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Trade, Jobs, & the Economy
Trade, Jobs, & the Economy
Plant closings and job losses are too common in our state. I know what these losses add up to in the small towns of North Carolina -- they add up to double-digit unemployment and people unable to find work after a year or more.
This Administration has done a woeful job of standing up for American workers. Free trade means nothing if it is not fair trade.
North Carolina producers need more open markets for their products, and we need to ensure our competitiveness by leveling the international playing field on trade to create long-term stability and economic growth. I am committed to fighting for American workers and manufacturers and to creating jobs and growth. I will continue to vote against any trade proposal that is unfair to North Carolina workers, and will standby our companies when they are struggling.
Over the past few years, small businesses have lost out on opportunities when contracts intended for them were awarded to large corporations. Though the federal marketplace continues to grow at record rates, small businesses’ contracting opportunities are dwindling. For the past six years, the federal government has failed to meet its 23 percent contracting goal – costing small businesses nearly $4.5 billion in lost contracting opportunity last year alone. Small firms also face challenges as the government continues to combine work into contracts that are too large for entrepreneurs to bid on, making the work less accessible to small businesses. These factors have all resulted in lost contracting opportunities for this nation’s small firms.
Last year, I voted to pass H.R. 1873, the Small Business Fairness in Contracting Act. This legislation is an important step in putting small businesses on a level playing field with big corporations by increasing their access to federal contracts. Small businesses make up nearly 99.7 percent of companies, yet they continue to face numerous challenges that prevent them from receiving their fair share of the $340 billion dollar federal marketplace. In addition to increasing small business access to federal contracts, this legislation would:
- Make “contract bundling”—the practice of grouping small government contracts together and awarding them as one large contract—more difficult by forcing government agencies to justify why they have bundled contracts in the first place
- Require the Small Business Administration to reach out to small businesses regarding opportunities for earning government contracts
- Raise the federal small business government-wide contracting goal from 23 to 30 percent, and includes new provisions to fight fraud in the contracting process
- Expand contracting opportunities for small businesses by opening up opportunities overseas and increasing enforcement on subcontracting goals
- Require the Small Business Administration to keep small businesses informed about the opportunities to compete for government contracts
- Mandate stricter oversight of government agencies to ensure that these agencies are making progress toward awarding contracts to small businesses
Last July I voted to raise the federal minimum wage by $2.10. The increase, which be will be completely phased in by 2010, is the first minimum wage increase almost 10 years. This increase is long overdue. The minimum wage, which until this year was only $5.10 and is currently only $5.85, is simply not enough to cover the needs of the average family as they struggle with increasing costs of child care, education, health insurance, and gasoline prices. The value of the minimum wage has dropped to its lowest level in over half a century.
Raising the minimum wage will mean a $4,400 yearly pay raise—money that could pay for 15 months of groceries, or more than two years of health care. It could buy 19 months of utilities, 20 months of child care, or 30 months of college tuition at a public, 2-year college.Over the next two years, as the legislation takes effect, the minimum wage will increase from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 per hour. Thanks to this increase, by 2010 a family of four will move from 11 percent below the poverty line to 5 percent above the poverty line. Nearly 13 million people will benefit from the increase.
We are facing tough economic times and I fear that times are only going to get tougher. We will not fix the economy by pretending we don’t have a problem, and need to take immediate action in order to break the cycle of job loss leading to reduced consumer spending, leading to more job loss, and on and on. I voted in favor of this bill. I do not believe it will work magic, but I believe it will help.