating our own seed corn. for the united states to stay competitive in the global economy, we can't afford to discourage talented young people

from going to college or pursuing a graduate degree. i also had the opportunity to talk with nate stafford. he's pursuing a ph.d. at the university of new hampshire. and because he serves as a teaching assistant, the university provides a tuition waiver of nearly $27,000 which would be taxed under the provision of the house bill. if his tuition waiver were taxed, that would force him to consider opting out of graduate school entirely. and i also heard from university administrators who shared their concerns. sister paula marie bueley president of riveria university pointed out the proposed new tax on students is really a tax of our students. jan nesbitt at the university of new hampshire warned that taxing graduate student tuition waivers would have a cascading impact that would raise undergraduate tuition across the board because losing graduate students would

affect both teaching assistants and research and drive up costs. and then i heard from cary moorehead, the interim dean of the graduate school at the university of new hampshire, and she pointed out that many international students at u.n.h. would be lost, and noted that canada has recently seen more than a 40% increase in international students. and they're very pleased to be benefiting from the brain drain from the united states because of the financial barriers that we're putting up for graduate students. and then the other damaging aspect of this legislation that i think many people are not aware of is that the tuition assistance that many companies provide to their employees would count as taxable income. now 40 years ago congress provided employers with the flexibility to offer up to $5,250 in annual tax-free educational benefits to employees. this was designed to advance

competitiveness and fill the need for more skilled workers. if we eliminate those benefits, how many of those employees who are looking to advance themselves through education will not be able to do that? in so many ways this tax overhaul legislation would take america backward, not forward. tax reform should be about helping americans to prepare for the jobs of the 21st century. it shouldn't make it harder to afford college or graduate school. tax reform should be about strengthening the middle class, not burdening it with higher taxes. tax reform should be about growing the economy. not growing the deficits and the debt. like my colleagues on this side of the aisle, i'm eager to work to genuinely reform the tax code. reform is long overdue, but the bill we have before us is not

reform. we need a bipartisan bill that puts the middle class first, puts small businesses first, and doesn't leave a massive debt for our children and grandchildren. thank you, mr. president, and i yield the floor.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia.

mr. manchin: mr. president, we're not in a quorum call, are we? mr. president, all of the nearly 50,000 children that are on west virginia chips, on the chips program in our state of west virginia, all they want this christmas is to have their health care. it's not a whole lot to ask for from a child. as a legislative boated body we were elected to serve the needs of all of our constituents. that includes protecting our most vulnerable, our children. how many times do you hear us give speeches, whether it be in this body or whether it be back home? it's all about our children, the future of our country is about our children and the future of our state is about our children. our future generation, whatever we do. the promise to the world is about our children, and all they're asking for is to have their health care. it seems like we're so consumed with partisan gridlock and posturing that we would allow the expiration of health insurance for children. it seems like it's almost unconscionable for us to be in this situation to have no

control, these children do of their own health care coverage. the parents can't really afford basic health care. they're right above, they are the working people that are above the poverty guidelines and doing everything they can to put bread on the table and take care of their families, and their children have had no access to health care without chips. so on september 30 congress not only failed to reauthorize a bipartisan noncontroversial program for children, we failed the nine million children in this country who rely on the program to keep them healthy. nine million children that are depending on chips, the funding of chips and the basic priorities that we should have for our most vulnerable. and we've done nothing. our number one job as senators and as parents and as human beings is to care for and protect our children. but this body cannot even find the humanity to do that. in west virginia alone, almost 50,000 children use chips over the course of the year and more

than 20,000 children that are currently on the program are going to lose it in february, when the money runs out. through chips, these children have access to basic medical care, which includes prescriptions, immunizations, dental coverage, vision, and mental health coverage. and for more than two months their health care has been hanging in the balance because of the negligence of this body, the dysfunction of us as plain democrat and republican, the higher level of our party than our purpose for being here is to do our jobs. millions of families are in a state of uncertainty worrying about how to pay for their child's basic health care needs or for families, many families lifesaving services. i believe it is our duty to ensure our children are taken care of, for they are truly our country's future and legacy. i believe no matter how much your family makes or where you

come from, the most important thing you have is health care for your children so they have a healthy start. there's five promises every adult should make to a child. five promises. i speak about this so much because i, this started under colin powell, the five promises. the first one is every child needs to have a loving caring adult in their life, someone they know unconditionally loves them, right being, wrong or indifferent. sometimes it's not always the biological parents or biological family. it could be a neighbor, someone reaching out, a church service, after-school program. second, every child must have a safe place. the safe place might not always be the home where they live. third, every child must have a healthy start. we talk about nutrition. we talked about health care. that's part of it. if you can't teach a child how to keep themselves healthy, how to take care of themselves nutritionally and all different ways they're not going to grow to be a productive adult.

they'll have health concerns. they'll have health challenges. it's up to us to make sure they have that healthy start. the fourth promise is every child should have a livable skill. that means education. we make sure in this country every child has free education k through 12. and we make sure they can go through a college program if we can work with them and help them a little bit more on financial literacy, they wouldn't be bound to so much debt. i think we can help a lot of different ways in that. the fifth promise is the hardest one to teach. it's the hardest one because this promise is every child should grow to be a loving, caring adult and give something back. if these children see we don't care in our priorities not in health care and them having a healthy start in life is not one of our priorities, what are they going to do when it's their turn? when they become the adults, the responsible adults? what are they going to do? what are they going to say? well, you know, i don't know, we didn't have too good of an example because we saw all the

bickering and fighting back and forth. politics trumping everything, so i guess maybe it's not a big priority for us. i hope that they have more discipline than what we've had here. i hope they have more compassion, more empathy than what we've shown here. that's what i hope. and i hope that we can change our ways now and make sure that our failure to come together stops and stops now and we come together for the chips program and the health care for every child that depends on this for a healthy start in life. that is why i stand before you today to encourage my colleagues to come together and find a solution and protect the health care for over nine million children across this country. i've talked to families and children all across west virginia who are at risk of losing their health care coverage. for many families, chip is a temporary helping hand while you're down and out. it's a perfect example of how in west virginia and in america we put out a hand to help those people in need. there's a difference between a handout and a hand up. these people need a hand up when they hit hard times.

