Transcripts For CSPAN Politics Public Policy Today 20130928

[captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] we already introduced our panel and we could not a greater number of leaders on these issues than we have here today. Each one of them is leading the charge in businesses and advocacy to make a huge difference and i just want to thank them for their decades of work. I want to start with joe. He is our chief executive officer from deloitte. I have admired what deloitte has done in terms of empowerment for women and knowing how important women in the workforce are and leading the charge in Corporate America to do extraordinary things. Research has repeatedly shown that one of the top concerns that women have is equal pay. Can you talk about the steps you have taken at deloitte to address this issue and why it matters to you . Why do you think it is a priority and why bother . Sure. First, thank you for having us. At the firm, we have 60,000 people. Half of them are women. So for us it was quite simple. 20 years ago it was a business imperative. What did we do . We created a bunch of programs and balance. We did all of those things. T we had to use facts in the definition of success. C. E. O. S really are problemsoevers. We have to try to understand what kinds of problems we are solving for. Half the people we hire are women. They leave the workforce earlier than the men do. They are not as in their experience at the firm. So we drew down on those issues. Im happy to tell you when we started this initiative 20 years ago, it is none of my doing. We started 20 years ago, we had our firm that were women out of 3,000. Now we have 1,000 out of 3,000 were going to hire 16,000 more people and 10,000 are going to be women. That sounds great. Makes good sense. Thank you, good job. Susan molinari. Not only a Public Servant but a lifelong advocate. Doing incredible things at google right now. Approached it . First of all, i have to say thank you so much as somebody who many years ago would stand on the floor of the house of representatives and talk about family and medical care. As a mother of two. Forget googlt right now. As a mother of two girls. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to have this conversation. Ive really been blessed that the point in my career to work for a company that cares so much, following deloittes lead, which is an Historic Company that has worked on this issue. Before google was born, quite frankly, were celebrating our 15th birthday today. You guys were there when our founders were still in high school. You didnt have to say that. Well done. Me. Ul for me too, believe google obviously takes this extremely seriously, the work life balance. Not only because culturely that is in america to know that fact. It metrically. Their employees, male and female have kept the workforce that it has today. If i can take two seconds to say all the things that we do are backed up by metrix. Our sem annual compensation cycles we crunch the numbers to make sure there are not wage gaps. To make sure the problems in the Overall Society are not problems at google. We also found out that when it comes to promotions and this is not going to surprise any of the women in the audience or the men. Women are 20 less likely to selfpromote. Somebody said why is this happening and how can we fission it . They put fix it . They put programs in place for that. That gap has closed. Google that is ability to perform these things. We encreased our paid Maternity Leave to five months and we saw that returning moms came back at double the rate. Metrically we show when they are given that opportunity to spend some time at home, they want to come back to the workforce. They can come back to the workforce but they also have this opportunity to if they choose to bond. I want every company in america to know that fact. It just shows that employees are grateful. They are grateful that you care about their families. They are grateful that you give them that time and they are so much more loyal when they come back and ready to work hard. It seems so common sense. Again, metrically. Just by the numbers, google has shown that has enabled us to keep the kind of workforce that we want and then we offer seven weeks of new parent leave. We offer employees up to 15 days of emergency back up child care and unlimited sick days if your child is sick. It is a generous package and google can afford to do it but it has contributed to goggles bottom line because we keep a significant portion of our workforce engaged and feeling that they are valued. Did you help them write that policy . It sounds like a mother wrote that policy. What they did by writing this policy is they went to those employees. They didnt think it up, you know, around a table in abstract. So i guess i would say to companies who cant quite what google did is went to the employees and asked. They said what will help . Whatever jurisdiction youre in, knowing our resources, what can we do as a team to make this work. I think that is most important thing google does. They are constantly in communication with their workforce and seeing what they can do to maintain that workforce at that level. Aijen. I know this is true and they are often getting left out of the conversation. Atrisk women have far more im pediments and challenge thans women who are in the middle class or more. What are some of the big impediments and challenges of the women you serve that we need to address on a national level. Thank you. I want to thank you for being such a passionate champion for all women, especially low income women. I see women every day who are struggling to make ends meet. Wages that caregivers are they are working more than full time hours earning minimum wage or less. We are in a situation where the women we count on to take care of the most precious elements of our lives, our families and homes, cant afford to take care of their own. There is no job security, if youre sick or your child is, you risk losing your job. Paid family leave, all the issues that you addressed in your opening remarks are things that low income women face directly and are really on the front lines of. The thing that disturbs me the most, because we debate these issues, as you know, when women start their first job, 5 negotiate their first salary. 