[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 11] [Senate] [Pages 15511-15512] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]SEPTEMBER WORK PERIOD Mr. REID. Mr. President, as I said, I welcome back all my colleagues from all corners of the country. I am sure every Senator enjoyed spending time with their constituents as much as I did. I am sure all are eager to get back to the business of legislating. The work period we begin today is an important one. Like every work period, it represents a new opportunity to move past the partisan stalemates of recent months and find common ground on our most pressing priority: putting people back to work. I hope the weeks between now and Columbus Day will be productive weeks. There really is no reason they should not be. The issues we will be dealing with are not partisan or ideological. They have the support of Democratic, Republican, and Independent Senators. They have the support of Democratic, Republican, and Independent constituents. All of us have a common obligation and a shared interest in doing all we can to get our economy moving again. If we were to adopt a slogan to guide us in the coming weeks, I would nominate something a colleague of ours said just a few days ago. The senior Senator from Ohio, Mr. George Voinovich, a Republican, was talking last week about the standoffs that have stalled the Senate-- gridlock that has kept us in recent months from realizing our ability and fulfilling our responsibility to help small businesses. He said: We don't have time for messaging. We don't have time anymore. This country is really hurting. Senator Voinovich is right. Small businesses across Nevada are hurting. Small businesses across my friend's State of Ohio are hurting. Small businesses across the State of Oregon are hurting. All over this country, they are hurt, from coast to coast, because credit and capital are too hard to come by. The owners of these businesses are not interested in partisan rhetoric, and neither are the people they have had to lay off or the unemployed they have had to turn away. People in Nevada and throughout the Nation are too busy keeping track of their business's books or their family budgets to keep track of who is scoring political points. They are not interested in any of that. They are simply desperate for us to do our jobs, and that is to help create jobs. That is what the first vote Senators will cast tomorrow is all about. Tomorrow, we will decide whether to move ahead with a bill that helps more small businesses be the engine that runs our economy. When most Americans go to work in the morning--or whenever they go to work during the day--they do not go to big corporations with famous names. They go to work at small businesses. But those businesses are also the ones that have paid the highest price in Wall Street's recession. Two out of every three jobs we have lost came from small businesses. Our bill is not a new one, and tomorrow will not be the first time we voted on it. But to refresh my colleagues' memories, let me briefly remind everyone what is in it. One, it cuts small business taxes so they can hire and grow. Two, it increases Small Business Administration loan limits, which gets money flowing to the entrepreneurs who create jobs. Three, it makes it easier for small businesses to export what they make. Four, among other things, it creates a new lending fund that will give small [[Page 15512]] banks, community banks--and, by extension, small businesses--more capital to invest. Most importantly, this bill will create jobs, up to 500,000--half a million jobs. But every day we delay, the opposite happens. Small businesses are holding off hiring while they wait for us to act. Banks large and small are holding on to their capital while they are waiting for us to act. And half a million Americans who want to work, people who are ready to get off unemployment and get back to jobs they so desperately need, are desperate for us to get our act together. We need to go to work. As the Republican Senator from Florida, Mr. LeMieux, said when we last debated this bill--remember, Senator LeMieux is a Republican. He said it should get the support of more than 80 Senators. As my friend the Republican Senator from Ohio said: We do not have time anymore for political games. Our citizens are hurting too much. I yield the floor. ____________________