with me in this -- with me is a letter from a mother in west virginia. i've encouraged the people of west virginia to put a real family, a real face behind the challenges they have. so it's not just something that we're speaking about in a political arena. it's basically something that happens in real lives and it's affecting people. today this letter comes from anetta. i'm a mother of a now 18-year-old son named dalton. the west virginia chip is important to me because when dalton was 15 it was discovered he had a pituitary brain tumor as well as a condition, malformation, a condition where the brain protrudes out of the back of the head similar to a herniated disk in a spine. most times it requires pressure to relieve pressure out of the head. i had lost my health insurance at work and cannot afford to get a private insurance during this time.

thankfully i was approved for chip. his neurosurgeon nor his endcocrinologist didn't have any issues with authorization, for m.r.i.'s or bone scans which he had every few months. i'm very thankful to have had insurance like chip, and i feel there are so many children like my precious son that will suffer if the program ends. i feel some can be detrimental to not only the children but also the parents who are not eligible for medicaid services. we live in a state where jobs are not so plentiful, and the way we pay much less than other states. i hope that west virginia chip is saved. this is a mother reaching out saying that her son was saved because of chip. she couldn't afford it. she was above the poverty guidelines. she was working trying to make it and someone says it might have been more advantageous for her to go on welfare. there's an awful lot of pride

and dignity still left in people's lives. they're going to fight for that dignity and we ought to fight to give them assistance during their toughest times. mr. president, i'm calling on my colleagues to right this wrong to reauthorize chips before we leave here for christmas. there's so many deadlines we're trying to make and we put priorities, i know the speed of the tax bill is moving through because it's a priority to get done before christmas. even though we don't have a crisis, even though the stock market is doing greater than ever, even though unemployment is lower than ever, there is a timetable, a warped speed that this is moving through. but yet we have not addressed the thing that we need most is health care for our children. so i don't know where the urgency is for the tax reform that would trump the urgency and the need for health care for children. so, mr. president, with that, i urge all of my colleagues to please take a look at this and let's correct this wrong and not go home for christmas. and all these children want is health care this christmas. thank you, mr. president.

i yield the floor. the presiding officer: partisan question occurs on the nomination. is there a sufficient second? the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there searnth -- senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote. the yeas are 50, the nomination is confirmed. the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22, do hereby bring to a close debate on on the nomination of james c. ho of texas to be united states circuit judge for the fifth circuit. the presiding officer: by

unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that the debate on the nomination of james c. ho vote shall be brought to a close. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: on this vote, the yeas are 53, the nays are 44. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, james c.ho of texas to be united states circuit judge for the fifth circuit. mr. mcconnell: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that at a time to be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the democratic leader, the senate proceed to executive session for consideration of calendar number

193, the nomination of owen west to be assistant secretary of defense. i further ask that there be 30 minutes of debate on the nomination equally divided in the usual form, and that following the use or yielding back of time, the senate vote on confirmation with no intervening action or debate, and that if confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that at a time to be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the democratic leader of -- leader, the senate proceed to executive session for consideration of calendar number 341, the nomination of j. paul compton to be general counsel of housing and urban development, i further ask there be 20 minutes of debate on the nomination, and

that following the use or yielding back of time, the senate vote on confirmation with no intervening action or debate and if confirmed, the motion to reconfirm be considered made and laid upon the table and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to legislative session for a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: now, mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10:00 a.m. thursday, december 14. further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning business be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed. further, following leader remarks, the senate proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the ho nomination. finally, that all time during recess, adjournment, morning business, and leader remarks count postcloture on the ho

nomination. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. mcconnell: if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order, following the remarks of our democratic colleagues. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. nelson: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. nelson: mr. president, senator durbin has been leading a group of us talking about daca or the dreamers. i want to tell the senate two stories. i want to tell you about alicia dawkins. he was a baby that was brought from the bahamas at age 6 months. he grew up in america. he grew up in jacksonville, in my state. never knew anything about his roots. only knew that he was an american. served two tours in iraq.

came back, joined the navy reserves, had a top secret clearance, was sent to the very sensitive post of guantanamo where he was given the job as a photographer. obviously, a very sensitive position. and through an application for a passport in the checking on the background of a passport, it came to be learned that he had come to america as an infant, and for what reason, for the life of me it has not been explained, but he was arrested and thrown in jail by a u.s.

attorney. once this case came to the light of day and some of us started speaking out about it, a federal district judge took it in her hands to lecture the u.s. attorney and only because of that was alica dawkins released from jail, and as a result then we started getting into it, and alica dawkins was finally given his citizenship, and he is now serving in his native jacksonville, and he is a nurse. now, here's a child that had served two tours in iraq and was

in a top-secret clearance in service to the navy reserves in guantanamo. this just shouldn't happen. individuals in good faith have gone about carrying on, some even knowing as alica certainly didn't know of his undocumented status, but now we have many others. these individuals in good faith have divulged personal information to the department of homeland security that could eventually deport them. and that's why it's critical that we pass the dream act as soon as possible. i've heard from daca recipients

from all around the country but especially i've heard from a lot of them of the 30,000 that are in the state of florida. i've heard from daca recipients that are valedictorians, that are medical students, even priests. many are the primary bread winners for their families. senator durbin has already highlighted some of my constituents over the years, including christina valu who wil soon graduate from georgetown university and fulfill her dream of becoming a teacher for teach for america. christina came to america at age 6 from venezuela, a one whose