50 of men negotiate their first salary. This is sort of an innate difference that we can help with good coaching and good guidance. A lot of women, if a minimum wage woman asked for more money or said she needed a raise ks i dont know the statistics, but i would not be surprised if nine out of 10 got fired on the spot for being troublemakers. Their Financial Security is so minimal that they could they cant get more money. They cant change their outlooks. Woman we talked about, she could not get a sick day. It was take the job or leave it. This is what is being offered. She had no choice. Is that what youre finding . Absolutely more than half of caregivers are single mothers. They cant afford to risk losing their job. Even asking for something as simple as a sick day when youre ill, and it is actually not healthy for the people youre taking care of to go to work. They cannot afford to take that time. And if their child is sick, you have to just for those parent who is may not have young children. If your child throws up in class, you have to pick them up. There is no option. You go pick them up and bring them home and put them in bed. That is the reality of being a parent. We have so many single parent who is have children and it is impossible if your employer has no flexible. If your employer cant allow you to have that afternoon off or bring your child to work if they are not super sick. You dont want to bring them to the job if they are super sick and get everybody else sick. Part of the ambition of her company is to put women on corporate boards with the idea that when women are on corporate boards, even one is on the corporate board, she is going to be less likely to restate her earnings. It means the when women are on corporate boards, what are some of the best practices that you see for businesses around work family issues smp what kind s of companies are really the best to work for and when you talk to businesses about the issues on the horizon for retainer workers, child care, minimum wage, who are the important strategies for employers to consider . What is working . What is not working . Thank you and congratulations this initiative. We admire your work as well. Catalyst has helped influence Business Leaders on this issue. We have about 600 corporate members globally. Companies like deloitte and google that we work with. As we heard here, the data is really important for Business Leaders. Our research grounds the conversations that we have in data, which nsmses Business Leaders and some of what we have learned is that this issue is really about talent. There is a talent imperative around basic human potential. Something that you spoke to so mpellingly in your opening remarks. S that are creating a culture and environment that allows all talent to contribute equally and fairly are losing out on a an opportunity to give them a competitive advantage. Some of what we talked to those companies about is really about the change they need make in their policies and practices so they mad earnize to reflect that changed world that you talked about earlier. This is not about creating workplaces to accommodate a woman. This is about a new way of working. The kind of agility and agile workplaces that allow individuals working in Companies Like google and deloitte to succeed and contribute. They understand the impact on their bottom line. We see practices as you heard from susan here at google, for example and companies that are in the manufacturing sector. So for example, we talked about a Company Called turk iyc. They are a manufacturer. They put a Wellness Program for their employees at the heart of what they do on the manufacturing floor with access to free medical care. And again what you see in those kinds of initiatives is employees engagement and commitment and ability to contribute to the success of the business. It really goes back to what we heard earlier about the business imperative. A dear friend, founder and chief executive officer of the Small Business majority. One of the big concerns is the impact on Small Businesses, which is a priority for me. Small businesses create 2 3 of new jobs. We want to strengthen our Small Businesses. It is essential for economic growth. What is your experience in how Small Businesses can address the work family issue . Is there a way to make it work . Thank you for your work on this issue. I can tell from personal experience that employees are the life blood of the company or the organization. You know, every employee in a Small Business has a critical function that is very difficult to replace. The training time it takes to replace that person is huge. So it is absolutely essential that we find the best people and make sure they are happy and productive in their jobs. Etter quality products and customer service. It is critical for half the economy, which is Small Business, that they do this. We just released a poll, a scientific poll to Small Businesses across the country and 68 of Small Business owners