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I don't deserve the credit. It wasn't my idea. But I happen to support it. We should support more of it. We are not even discussing education on the floor of the Senate. We are talking about H-1B visas to bring in more skilled employees from overseas. And we are not talking about educating and training our kids in the next generation to fill those jobs. We have lost it in this debate. Somehow we are consumed with things that other people think are much more important. I can't think of

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S8787]  GPO's PDF

   While we are talking about a better future, let me also address the 10 million Americans who got up to go to work and went to work this morning, and who go to work every single morning, not looking for a government check but for a paycheck at the end of the week where they are paid $5.15 an hour. That is the minimum wage in this country, and it has been stuck there for over 2 years. Why? Because this Congress refuses to give some of the hardest working people in America an increase in the minimum wage. These are people who get up and go to work every day, who are waiting on tables in the restaurants, and who make the beds in the hotels. They are the day-care workers to whom we entrust our children, they are people working in nursing homes watching our parents and grandparents, and we refuse to give them an increase in the minimum wage.

   For decades in this Capitol, this was not a partisan issue. From the time Franklin Roosevelt created the minimum wage until the election of Ronald Reagan, it was a bipartisan undertaking. We raise this wage periodically so people can keep up with the cost of living in this country. But, sadly, it has become a partisan issue.

   While we fight on the Democratic side to give 10 million Americans an increase in the minimum wage, we are resisted on the other side of the aisle. They don't want to see these increases. Sadly, it means that people who are struggling to get by with $10,000 or $11,000 a year--and, frankly, have to turn to the Government for food stamps and look to other sources and more jobs--many of those people are single parents raising their kids, working at jobs with limited pay and limited requirements for skills, trying to do their level best. We have refused time and time again to increase the minimum wage in this country. That is a sad commentary on this Congress.

   I also want to comment on the reality that we will be increasing congressional pay this year, as we have with some frequency, to reflect the cost-of-living adjustment. I think that is fair. But doesn't fairness require that we give the same consideration to people who are working for $5.15 an hour? I hope my colleagues, Senate Democrats and Republicans alike, will share my belief that this is something that absolutely needs to be done.

   Whether we are talking about health care or prescription drugs and fairness in paying people for what they work for, there is an agenda that has gone unfilled in this Congress. It is an agenda which has been ignored and about which the American people have a right to ask us to do something.

   I can tell you that as we talk about the future of this country and its economy, we are all applauding the fact that we have had the longest period of economic expansion in our history. We have had 22 million new jobs created during the Clinton-Gore administration. There is more home ownership than anytime in our history. There are more small businesses being created, particularly women-owned small businesses, across America. We have seen our welfare rolls going down. The incidence of violent crime is going down. We have seen an expansion of opportunity in this country that has been unparalleled. But if we sit back and want to rest on our accomplishments and our laurels, the American people have a right to throw all of us out of office. Our responsibility is to look ahead and say we can do better to improve this country and make it better for our children and grandchildren.

   This Congress has refused to look ahead. It has refused to say how we can expand health care so that over 40 million Americans without any health insurance will have a chance to get the basic quality health care on which all of us insist for ourselves and our family.

   This Congress has refused to address the prescription drug needs of families across America at a time of unparalleled prosperity in these United States.

   This Congress has refused to look to the need of education when we know full well that the benefits of our economy can only accrue to those who are prepared to use them and who are prepared to compete in a global economy.

   Yesterday, by an overwhelming vote, we voted for permanent normal trade relations with China. I voted for that. It was 83-15. It was a substantially bipartisan rollcall. We said that country, which represents one-fifth of the world's population, is a market we need. I hope when the President signs the bill we will begin to see an opening of that market for our farmers and our businesses. But we will only be as good in the global economy as we are in terms of the skill and education of America's workers.

   We know full well that there will always be some country in the world--if not China, some other country--that will pay a worker 5 cents an hour and they will take it. We also know that those workers have limited education and limited skills, perhaps doing a manual labor job. And those jobs are always going to be cheaper overseas; that is a fact of life.

   But if we are going to prosper in America from a global economy, we have to bring our workforce beyond manual labor, beyond basic skills, and that means investing in our people. It is important to have the very best technology, but it is even more important to have the very best skilled people working in the workplace. We happen to think if we are going to keep this economy moving forward, we need to make certain we don't do anything that is going to derail the economy.

   We have seen some suggestions--for example, Governor Bush and some of his Republican friends in the Senate who have suggested over a $1 trillion tax cut that they want to see over the next 10 years. They have suggested we change the Social Security system.

   The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time of the Senator has expired.

   Mr. DURBIN. I yield the floor.

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