problems you and i have -- senator durbin and i but also the presiding senator today have consistently been concerned about the plight of venezuela. and so if we failed to pass the dream act, are we saying we are going to send christina back to the maduro dictatorship in venezuela, a dictatorship that can't even provide the basic staples to its citizens? are we going to allow this young lady who only grew up thinking she was an american now graduating from georgetown and allow her to channel her skills and her passion to ward

bettering our communities in need as a teacher? it doesn't make any sense to send these kids, to deport them. the contributions that dreamers have made are countless and christina and alicia are just two examples. these dreamers will continue to better our communities if only we would pass the legislation that senator durbin is sponsoring and many of us are cosponsoring. and so rhetorically, this was going to be a time of question and answers, but senator durbin allowed me to kick off this session. and i see that we have many other senators to speak. so, mr. president, i will yield

the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new mexico. mr. udall: thank you, mr. president. for the recognition. the president of the united states terminated the deferred action for child arrivals program otherwise known as daca three months ago. he gave congress six months to act. we are no closer today to helping our dreamers than the day the president so callously canceled the program. but we have almost 800,000 young people whose lives, dreams, and future hang in the balance. they're scared. their families are scared. everything they have worked for is at risk. dreamers represent some of our

very best and brightest. they're going to school, holding down jobs, volunteering in our communities. they want to be doctors and lawyers, engineers. they want to start businesses. they came here as children and they are american through and through. they love our country as much as any of us. and they want to stay and contribute. we have almost 7,000 dreamers in my home state of new mexico. carlos here is one of them. carlos was brought to new mexico from mexico when he was less than 1 year old. new mexico is the only home carlos has ever known. because of carlos' immigration status, his opportunities were limited.

he couldn't play sports in school. he couldn't go on field trips, even though he pledged allegiance to the united states just like his classmates. carlos registered with daca two years ago and in his words he was given wings. he as is now a full time student new mexico state university studying to be a mechanical engineer. he volunteers as a firefighter. he works as a server at a local restaurant. and he began to drive -- he began a drive to help hurricane harvey victims. carlos says, and i quote here from him, we as dreamers have proven ourselves to be worthy of being here in the united states. end quote. carlos' story can be told

hundreds of thousands of times over. congress must act and we must act now. we owe it to these young people. we must give carlos and all other dreamers their wings. passing the dream act is the morally right thing to do. but it is also the economically smart thing to do. dreamers' contributions to the u.s. economy are astounding. their jobs span the spectrum. they work in health, education, nonprofits, wholesale, retail, business, and whole professional -- and hold professional jobs. most of the top 25 fortune 500 companies employ dreamers. and that's why more than 400 c.e.o.'s of major u.s. companies have urged congress to pass the

dream act. if congress fails to act, it will cost us 700,000 jobs. as many as 30,000 jobs a month causing chaos for employers. and we could see a $460 billion increase in economic output over a decade. social security and medicare contributions would drop by $3 $39.3 billion over the same period. in my state, new mexico would lose nearly 6,000 daca workers and take a $385 million hit we simply cannot afford. mr. president, we have a bipartisan dream act before us. senator durbin is working with our republican colleagues and republican friends to get this over the finish line. let's do the right thing by

these young people and let's do it now so that carlos can become an engineer and so that hundreds of thousands of dreamers can stop living in fear and move forward with their lives. mr. president, it is our moral obligation to do this. we also must do right by the 11 million immigrants in our nation who are working, raising families, contributing to our economy, and helping in our communities. congress must stop kicking the can down the road. we must do our job. we must debate and pass comprehensive immigration refo reform. law-abiding immigrants who are contributing to our nation should be given a pathway to citizenship. mr. president, i yield the floor.

i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: i ask consent the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: mr. president, "september 5 of this year, attorney general jeff sessions announced the repeal of the deferred action for childhood arrivals program known as daca. that same day president trump called on congress to come up with a solution to legalize

daca. he challenged us. he said to the senate and he said to the house, i'm going to eliminate this executive order of president obama. now it's your turn. pass a law. if you want to protect 780,000 young people who had signed up under daca. daca was the direct result of the dream act which i introduced 16 years ago to try to protect young people who came to the united states, brought here by their parents at an early age, who grew up here and don't have a future, they don't have a home, they don't have a legal status, they don't have a country to call their own. it strikes me that these young people did nothing wrong themselves. i can even argue that their parents did what every parent would do, the best thing they could for their kids. but in this situation, we're trying to focus on would their future will be. their future is clearly in doubt. and right now many of them are worried about what's going to happen next. you see, without the protection of daca, they can be deported. they're undocumented. they can't legally work in the

united states. and many of them wonder whether or not they should continue school or what they'll do when they can't go to work for a job. these are real life challenges and many times they break down emotionally as they tell you their uncertainty about their future. just outside this capitol is a beautiful mall. smack dab in the middle of it are two white tents. they're tents that have been built by these young dreamers in an effort to process hundreds of people just like themselves who are coming to washington to tell their stories to senators and congressmen in the hopes that we'll do something. there are some in the senate here who don't want to help them at all. they don't believe they should receive any help in any way whatsoever. there are others who say let's put it off. let's do it sometime maybe next year. well, next year's coming soon.