actually have some kind of a policy in place to deal with family medical leave and 80 have a policy if it is an employees medical issue at stake. In the very same poll, by a 31 margin, they support some kind of Public Program like you proposed and support one that has both employee and employer contributions and it is essential to the life blood of Small Businesses in our commefment i would like to open it up to the audience. I think we have hit our main points but would anyone in the audience like to ask a question o anyone on our panel . Good morning and thank you for having me today. The question i want to ask im sorry. Aim in healthcare and transportation, but the question that i want to ask of you all is how do you all fl work from home situations or a telecommuting situation . Not only for women but for employees, period, because what i have experienced is that getting up, going to work, is, you know, we all have to do it, but the routine can become so daunting and you know, you can get stuck in a routine. How do you guys feeling about being able to let your employees work from home as a way of having a flexible to make their work home life more flexible . You know, it definitely depends on the type of business and type of job. I cant say every single job is possible. To the extent that that is possible, even part of the time, it is essential. Youre correct. Whether youre dealing with family or child care issues or a long commute, Technology Allows us to do that and to the extent possible, we found, i found in my own experience, that to make some of that available is incredibly helpful and you retain a much better quality of people in the organization. I would say for catalyst, it is an important issue for us as we talk to employers. I mentioned this earlier. 10 years ago, we had two employees that worked full time from their home. Today almost 30 of our workforce work from a home office on a fulltime basis. That flexibility is so key to the benefits and working for the organization and when were talking to employers about how you make that this work, we can point o our own example. For us that difference in this that 10year period is about a culture shift. I was saying earlier that this is not an accommodation. It is how we work. It enables our staff to work effectively. If you send an email that im working from home today, nobody bats an eye. That is normal. That change in culture is a change that more employers need to make so more employees can avoid those long commutes and still be effective in their jobs. That is what is most important. It is the result of the work, not where it gets done and what hours of the day. I think it depends o certainly there are those who an do their job from home. You cant be with google and say, if you have a sick kid and if it is easier for you to work from home today if, youre not feeling well, it is not uncommon for anybody throughout google and throughout the world to work from home. For some people, technology, the women that you talked about, that is never going to be an option for them. Never. They have to go to their jobs. It is kind of two separate conversation jouse to have in terms of accepting those employees who have that flexibility to embrace the work from home so they can have that 360 experience which makes them better employees and still have the conversation about the fact that there are going to be a significant amount of people wholl never have that opportunity because of the jobs they perform. I think that is why these structural changes are so necessary. You cant negotiate your way out of that problem. There is not something you can do to fix it. If youre not protecting the flows the federal governments perspective with basic structural protections, youre undermining a large number of our workforce, their families and our economy. I think that is why this conversation has to be so youre not just you cant just have one part of the economy. You want to have the whole part of the economy and you want to tap into the potential of all of our future workforce. Absolutely. I think all of that is true and just wanted to lift up a constituency that is affected and a growing number of people that fall in the sandwich generation. The generation of people caring for both children and elders. Both ends of the generational spectrum and there is a tremendous amount of pressure on the 10 million americans who are in that position and a ton of responsibility and very little support. So i think Workplace Flexibility and the ability to work from home does actually really upport them. Thank you very much, all of you. I have found this conversation particularly educational because im coming to this from more of a Foreign Affairs background. So my question is this. How can we ensure that the policies that the u. S. Promotes overseas with respect to gender quality as well as the policies that we pursue here can be mutually reinforcing so that we improve womens situation in the workplace regardless of where they live . Dehas a a company like great opportunity for being a role model. What is your experience there . We take our which includes all the programs that you described. Includes flexibility. There is not a single solution to the challenge. You got to have a broad array of things you do in terms of how people work and where they work and how they are compensated and then extend it globally, but you to be sensitive to the fact if you push too hard in what i call an american view, you might wind up putting back in time what youre trying to achieve. You have to be a little bit more subtle when you go globally with this to really advance it. We have the same standards