[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 124 (Thursday, July 15, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4911-S4912]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                    American Jobs and Families Plan

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, every Senator, from every State, has 
witnessed the hollowing out of the middle class over the past few 
decades. Globalization and technology have changed the way that 
Americans work and compete. Productivity increased, but wages for the 
bottom 70 percent stagnated in this century, in this 20 years. Income 
equality spiked as wealth agglomerated to the top.
  The financial crisis and the COVID pandemic heaped additional 
hardship on middle-class families that were already falling behind. The 
changes in the world--the swirling changes, economic and social--have 
made it harder to stay in the middle class and have made it harder to 
get to the middle class.
  We Democrats feel an obligation to make it easier for those in the 
middle class to enjoy that middle-class life and stay there and for 
those struggling to get into the middle class to have those ladders so 
they can climb up to get there.
  These are exciting and fundamental times to be here in the Senate. In 
short, we have a lot to do to restore the fundamental American promise 
of opportunity and economic mobility--the faith that, through hard 
work, any American can build a better life for themselves, their 
families, their children, and then pass even greater opportunity on to 
their children. That is the American dream. It has been fading, and 
that has allowed demagoguery and nastiness and divisiveness to become 
too great a part of our politics.
  We want to restore that sunny optimism that Americans have always 
had, and that is why we are so intent on moving forward this month. The 
idea that Americans can build a better life for themselves and pass 
greater opportunity to their children is at the heart

[[Page S4912]]

of what Democrats are trying to achieve this year through the American 
Jobs and Families Plan, helping middle-class families stay in the 
middle class and breathe easier and helping poorer Americans climb that 
ladder to get there.
  And nothing--nothing--will do more to advance that goal than the bill 
we are working on this year. The budget resolution agreed to by 
Democrats on the Budget Committee this week is the first step down a 
long road toward enacting a transformational change in our economy. It 
will allow us to pass the most significant legislation to expand 
support for American families since the era of the New Deal and the 
Great Society. If not quite Rooseveltian in scope, it is certainly near 
Rooseveltian. It is dramatic change to help average families do better.
  The best way to understand the emerging legislation is in three broad 
categories: jobs, which will come through major infrastructure 
investments; families; and climate. We are going to create thousands 
upon thousands of good-paying jobs by investing in infrastructure and 
the training and apprenticeships that will help more Americans, 
including many of those who have been left out, get those jobs.
  We are going to expand and strengthen the programs that support 
American families and introduce new ones, like paid family leave and a 
robust expansion of Medicaid to cover vision, dental, and hearing. I 
salute Senator Sanders for putting it on the map and now making it a 
real possibility to happen.
  And we are going to act on climate in a bold and comprehensive way, 
to reduce emissions, make our infrastructure more resilient, and create 
the green jobs of the future to meet the President's goals of an 80-
percent reduction in dirty carbon that goes into energy production and 
a 50-percent overall reduction in the carbon we send to the atmosphere.
  When Republicans held the majority in the Senate, unfortunately, 
their signature legislative achievement was a massive tax break for 
corporations and the wealthy. From one report I read, the top 1 percent 
got 83 percent of the benefits when the Republicans had power. What a 
difference when Democrats are in power. You know what the top 1 percent 
got in the ARP bill? Zero. Nada. Nothing.
  God bless them. They are doing great. They don't need it.
  Democrats, instead, are strengthening the backbone of the middle 
class, and that is what we are going to do in this jobs and family 
plan. American workers, American families are going to benefit while we 
address the generational challenge of climate change.
  And as I have said from the start, Madam President--as I have said 
from the start--the two tracks of infrastructure are going to move in 
tandem. We are making good progress on both tracks.
  We in the Democratic caucus heard from the President yesterday on the 
budget resolution. The meeting was wonderful. The excitement was 
palpable. The opportunity to do so much good for so many American 
families was in the air in that meeting. It was exciting. And, as that 
happened, the bipartisan working groups had many meetings on the 
bipartisan infrastructure framework as well.
  Today, I am announcing that I intend to file cloture on the vehicle 
for a bipartisan infrastructure bill on Monday of next week. Senators 
will have until Wednesday of next week before the initial vote on 
cloture on the motion to proceed.
  Everyone has been having productive conversations, and it is 
important to keep the two-track process moving. All parties involved in 
the bipartisan infrastructure bill talks must now finalize their 
agreement so that the Senate can begin considering that legislation 
next week.
  And I am setting the same deadline, next Wednesday, for the entire 
Senate Democratic caucus to agree to move forward on the budget 
resolution with reconciliation instructions. The time has come to make 
progress, and we will. We must