and under the president's decision, on march 5 of 2018, just a few weeks from now, there will be no daca protection whatsoever. it means that today 122 of these daca protected young people fall out of protected status, 122 a day. march 5 of next year the number goes to a thousand a day. a thousand a day would will be subject to deportation, uncertain about what their future might be. i think it's time for us to do something, and i hope we can do it on a bipartisan basis and do it in a timely fashion. it's important that we figure our entire immigration system, but let's not try to do everything that needs to be done in immigration when we should be taking care of these young people as our highest and first priority. i'm ready to sign up for immigration reform. i was there before, part of what we called the gang of eight, four democrat, four republicans. a few years ago we came up with

a comprehensive bill. it passed the senate. the republicans in the house refused to call it for a hearing let alone a vote on the floor. so we should do our part, pass the new daca, the new dream act, do it before we leave this year. do it this year so we can spare these young people the anxiety and stress and fear that they have because of the current situation. and so we can meet president trump's challenge. i didn't like the fact that he eliminated daca, but it's fair for him to say to us you have six months, congress. now do something. i'm not in control here. i'm in the minority being a democrat. it's up to the republican leaders. all i hear from republican leaders is let's wait til next year and see if we have time to get around to this. we have the time, all the time we need now to do this. i want to thank a number of people. first i want to thank the 34 republican house members who last week sent a letter to the speaker of the house paul ryan saying that we should fix the

daca system before we leave this year. thank you to those 34 republicans. and in this chamber i want to thank six or ten republican senators who have either cosponsored the dream act or are now actively engaged in helping to rewrite its replacement in the senate. this kind of bipartisanship i'm sure is a surprise to those who follow congress but it's an indication many people share my belief that it's a simple matter of justice to give these young people their chance to become part of america's future. i started a few years ago when the dreamers worked up the courage to declare publicly that they were undocumented, frightening their parents but giving them some unity and identity in america. i started coming to the floor when they sent me their color photos and telling their stories because there's no speech i can give that matches the stories of their lives. and each time i tell a story, i know it makes a difference. i know the people who are

watching this on c-span and those who are in the galleries here in the senate pay close attention because we're talking about real lives and real people. tonight i want to tell you about carla martinez. carla martinez was brought to the united states from mexico at the age of eight. she grew up in the austin and flugerville area of texas, and she was an excellent student. in middle school and high school she enrolled in advanced placement in community college students and recognized as an a.p. scholar student. in high school she participated in the band. during her senior year she would go to school and work from 3 p.m. to 11:00 at night and start her homework. in 2012 she began her studies at the university of texas san

antonio obtaining a bachelor's degree in civil engineering. mr. president, a student like carla who is undocumented did not qualify for federal government assistance. it meant there was no pell grant to help her pay for college. there was no federal h loan to help her pay for college. she had to work to earn the money to pay her way through school, something which many young people would shrink away from, she accepted as the reality of being undocumented in america. because she was uneligible for financial aid, she worked to support herself and she often had to choose between food and buying books. during college, carla was also an officer in a number of organizations including the society of women engineers. she was a college of engineering ambassador which means she had to maintain a high gaap at the university of texas. during her summer she participated in water testing and worked as an engineering camp counselor. in august of 2016, carla was

the first daca recipient to study abroad with the university of texas san antonio's education abroad program. she studied in italy as part of the first group of students to participate in the urbino civil engineering program. because she couldn't get financial aid studying abroad was more difficult for her than the other students. not only did she need to raise the money to go to college, she needed to raise the money to pay for the study abroad. she never gave up. one of her professors said, and i quote, carla is a very dedicated student. she has excellent organizational skills and works well with her classmates. she's a team player. her involvement with college is fantastic. she's been an ambassador. in may 2017, carla graduated from the university of texas in san antonio with a civil engineering degree and two job offers. today she works full time and

mns engineering as a water wastewater engineer. her dream is to get her masters no business administration and give back by creating a scholarship program to help fund other engineering students. she wrote me a letter about her worries because of president trump's decision to take away her protection from being deported from the united states. here's what she said. every day that pass is a day closer to not being able to work, not having a driver's license and not being able to financially provide for my family as the head of the household. people like carla are the reason more than 400 business leaders signed a letter to all of us as members of congress urging us to do something and pass a bipartisan dream act. the letter said, and i quote, these business wrote, dreamers are vital to the future of our companies and our economy. with them, we grow and create

jobs. they are part of why we will continue to have a global competitive advantage. mr. president, that gathering of dreamers out on the mall just away from the capitol dome here has a lot of young people like carla coming here in the hopes that members of congress will slow down in the hallways on the way to their office or to a committee hearing and just hear for a moment their stories, stories just like carla's, stories that really beg us to do something. we know we have to. we know we should. and there's absolutely no reason to delay it. why would you want this amazing young woman who has done so many extraordinary things in her life to live with this uncertainty one minute more than she has to? why wouldn't we step up and do what we're supposed to do? i'm working on this with colleagues. a number of republican senators have been sitting down in my office even today trying to work the details out on a compromise.

we're not quite there, but there was a determination in our meeting today to get there, to put something together. i'd like to do this before we leave for the holidays. i think it's only right that we try, try our very best to achieve that. and i think we can. i think if members of both sides show good faith, we can reach that goal. i want to especially thank lindsey graham, my cosponsor of the dream act and jeff flake of arizona, another cosponsor who stepped up and shown extraordinary commitment to this cause. we also have lisa murkowski, cory gardner as well, cosponsors of the same legislation. and there are other senators who are working with us behind the scenes to get this done. some of them i know are taking a political risk to do it but they believe it's the right thing to do and they want to be on the record to be part of the solution. i'm looking forward to working with them. a few weeks, maybe only ten days now congress is going to adjourn to go home for the

holidays. but dreamers can't go home for the holidays because they really don't have a home. they're homeless in america because they're waiting on us to come up with the legislation that defines their status and gives them a future. hundreds of thousands of dreamers can not enjoy the holidays the way many of us can because of their concern about being deported from the united states of america separated prosecute parents, brothers and sisters, friends, families and loved ones. when we introduced the dream act, senator lindsey graham, republican of south carolina, said the moment of reckoning is coming. well, mr. president, that moment is here. congress has a responsibility to do our job to make the dream act the law of the land before the end of this year. or we'll bear the responsibility for forcing hundreds of thousands of talented young immigrants out of the workforce and putting them at risk of immediate deportation. the question we face is very basic.