around the world. It is a single standard and we definitely believe we should be the pioneer. As an example in our global board room, all the women on that board come from the United States. We intentionally put people from the United States on that board while the other countries catch up. We have worked really closely with the department of labor, who work internationally through their International Labor Affairs Bureau at the i. L. O. The International Labor Organization Recently enacted the first Global Standards to protect the rights of Domestic Workers and the department of labor was very much involved in promoting a strong global standard, and so we were able to work closely with them to really imagine what it would look like to have stronger standards here and more protections here. Im proud to say just last week, the department of labor released a regulatory change that would bring 2 million caregivers and home care workers under minimum wage overtime protection who have been excluded for 75 years. So we are definitely making progress and that is one area where i think there has been an attempt to bring some really strong values globally as well as here in this country and we still have much more to do. We see the same thing at catalyst in terms of some of our global members. Corporations headquartered here in the United States, for example, who have significant operations around the world and want to bring the values and practices around, thed a vantsment of women to their workforces in other countries. For example, we recently incorporated in india where our members are looking to us to say how do we bring the best of what we have learned in our u. S. Workplaces to workplaces around the world . And i do think that cultural sensitivity that we heard about is important in ensuring that youre reflecting local culture and the question of asking employees becomes really important. I met one Business Leader in india who was talking about a model that had really come from more of a western perspective that said we want to encourage you to work from home. Back to that question. He said, you know, my apartment is really small and there is no airconditioning. I dont want to work at home. I want to go to the office. And he said if they had asked us what flexibility meant to us and what we were looking for, we would have had a very different answer than work from home. Again, those points around reflecting local culture and asking employees what is really important for them become critical as well as you look around the world. My name is michelle. Im from the womens bureau of the department of labor. Thank you everyone for your words. I had a question. So we talk about policies of leave flexibility, child care, and of course we recognize that is primarily a womens issue because the culture expects women to be the primary caregivers, but my question to you is are there any policies or businesses that advance that men also take advantage of these policies . Because really given all of this, i think it is only half of a solution. The other half is that men also share home responsibilities. So im wondering if there are any specific policies that address that . I just want to briefly say all of the issues that were raising are gender neutral. Primary caregivers can be male or female. You may have Single Parents who are male or female. Equal pay is unique to women because they are being paid less. Paid family medical leave. When i had the opportunity to write my own policy, i made it gender neutral. That the primary gary give, male or female, can take three months and the secondary caregiver can take six or eight weeks. From business perspective if you start this a while back, it start as a Womens Initiative and moved to an inclusion. All of our programs are available to all of the population. When it comes to caregivers, obviously the mother gets more time than the secondary caregiver or whoever is the stay at home parent in that case, has the equal rights in the program. So everything nice a much broader objective than gender. The pay issue is as appropriate to minorities as it is to women and women of color in particular. That tends to be pretty nuanced to those particular issues. If you have been in it for a while, you have to go beyond the Womens Initiative. That is an excellent point. It is the same at google. It is gender neutral in terms of all the things i just discussed, regardless if it comes to family medical leavings sick days, childrens sick days, day care, all of those things are assets that are given to you if you work at gooling regardless of your gender. All the Public Policy is promoted. It is all gender neutral. It is about people being able to ake time off or care for their child. It happens to women maybe more than men but the policies themselveses are gender neutral. Great question, though. John, i wanted to go back to some of the questions you raised in our answer. Do you think there is support from the Small Business community . Is there work we need to do in terms of the valueadded . The fact that you found employees are so grateful and so loyal as a result, i certainly mind the in my office when the me and women who have children in my office, they are so grateful for that time off and to not have to worry about their bills and to be able to be paid, they just they will come right back and they are incredibly valued. There is support. In the poll we just released and hour ago basically says that. Not only are over 2 3 of Small Businesses do they have some kind of policy, like 31, they support some kind of a public administered program and what was really interesting is that a plurality