Expanding Economic Opportunity S. 14

Democrats understand that the most effective means of increasing opportunity for our families is a high quality, good paying job.  We are committed to expanding economic opportunity to all Americans and investing in America to create the new jobs of the future. 

Ensure Fair Wages for America’s Workers.  This Administration has denied the availability of overtime wages to some of the workers who need it most.  This bill restores that availability to 6 million workers.  The existing minimum wage is no longer a livable wage.  S. 14 would increase the Federal minimum wage over the next two years.  Finally, the bill supports relief for multi-employer pension plans, which are used predominantly by small businesses to provide pension benefits to an estimated 9.7 million American workers.

End Tax Break for Companies Exporting Jobs.  The tax code allows companies that earn income in foreign countries to defer paying tax on these profits until they are brought back to the United States.  This quirk in the tax code provides a tax incentive for companies to move U.S. production facilities abroad, even if the eventual market for their products remains in the United States.  Democrats will eliminate this loophole by requiring companies to pay tax immediately on the profits they earn abroad, but only with respect to products that are imported back into the United States.  Companies that locate production facilities abroad for the purpose of serving those foreign markets would not be affected by this change. 

A Marshall Plan to Improve Traditional and High-Tech Infrastructure.  Across America thousands of infrastructure projects - from our smallest rural communities to our biggest cities - await the capital to move forward. Investing in our nation’s roadways and waterways would improve our quality of life and protect public health and safety. Equally important, it would create a huge boost for our economy - creating 47,000 well paying American jobs for each billion dollars in investment. America continues to fall behind our competitors in access to broadband internet service.  Most of the communities lacking service are in rural and economically-distressed areas of the country.  S. 14 expands broadband availability to these areas by allowing broadband service providers to immediately deduct one-half of the cost of their investment in equipment to provide current generation broadband access to rural and underserved areas. 

Strengthen and Restore American Innovative Strength through Commitment to Research, Science and Technology.  Research and development results in higher quality jobs, better and safer products and higher productivity among American businesses.  U.S. economic strength is dependent on its leadership in science and technology, and the U.S. is losing ground to foreign competitors.  The U.S. needs to re-commit itself to the value of public investment in research and development, which is being outpaced by investment in the private sector.  This bill makes permanent a tax credit for entities that increase their research activities and makes a credit available to consortia of entities that research collaboratively.  The bill also expresses support for legislation that will increase federally funded research at the National Science Foundation, the Office of Science at the Department of Energy, the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Science and Technology so we can better compete in the international economy, as well investment in math, science and technology programs at our secondary education institutions. 

Enforce Our Trade Agreements and Maintaining Level Playing Field.  Democrats are determined to pursue a trade policy that protects American workers and addresses our record trade deficit.  This bill requires the Administration to identify the most important export markets that remain closed to U.S. products and provides the tools needed to open them.  It also creates the office of Chief Enforcement Negotiator, whose sole responsibility will be to police our trading partners’ performance of their obligations.  This bill will force China to stop manipulating its currency and force China to choose between revaluing its currency to its market value or facing a tariff on all Chinese imports to the United States equal to the unfair trade advantage China currently enjoys. 

Retrain Workers Displaced by Trade.  Trade Adjustment Assistance has helped thousands of manufacturing workers get retraining, keep their health insurance, and make a new start.  This bill will expand TAA to cover service workers who lose their jobs to offshoring.  This bill will help rebuild communities hurt by outsourcing by integrating political and economic organizations and coordinating Federal, State, and local resources to develop a new plan and a new future for the people who live in them.  Unemployed workers learning new skills can not stick with their training if they do not have effective health coverage.  This bill allows them to complete their training by offering an effective health benefit.

Define a Ceiling for the U.S. Trade Deficit and Foreign Debt.    The United States is now the world’s largest debtor nation, and risks serious consequences if its trade deficits continue unabated.  While Congress has set a ceiling on the national debt, it has set no limit on the U.S. foreign debt, nor on the annual trade deficits that feed it.  S. 14 will change that.  Whenever the overall foreign debt reaches 25 percent of our GDP, or when the annual trade deficit reaches five percent of GDP, the Administration would be required to convene an emergency interagency meeting, and provide Congress with a trade deficit reduction plan to lower debt levels below the statutory ceiling.