will the united states of america be a better nation if carla is forced to leave? this woman's determination, her drive and her talent have brought her to this glorious moment when she finally graduated college. and with this degree and with this education, she can offer us so much more and really serve america and its future. this is the country she loves. she deserves the respect of this country. and she deserves the determination of the members of senate to take this up as the highest priority in the closing days of this senate session. mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. ms. duckworth: thank you, mr. president. and thank you, senator durbin, for all the work you do on behalf of dreamers throughout the country. your leadership in this effort is absolutely inspiring. i'm here to speak out in favor of passing a clean dream act to create a pathway to citizenship for young immigrants who enrich our country and strengthen our

economy and national security. the passage of the dream act is critical to thousands of dreamers living in illinois. and i want to share one young woman's story. this is christian. christian traveled from mexico with her mother and younger sister because her mother was fleeing an abusive marriage. at only six years old christian was brought to the united states not knowing a word of english. she needed to adapt quickly to her new home. christian worked hard in school to learn english and made great efforts to excel in all of her academic subjects. then when she was in the third grade, she was diagnosed with a learning disability which might have caused her to become frustrated and to see a decline in her grades. however, in her own words, she says i didn't let that get in the way. and i did not let bad influences in my neighborhood get to me. there in the back of my head, there was always a little voice saying education is the way to a better life. christian pushed through and finished middle school and high school as an honor student and

despite her constant hard work and proven academic record, she faced an unexpected obstacle. adults in her life who doubted her ability to attain a college education. as she tells it many adults in her life simply assumed that an undocumented student like christian could not obtain a college education. and while these doubts broke her heart, she was not deterred. christian's hard work, grit and academic merit earned her admission to northern illinois university where she received a private scholarship. she also worked multiple retail jobs selling flowers, shoes, and clothing to fund her education. although her future was uncertain, christian never let up on her academics or her many work responsibilities to put herself through school. finally in the last few years of her college education, she received some relief with implementation of the daca program. and in 2015 she became the first

person in her family to graduate with a bachelor's degree. she had a job offer right after graduation, which is as anyone can tell you, not an easy feat. and although her daca work permit expired that summer, when she had intended to start working full time, her company was so invested in having her they worked with christian to ensure her daca work permit was renewed and their investment was worthwhile. within the first two years at her company, christian reached number one in sales nationwide. she is now a branch manager of her company and consistently one of the top performers in sales. christian also opened doors for other daca recipients who have joined her at her company and are also excelling in their roles. she is just one of thousands of dreamers who positively contribute to our nation. it is evident that our businesses and communities benefit and thrive from the work ethic, the perseverance that dreamers like christian possess. there are no truer american

values than to work hard to accomplish your goals and to have the ability to fully contribute to society. unfortunately, due to the trump administration's elimination of daca, nearly 800,000 of our young people like christian are now vulnerable to deportation. thousands of young people who participated in the daca program and who are legally in the u.s. may no longer be able to serve as our doctors, teachers, students, and, yes, even service members in our military. and this decision will also tear families and communities apart. i implore my colleagues in the senate to recognize the contributions of our daca recipients throughout the country. i urge my colleagues to not shortchange the thousands of dreamers who learn and work alongside our families and friends. we must do everything we can to make sure the dream act is addressed before the holidays. i will not turn my back on dreamers like christian, and i will fight to protect daca

recipients as we work to make the dream act the law of the land. thank you. i yield back. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. the senate is in a quorum call. without objection. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i rise to join my colleagues in expressing my support for taking action on the dream act. as well as my continued opposition to the administration's decision to end

deferred action for childhood arrivals. i would like to thank my colleague, senator durbin, for organizing today's remarks as well as her leadership and advocacy on behalf of the dreamers along with senator graham who is leading on this important bill with senator durbin. it is critically important that the senate pass the dream act and not wait any longer to take action. 22,000 eligible daca recipients did not meet the administration's deadline to renew their status, and as a result about 122 dreamers are now losing their daca status every day. that's more than 11,000 who have already lost their status as of today, and that number will continue to increase every single day that we fail to act. so this is nothing that we can wait and wait a week and wait a month and wait two months. every single day it affects more people.

so while some have suggested that we wait until march to fix this issue, the reality is that the senate needs to take action now. since it was first established in 2012, daca has helped nearly 800,000 young people who have lived in the united states since childhood to better contribute to their families and communities, including more than 6,000 in my state. i recently met with the archbishop of the twin cities along with some of these dreamers, and we talked about how important this is to the fabric of life in our community, to our economy in minnesota where we have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, to the dreamers and their communities themselves. the dreamers were brought to our country as children, and they only know one home. that is the united states of america. the average dreamer has called this country home since they were about six and a half years old. that's the average.