supported a program similar to what youre going to propose, 1 5 coming out of the paycheck of employer and employees. That was striking. Youre talking about a small payroll deduction. This is a level Playing Field issue. A Large Company like google or deloitte have the structure and infrastructure to have this. There is a program out there that they can plug into. It is a simple payroll deduction. They dont have to worry about h. R. Costs of administering it. Thats why i think youre seeing the level of support that were seeing in this poll. Could you talk a little bit about the response of preserving the question is can you talk about the importance of preserving pensions . It is absolutely vital. Obviously if you worked your whole life in order to have an earned benefit like a pension, youre counting on being able to retire at 65 or your retirement age. If that is somehow negotiated away or undermined, it is devastating and unfortunately that is what were finding from so many seniors that you talked to, they are worried that they wont get to retire. Their pension wont be enough. Even being on fixed income, even having social security, 50 of our seniors live in poverty today. It is very difficult. Pensions are important being able to retire and to have that earned benefit. That is one of the reasons why we want to make sure this medical leave act, it is something you bought into your whole life. Part of your pay package as something you have earned. Thats why we have to work so hard to protect them. I think preserving pensions is really just the beginning. When we think about the tremendous generational demographic shift were experiencing in this country where were experiencing an age wave where the boomers are starting to turn 65 at a rate of a person every eight seconds. 10,000 people per day. 4 Million People per year turn 65 in this country and people are living longer than ever because of advances in healthcare. Just needs in terms of longterm care, support and the home and all kinds of supports to be able to support this growing, aging population in this country, it is really going to reshape everything about the way that we live and work and play in this country and i think that is something we really have to account for in pensions and also caregiver tax credits and all kind of strategies to account for that. I would like each panelist to maybe give your parting words on where you want to leave the conversation, from life experience. Good advice. Joe . Absolutely. You know, when i was listening to your comments in the opening, you were essentially describing my mom. Because im a puerto rican kid from the south bronx. If anybody knows about the south bronx, it is the poorest demographic of any elected demographic today. My mom worked two jobs. So i was unsupervised, essentially. A latch key kid. I was unsupervised in those days. When we hear about this things you just described, what really matters in the end is an organization embraces the change. It is one thing to have a program, but if you look at the data about why women dont move up the leadership curve, they will tell you to a fault, yes, the programs are great, but the culture doesnt believe the program. And that is where you make the difference. You know, when we started this in the 1990s, like to say we believed that we believed. Yes. I will tell you after 20 years, were believers and i live that belief and not with standing, i travel the world, this country is still the envy of the world. Not withstanding all the issues we described. We just need to keep working to get this right. [applause] really good. Susan . What are your closing thoughts . I want to thank you for allowing us to be part of this discussion. I guess my parting thought really reflects yours in terms of being at a company that, you know, wants to do the good thing anyway, is a lot of the higher level individuals at google are women. Women who are mothers. So it is it has been part of the culture and it is new company so a lot of issues that we just talked about are reflected in a company that is only 15 years old because we are creating all of these attitudes. Youre not creating the attitudes the attitudes created the company. Let me put it that way. Were blessed to work at a place that gets it. To your point, it not only gets it. It is the attitude. They measure it. They measure it almost every day and they measure it continuously. When you see all the great things google is able to do for their employees, male or female, what the metrix shows us is it comes back to employees you dont have to retrain. They are loyal to the company. The company asked them what that needed in order to stay a part of that pane and it come of that company and it comes back to an plea needing to know their child is safe. We talked about day care. So many people have to deal with the fact that they are having an option that may not be the safest for their child. Having that uncertainty at a time when youre trying to do your job to the best of your ability, have that freedom of thought to know that your child and family is in a better place because that makes you a better worker. Google measures that all the time and it doesnt surprise anybody in that audience that the numbers come out on the upside. That it is just smart business. So thank you. [applause] john . Thank you. It is really phenomenal to hear the types of programs that deloitte and google have but Small Business is half of our economy. We need to make sure there are policies that dont require the kind of leadership that you see here. The infrastructure that can be impolicemened by your average hardworking Small Business owner. His