dreamers serve in our military. they pay taxes, and they contribute to communities across our country. more than 97% of dreamers are now in school or in the workforce. 97%. and all daca recipients are required to meet the program's education requirements. in fact, 72% of all daca recipients currently in school are pursuing a bachelor degree or higher. and according to the american association of medical colleges, more than 100 students with daca status applied to medical school last year, and that is atta time where we have a shortage -- at a time where we have a shortage of doctors in my state particularly in the rural areas. the administration's decision to end daca has created tremendous uncertainty and the risk of deportation for the dreamers studying and working in states across our nation. it simply doesn't make economic sense, mr. president. one recent study estimated that ending this policy would cost the country over $400 billion

over the next ten years. and i like to point out to my colleagues, for immigrants as a whole, 25% of our u.s. nobel laureates were born in other countries. 70 of our fortune 500 countries are headed up by immigrants. why would we cut off this talent flow? look at these daca recipients. 97% of the dreamers are working or in school. that's why i strongly disagreed with the president's decision to end daca as do many republicans, democrats, business, labor and religious leaders. and it's why i support the bipartisan durbin-graham dream act. america is truly a country built by immigrants, but just as importantly, these immigrants and their families have helped america succeed. they have been part of our nation's greatest achievements. i look at my own family. on my dad's side, my

great-grandparents came from slovenia and my great-grandfather worked in the mine and my grandpa worked in the mine because they needed people to mine iron ore to make all the arm amounts and ships to win world war. they were proud of what they did to contribute to our country's efforts. on my mom's side my grandparents who were swiss came to this country. my grandma as a three-year-old to wisconsin and my grandpa when he was 18 years old came over. there was a limit on swiss limits, somehow got through canada and got through to wisconsin, met my grandma, had my mom and my brother, my uncle dick, and at some point decided that he would try to change his status from alien to legal immigrant, and that was when the congress had just passed the alien registration acts because

world war ii was before us. he had to register. that went smoothly so he decided to apply for citizenship. and that's when they discovered that he had entered the country twice. once when he said he was going to canada on ellis island, but he only went to canada for a week. and a second time when he got through to wisconsin. so i don't know what would have happened to my grandpa now. back then he went through the immigration hearing. he got his status. there is a picture of him, an old black and white with his bow tie smiling, much older than when he had come to our country where he became a citizen. but i don't know what would have happened because what he had done wasn't really legal. and back then they said you know what? we want you in our country. you're a worker. you've raised two kids. you live in milwaukee. we want you to be a citizen. and they gave him that citizenship just a few weeks before the u.s. entered world war ii. otherwise i guess he would have been deported to switzerland right in the middle of the war.

that's my story. and everyone has an immigrant story. the senate-passed bill when we did comprehensive reform, and i was one of the people very involved in that on the judiciary committee, it included a version of the dream act which would have created a path to citizenship for those eligible for daca who graduated from high school and went on to complete higher education or to serve in the military. and we must end this uncertainty for dreamers, and that's why i have joined with so many of my colleagues in calling on leadership mcconnell to hold a vote. so here's a dreamer that i'll never forget. i was trying to find examples for people in my state to understand what this dreamer term was all about. and i found one a few years ago. joseph medina. at the time he was 99 years old, and he was a decorated army veteran. we will only lost him last month at age 103. so he told me his story back when he was 99. he was brought to our country

from mexico when he was five years old. he had no idea that he wasn't born in our country, and he grew up in sleepy eye, minnesota. then he signed up to serve in world war ii. and that was when they found out that he was in fact undocumented and hadn't been born in our country. and back then as he described it to me, the military wanted people to serve, so they would have them go to canada. the direction of our military, he went to canada for one night, stayed in, his words, a nice hotel, and then came back to minnesota, and magic, he was legal. he then went and served under general macarthur in the pacific, and he then came back to the united states, met his wife, got married, had kids, and his son served in the vietnam war. so i had the privilege of hosting him at the world war ii memorial that he had never seen before, with his son who is a vietnam vet, so he could see that memorial for the first and

the last time. and with us were two dreamers from suburban twin cities area high schools who wanted to serve in the air force but couldn't because we don't have the same rules we had during world war ii. and they were basically, because of their status, couldn't serve. well, we lost joseph medina, such an advocate that he was not only in words but in example, just last month. and you think of his service, and you think when you see him standing in front of that memorial with those two dreamers that weren't allowed to serve themselves, it really hit home to me and to everyone that heard his story, what these dreamers were all about. so we all have our stories. and we owe it to these dreamers and we owe it to our country and the values of our country to stand up for these dreamers. so i stand with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who have spoken out in support of dream act and who agree that we must

take action in the senate to protect these dreamers in the name of joseph medina, in the name of all of our relatives who always came from somewhere, let's get this done. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. and i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. brown: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. brown: thank you. i ask unanimous consent to dispense with the quorum. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. brown: mr. president, thank you. this month this body has spent much of its time pushing a tax bill that rewards corporations that ship jobs overseas while doing nothing for hardworking families. spent time cutting taxes on the wealthiest people in the country, cutting taxes for corporations that ship jobs overseas and giving them more incentives to do it by the way they have actually constructed the bill, rewarding their largest billionaire contributors. at the same time they've ignored the children's health insurance program. letters are going out to families, 200,000 children in my state get the children's health insurance program.

their parents are, parents in many states are getting letters from the government saying sorry your insurance is going away because of the inaction of this body. senators and house members who have insurance provided for by taxpayers, we're not doing our jobs. we get insurance paid for by taxpayers. 200,000 children in ohio and families are going to lose theirs. but we're doing tax cuts for the largest, richest people in the country. tax breaks for corporations who ship jobs overseas instead of fixing the health care law, instead of doing the children's health insurance program, instead of doing infrastructure, instead of doing the things we should be doing. the priorities in this bill itself, forget about what we're not doing that we should be doing to serve the public. the priorities reflected in this tax bill are completely backwards. that's become pretty standard in this congress. time and again our economy, our

leaders, our politics reward wall street not just instead of workers. so we reward wall street not instead of workers. we reward wall street at the expense of workers. people in ohio, people around the country working harder than ever, are working longer than ever but have less and less to show for it. 44% of americans -- imagine this. 44% of americans, that would be four out of nine americans. 44% of americans can't, if they have an emergency, can't afford that emergency expense of $400. four out of every nine americans can't come up with $400 to meet an emergency. but wall street's doing just fine. it's getting richer. so what do we do? we do more tax cuts for rich people, more tax breaks for corntions -- corporations, more help in the banking committee for some of the most profitable banks in america. but we can't do anything for workers.