or her own h. R. Person. The final 16th hour that they are working that day. That is why the proposal youre putting forth next week, senator, really does provide that kind of structure so that employees know there is some kind of benefit that they can latch on to if they need the take advantage of it and the company doesnt have to spend time or cost worrying about it. It is important for everything we do, particularly on this issue, that it be something that can be implemented by Small Businesses as well as big business. Thanks for having this voice on the panel. [applause] your thoughts, deborah . A couple of things. The common message youre hearing here is this issue isnt about women. This is about talent and business and driving our economy forward. It is the unrealized potential that were losing out when women are not earning what they deserve and are not given the opportunity to work and contribute to their full potential. That is what is at the core of our work and at the core of what youre proposeing with this nirtive. I congratulate you on that. The key is for organizations to make the transition from the compliance with these kinds of legislative initiatives to the commitment that will lead to the cultural change that were hearing about, because without that cultural change, women will continue to face challenges in their workplaces and in advancing into those important positions of leadership where they can then in turn influence the policies. [applause] i think part of what were facing here is the reality that in this country, we have never fully accounted for the work and the energy that goes into caring for families. And the fact that were undergoing all of these changes in the American Workplace actually offer a tremendous opportunity for a bold change in that orientation so that were actually accounting for in a wholly different way this work and it will release all of this energy in the economy and in the workplace in a way that really does support opportunity for everyone. Thank you. [applause] thank you all. It has been an Incredible Opportunity to have this conversation. Were all going to stand up here if you want to get us for oneonones. Thank you. Thank you. Had the e. R. A. Passed, it would have nullified dozens of our laws limiting womens rights. They would no longer be subject to wage discrimination, that even persists even today. And symbolically, women would have been recognized, and this is even more important, i think, both as mothers as well as as workers. And the biggest irony of this story is that it was a well organized articulate campaign of activist women who engineered the defeat of the e. R. A. The backlash against the Womens Liberation Movement and equal rights amendment sunday at 1 00 eastern on cspan 3s American History tv. Following a weeks worth of debate on the continuing resolution that would temporarily fund the federal government and remove money from the healthcare law, republican leader Mitch Mcconnell and democratic leader harry reid spoke on the floor before the senate voted. Their comments run about 20 minutes. Following the comments, the hamber voted both remove the language defunding the healthcare law and to shorten the length of the continuing resolution to november 15. Im not sure if you have a fax machine at home. Not Many Americans do anymore. Neither do a lot of Small Businesses. So it seems a bit odd to tell Small Businesses they need to fax in enrollment forms for obama care. That is just what the Obama Administration is now doing. I might paraphrase the president. The 1980s called and they want their Health Policy back. To be fair, snail mail is also an option. It looks like the president s people will try to have the issue fixed soon, despite passing the law more than three years ago. Then again, this is the same president who told us that obama care is working the way it is supposed to, president obama aid. Nose who already have Health Care Wont see many changes under this law. The same guy who promised us his healthcare ideas would make american premiums lower and that they would be able to keep the plans they liked. So forgive me for being a little bit skeptical, given how these other rosy scenarios have played out. I am not the only skeptic out there. Just ask the folks who have already gotten laid off or seen their hours cut. Ask the graduate who cant find anything but parttime work. Ask the twentysomething who is going to lose her Employer Health plan and pay more over in the exchanges. The reality simply does not match up with the rhetoric, that includes the president s remarks yesterday over in maryland. He said there is no widespread evidence that obama care is hurting jobs. That is actually what he said. No widespread evidence. We all know the president was hanging around with bill clinton the other day, what we didnt know was that he was getting pointers on syntax. It makes you wonder, what would constitute widespread evidence of job loss in this president s mind . Just yesterday his press secretary dismissed reports of a company dropping Health Insurance for 55,000 employees as, just an anecdote, maybe thats how things look from the south lawn. It looks a lot different if you have just lost her Health Care Plan that you liked and you wanted to keep. As senator moynihan used to tell us, data is the plural of anecdote. Data is the plural of anecdote. There are just too many stories about the impact of obamacare, far too many to be discussed with the wave of a hand. Ironically, the same day the president was painting more rosy scenarios in maryland, the administration announced yet another delay in this laws implementation. All the follows the revelation of yet more exchange problems. This time with an exchange here in d. C. You might take anyone of the problems, explain it away, say doesnt matter, say it is an anecdote, but what we are here is a constant drip drip. Paired with the effects of seeing whats happening to our jobs and our healthcare and the economy. It all adds up to just one thing. A law in trouble. A law that needs to be repealed. That is the goal of every member of the republican conference here in the senate that is united on the need to repeal obama care. We want to replace it with sensible bipartisan reforms that will actually work and in a few minutes, each and every one of us will vote against funding obamacare. The American People want this law repealed. Republicans want it repealed. I would not be heard surprised if a number of our democratic colleagues secretly want it repealed as well. The problem here is that we cant get that done unless some of our friends on the other side are prepared to step up and work with us on the issue because there are 54 of them in 46 of us. This doesnt mean that we will give up the fight if they dont, we wont. There are a lot of other things we can do in the meantime. We can follow the administrations lead and offer an obamacare delay for the American People. He administration seems to thinks deserve a break from obamacare. Doesnt the middleclass deserve the same treatment . Republicans think so. I think we might be able to convince enough democrats to join us on that. To help us provide fairness, airness to the middle class. Yesterday one democratic senator already signaled his willingness to delay some of the worst aspects of the law as well. He called a delay for the American People very reasonable and sensible. He posed a question, dont you think that would be fair . The answer is yes that would be fair. That is a question for our democratic colleagues to respond to. Many of whom know how badly this law is hurting their constituents. Isnt that just the fair thing to do . Of course it is. Im calling on Democratic Senators to put the middle class ahead of the president s pride and call for a delay for everyone. We have filed legislation to do just that. A bipartisan majority of the house already supports it. Ets Work Together to actually do it. Then once we get that done, lets keep working to get rid of this law and replace it with real reforms, not with ideas from the 1980s, but with common sense, stepbystep reforms that will actually lower the cost for the American People and spare them from this terrible law. Mr. President , i yield the floor. Under the previous order, the time until 1230 is reserved for the two leaders for the final 10 minutes reserved for the majority leader. During my time in washington, i have had the opportunity to work with many reasonable and thoughtful republicans, including those serving in this body today. Those Reasonable Republicans in this institution, the United State Senate and respect the government, which it supports. But today, the Republican Party has been infected by a small and destructive faction that would rather tear down the house and govern from it. These extremists are more interested in putting on a show, as one republican colleague put it urks than in legislating. That is why they have presented the senate from taking action to avert a Government Shutdown last night to put on a show today. That same vocal minority is determined to waste the dwindling hours before Government Shutdown. Ne day, basically. Every minute that passes rings is one minute closer to a shutdown, a shutdown that would shatter our economy. They continue to obstruct and delay. You see, mr. President , a bad day for government is a good day for the anarchists among us. Those who believe in no government. That is their belief. The modernday anarchists of the tea party believe in no government. They are backed by a very wealthy group of people who fund hem. It is important to note these tea party obstructionists dont represent mainstream republicans either in this body or mainstream republicans in our country. Unfortunately, their grip on the rudder of the Republican Party is firm. The last few years, these radicals in the house and senate have driven america from crisis to crisis. We lurch from crisis to crisis, leaving a trail of economic distraction behind. Now they have taken the United States government hostage and demanded an impossible answer. That democrats repeal the law of his land known as obamacare. The Affordable Care act has been the law of the land for four years. The United States Supreme Court has declared it onstitutional. Soon it will help 25 million to 35 Million People in america who are currently living without Health Insurance. It will allow them to get access to the lifegiving care they need and deserve. Mr. President , i dont know if people really know what it means to not have Health Insurance. Not have the ability to go to the doctor and the hospital when youre sick or hurt. Some of us do, mr. President. Some of us understand how tens of millions of people in america cannot go to the hospital when they are sick or when they are urt. Mr. President , i was a boy, about 10 or 11 years old. I was so sick. I can remember how sick i was. I had been sick for quite a long time. The little house we lived in. But you see, we didnt have doctors. There were no doctors for 50 miles. We had no car. I was really sick. We didnt go to doctors. But it was obvious that i was eally ill. So one of my older brothers came to visit and he was with a riend. That friend of my brother, don, agreed to take me to the hospital. So i went to the hospital and i still