we can't do anything for families. the wealth in wall street has gone up. corporate profits have gone up. c.e.o. salaries have gone up. c.e.o. salaries, mr. president, are 271 times greater than workers' pay. so a worker makes $20,000. i almost can't even do the math. 271 times. imagine that. for every dollar a worker makes in this country, the average worker, the average c.e.o. makes $271. how much do they need? you know what the answer to that is, mr. president? let's do more tax cuts for the people making $271 and maybe a few crumbs for the worker making $1. is that fair? over the next few months i'm going to lay out the case for how wall street undermines american workers, how some of the changes we need to make in this country to grow our middle class and make hard work pay off. each installment of this series which we're calling wall street's war on workers, wall

street's war on workers, will be posted on me media page. you can follow along at www. medium.com/atsenatorbrown. today i want to talk about workers' paychecks. it's -- it's simple. wall street doesn't want you to get a raise. let me explain that. wall street has tried to convince us when the stock market does well the economy does well and visa versa. look around. visit the town i grew up in mansfield, visit dover, new philly. visit a community in my state that was once a proud industrial town hit by globalization. the stock market has gone up, and the president loves to take

credit for of that. talk to workers who have seen a retirement cut, talk to workers who have seen the health care premiums rise, talk to workers who have seen the cost of child care and paying off their student loans go up and up and up. that's what happens to those workers, most merns, the idea that a stock market rally means more money in their pocket is laughable. that's why the whez when he -- president, when he was talking about this tax cut, we're going to do all of these tax cuts to middle-class americans, if you want to, do that, don't cut taxes on corporations, cut them 43%, that's what the bill does, at least the last time i read it said that. they cut taxes 43%. they said that money will trickle down. you will get a raise. there will be more jobs. it's never really worked that way. it department work in north carolina that way, it hasn't worked in ohio that way. but the president stands there

and says, oh, we're going to give the best tax cuts for chris has you ever saw. he brags about the stock market going up. but the -- one of the reasons that two-thirds of americans don't much like this plez because they -- president because they heard him brag about the stock market and how great that is but there is nothing in their own pocket when he does that. the money is not trickling town. workers aren't seeing a $4,000 raise. the white house made up a phony study that says all the money is going to workers' pockets. it didn't work that way when president bush -- in 2001, 2003, president bush did a tax cut bill. 27% of the benefits from that tax cut went to the richest 1%, 27% -- the pages are pretty good at math because they are taking math class. 27% of the benefits of that tax

bill went to the richest 1%. that sounds outrageous because the 1% didn't need it. now with this tax cut bill, 62% of the benefits in this tax bill goes to the richest 1%. 62%, again, of the benefits in this tax bill go to the 1%. a number of members congress said this, when they go across the street to the republican headquarters and make fundraising calls, they are calling their contributors and their contributors say don't call me back for money until you give me and my friends a tax cut. get that. don't call me for campaign money until you go back across the street until you give me and my friends a tax cut. how counterproductive is that for our economy. the data tbhaks up. workers' -- backs that up. wage and equality has risen, especially at the largest

companies. some might argue that workers who have retirement account share in the benefit when the stock market does well. only 50% of workers have these type of accounts and they use them for long-term investments for their retirement. the short-term profits that drive so much of corporate decision making have little affect on accounts that workers won't touch for several decades. just because workers have retirement accounts doesn't mean they are able to save. 70% of americans have less than $1,000 in retirement savings. 44% of americans couldn't come up with $400 in emergency spending for a trip to the dentist or to fix a car. four out of five americans couldn't come up with that. it's worse, 70% of americans have less than $1,000 in retirement savings. you know why. because their wages haven't gone

up for a decade or so. the fact is a paycheck is how most workers pay their bills every month and put food on the table each night. wall street has a lot to say about how much should be in the paycheck. at the beginning of the spheech i said -- speech i said wall street doesn't want you to get a raise, a lot of my colleagues, particularly those who think that wall street should run the country more than they do, but when i said that wall street doesn't want you to have a raise. here is how it works. last week there was a downgrade because the company's employees were working too many hours and getting paid too much. so wall street downgraded their stock because they -- the analysts said their workers were making too many much -- too much. that's right. getting paid too much. the banks -- the banks decided that chipotle employees made too

much money. it didn't matter that they were profitable or that their employees were productive, their stock price went down because the analysts said we're paying the workers too much. i'm guessing the workers there are not making $100,000 a year. i went to my high school reunion a couple of years ago. i sat across from a woman who worked at a bank, a well-known bank, i don't need to cite the name. when i worked at my family farm growing up, i used to put my $120 paycheck in that bank. it has now been sold several times and part of a major wall street bank. she has been a teller at that bank for 30 years and makes $30,000 a year, $30,000 a year with 30 years of service in the bank. want me to tell you what the top management makes, tens of millions of dollars in

compensation, stock options, stock buybacks, huge dividends. this woman makes $30,000 a year. what's right about an economy like that? the entry level wage at chipotle is between $9 to $10. it is not enough to get a family out of poverty. the company wanted to help the people who worked there and wall street hit them for it. american airlines raise every raised wages for the pilots and other employees and wall street -- here is what one of the firms we sometimes talk about, citibank is a $2 trillion bank. somewhere close to that. i may be wrong about that. there are six banks in the country whose assets are over $1 trillion, as high as jp

morgan chase is $2-point something. an analyst wrote about american airlines, this is frustrating, labor is being paid first, shareholders get leftovers. think of that. so they gave their workers, they gave their pilots. i kind of want -- i assume that the senator from north carolina and lee and all working at the desk there, i think that you want airline pilots to be paid well. i think maybe you do. flight attendants make all the flying we do easier, this company wanted to pay them more and wall street says, this is frustrating, labor is being paid first and shareholders are getting leftovers. think about this. companies are more profitable, c.e.o.'s are getting paid more and more, executive compensation is up, stock price is up, workers are getting paid less. then when they want to pay the

flight attendants and pilots more, we complain because labor is being paid first again. never mind the labor in question pushed to get paid the same as their counterparts at telt -- at delta. american airlines decided they should pay their workers who do roughly the same job, their pilots and flight attendants, the same as united and delta. they thought that would be a good thing for attracting workers and maybe for wall street, and wall street said, no, we don't want that to happen. i wonder how much that analyst at citibank gets paid. some of you would call that class warfare. i would call it an interesting fact if we knew what it was. imagine the nerve of him saying that shareholders get leftovers. by labor, what we're talking about is people who create wealth for the company. i mean, it's workers -- it's workers who create wealth.

management is important, of course, in setting the direction of the company, doing all that management does in most corporations and does well, but workers -- rank and file workers, whether it's the woman who cleans the floor or the food service people in the basement, whether it's the data entry person, whether it's the mid-level management person, whether it's the sales force, whether it's the c.f.o., workers create wealth for the companies and shouldn't they share in the wealth? prielts provide a -- pilots provide a lot of product activity and wealth to that company. j.p. morgan described it a different way. he said it is a wealth transfer of nearly $1 billion to the labor groups. think about that. one of the things that -- one of the things that amuses me, except it bothers me more than

amuses me. when we talk about a minimum wage increase, companies say if we raise the minimum wage for the $7, $8 workers, if we do that, we're going to have to raise prices and lay people off, but they never say that twh a -- when a top management employee gets a million dollar raise. you only have to lay people off to raise the price of the product if you raise the minimum wage, but if you give a $7 million bonus, you don't have to raise prices. that's how phony the arguments they make are and frankly how revolting these arguments are. wall street didn't call it a wealth transfer. wall street didn't call it a wealth transfer when the c.e.o. of j.p. morgan got a 4% raise. anyone of the pages or staff

want to guess? their c.e.o. is paid $28 million a year. but that happens to be the same company where the woman i sat across from the high school reunion who makes $30,000 a year. i personally know him. he's a nice enough guy. i don't wish him any ill will, $28 million that he makes, the people who work directly with the public that have to listen directly to the complaints, that have to spend money coming to work and wearing nice clothes because they are a bank teller, making $30,000. what is fair about that. remember the line about wealth therefore. nobody complained about that when john stump was allowed to retire with tens of millions of dollars in compensation after overseeing a massive scandal that caused the bank stock to tank. you know what? i hear from the banking

committee from time to time, the c.e.o.'s and if the company caused a huge mistake that caused problems for the company, they come in and say, we're kind of sorry, and we're going to give up their bonus. they are already making $15 million $20 million, and they have to give up their bonus. how generous of them. if paying employees is a wealth transfer like the j.p. morgan c.e.o. said, who does wall street think that wealth belongs to? companies cannot be profitable without the workers. wall street seems to believe the whole cake belongs to c.e.o.'s and stockholders. it has not always been like this. in the past banks invested in businesses. corporate business models changed. according to recent analysis 15%

of wall street funds are invested in businesses, down have a majority of funds several decades ago. instead of investing in real businesses in real towns to create real jobs and build real communities, they spend billions buying back stocks and handing out c.e.o. bonuses. this change worked out well for wall street. it creates 4% of u.s. jobs. wall street accounts for 25 -- even though wall street is 4% of u.s. jobs, wall street accounts for 25% of all corporate profits. pretty good. not for the teller who works at the bank in mansfield, ohio, but for the stockholders and c. o. as anyone can tell you it has not worked out for most people, that profit. c.e.o.'s are evaluated and compensated with large company shares, but most don't think in quarters. they think in terms of school years, 30-year mortgages or how many years until i retire and how much money do i have to save

by then. main street investors and workers make a profit when a company's stock market value continues to rise over time. wall street's interests no longer watch -- match up. wall street interests are not the same as main street. wall street does really well. wall street gets bigger and bigger compensation. workers see their wages stagnate. folks in the corporate board room are not forced to consider what's in the long-term interest of workers, what's in the long-term interest of small-time investors, what's in the long-term interest of the community that's helped make them grow enriched. for them, workers are nothing more than a line item in a budget. it ought to be minimized. it's why they have no problem taking pay out of the pockets of workers' pay that would otherwise drive innovation and productivity, all to boost short-term profits for c.e.o.'s and speculators, because you know when you have short-term profits, you're going to get more money in your bonus, you're going to get your money in your

stock buybacks, more money in your executive compensation. because all of it's set, all of it's aimed at helping top management and top stockholders enrich themselves. not giving back to the community. not creating the workers -- treating the workers well, not investing in the future. it's all about short-term profits because that means huge compensation for the c.e.o.'s of america. nothing in their business model forces these executives to view the workers making burritos at chipotle as real people with real families. go back to that. chipotle did the right thing. they gave raises to their employees. american airlines did the right thing. they gave raises to their employees. but the stock market, wall street crushed them for it. that's what has to change. until the banks and wall street respect a day's work, a hard day's work, understand that work must have a value for the economy to grow, we'll continue to see the consequences. the gap between wall street and main street will keep growing, workers' wages will decline, our

middle class will shrink, wall street executives and c.e.o.'s will get bigger and bigger bonuses, we'll continue here to give tax cuts to the richest people in the country, and our economy and our economic growth will continue to lag, and workers and the rich get richer and the middle class shrinks. that's the formula. the rich get richer and the middle class shrinks. haven't we had enough of that? why should we still be doing that, mr. president? i yield the floor. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate stands adjourned until 10:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. >> senate dealt with two nominations to the fifth circuit court of appeals. justice don willett and limit debate on james ho. more action on nominations rest of the