have the scar, mr. President. I had a growth on my large intestine. I would have died had i not gone to the hospital. I know what it is like to not go to the hospital when youre ick. My wonderful mother, who took in wash, we had a nothing much there. Nce i remember a tv wagon came through, which was a truck that would do xrays of somebodys just to find out if they had tuberculosis. It was still around. My dad wouldnt go and my mother went and had her chest x ray. Mr. President , the results came back in a little card in the mail. He had tuberculosis. What did we do . What did she do . Nothing. Nothing. As a boy caring about my mother, i worried so much about hat. I cant imagine even to this day ow she must have felt. In hindsight, it looks like it as a false positive. But that doesnt take away the concern that i had for a long time. I cant imagine, i repeat how my mother must have felt. I have had some view of what it is like not to be able to go to the doctor or hospital when you re sick or hurt. Mr. President , again, our member my little brother coming along on his bicycle he fell off and slid and was hurt. He was crying. I guess he was 10 years old and no one was home. I helped him get to the house and laid down. I went and found my mother. My brother never went to the doctor and had a broken leg. He still has the bent leg today. He laid on that bed. You couldnt touch the bed it urt so much. He laid there until he could get up and walk about 10 days later. Hese people who just nonchalantly dont focus on the fact that millions of americans have no Health Insurance. We cant just walk away from his. The healthcare law that we have, r. President is important. Republicans fought long and hard in opposition to obamacare. Mr. President , they lost. It was a fair fight. They made their case against obama directly to the American People in november last year and they lost again. Obama won not by a small margin, he won by 5 million votes. What was the main issue in that ampaign . It was healthcare. The American People overwhelmingly reelected the president. One reason they did is because of healthcare. Yesterday on this floor, right over there, a colleague of ours, a senior senator from arizona, john mccain spoke of elegance about this law. Law he opposes. This is what he said, the people spoke. They spoke much to my dismay, but they spoke and reelected the president of the United States. That doesnt mean that we give up our efforts to try to replace and repeal obamacare, but elections have consequences. The majority of the American People supported the president of the United States and renewed his stewardship of this country. I dont like it, but all of us should respect the outcome of elections which reflect the will of the people. Who said this again . Who said this . Who is this john mccain . He is a proven fighter in war and in public service. This is a man who held the mantle of the Republican Partys nomination to be president of the United States. Y, but an american patriot. The history books will talk about that in generations to come. The republicans heard his message, for which the senate and the country should be grateful. O mr. President , the challenge end fall,ing in on the of the fiscal year, those of us who respect the system of government devised by americas founders, those of us who believe in the rule of law and that elections reflect the will of the people will face a test. Can we prevent an economically disastrous Government Shutdown and can we protect the full faith and credit of the United States . Mr. President , one newspaper, not lots of newspapers but one newspaper, look at the headlines. Gop hardliners blocked a strategy to avoid shutdown. Government shutdown would entail costs. Risk for employees even kept on the job. One newspaper. Another headline. Is it any wonder the stock arket is going down . A shutdown would be a failure. It would be irresponsible. Disappointment. Another headline. Surrounding jurisdiction. Threat of shutdown delays some colorado flood leaf. Is it any wonder the stock market is going down . Is it any wonder that people are concerned . Is it any wonder that someone like the woman who works at the parks said to me that i have een through this before . Im not going to get paid for my work. So the question is can we overcome modern day anarchists . So in just a few minutes, the senate will take the First Step Towards wrestling control from hese extremists. Democrats are votes to avert a Government Shutdown. Together we will send a message to radical republicans that we will not allow the law of the land to be used as a hostage, a law that has been in place for four years. I am pleased that so many of my Senate Republican colleagues seem to understand the stakes of this debate. The Economic Health of the still struggling nation and economic wellbeing of still struggling families. I urged sensible republicans and house of representatives to follow our lead, to follow the lead of republicans over here. Let the House Democrats vote, dont just make it a majority, let the 435 members that serve in the house of representatives vote, pass a clean bill to avert a shutdown. Defy the anarchists, respect the rule of law and help the senate govern. The comments left for senator mcconnell and may be given back and that we begin the vote. They spoke to reporters for about half an hour. I look forward to seeing you this weekend. No one is laughing, ok. Lets start. Xavier becerra, chairman of the democratic caucus. We held a pretty extensive caucus this friday afternoon, even though republicans have completed voting for the week. We do not have a budget in place for our government