Sen. Olympia J. Snowe is ranking member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

As I travel throughout Maine and listen to constituents, it is clear that with a housing market in crisis, a job market in decline, and energy prices surging, the economy is the primary domestic issue facing our nation. While these challenging times are compelling us to explore new approaches to reinvigorate the economy, my experience as Ranking Member and former Chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business Entrepreneurship has led me to conclude that we must not lose sight of the critical role that small businesses will undoubtedly play in a recovery. Moreover, National Small Business Week, which we celebrated last week, provides us with a tremendous opportunity to consider additional ways we can assist small businesses to hasten our return to prosperity.

When many Americans hear the word “business,” they conjure up images of corporate towers housing thousands of workers. Yet it is small enterprises, which represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms nationwide, that truly drives our economy and creates new opportunities. Consider that in December 2007, the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Office of Advocacy reported that small enterprises accounted for ALL of our nation’s net new jobs in 2004, the most recent year for which firm size data was available. In fact, while small firms gained a net 1.86 million new jobs in 2004, large firms with 500 or more employees actually experienced a net loss of 181,000 jobs. At a time when jobs are leaving and businesses are closing – can we really afford to not invest in our nation’s small businesses?

Regrettably, the answer, while obvious to any of the 232,000 people who have lost their jobs in the past three months, isn’t always evident to folks on Capitol Hill. That is why I have recently championed a number of measures that will help small businesses do what they do best — innovate and create jobs. Investing in our nation’s small businesses is a direct and responsible step we can take to reverse the current economic downturn that is creating numerous hardships for employers and workers throughout the country. Read the rest of this entry »

Sen. Mike Enzi is ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Today’s HELP Committee hearing, titled “When a Worker is Killed: Do OSHA Penalties Enhance Workplace Safety?” highlights the need for Congress to think outside the box to establish effective, innovative strategies to enhance workplace safety and prevent on-the-job injuries and fatalities.

Certainly, penalties are part of the equation, but no penalty can make up for the loss of a loved one. That’s why instead of talking just about punishments after injuries or fatalities occur, I wish we were holding a hearing on preventing fatalities, injuries, and even near-misses from occurring in the first place. More can be done and needs to be done so that no family has to deal with the loss of a loved one who has died on the job.

I plan to build on the provisions of the “Safety Advancement for Employees (SAFE) Act,” which I introduced during the last Congress. The SAFE Act would provide incentives to improve workplace safety. It included provisions to help the vast majority of employers working in good faith to achieve compliance with safety laws, while allowing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to target more effectively the few bad actors who willfully place their employees at risk. Read the rest of this entry »

Every day, millions of Americans go without health insurance. The majority of these individuals are small business employees and the self-employed. Without insurance, their lives and the lives of their families are at risk. Not only do they miss out on essential preventive health care, they could spend a lifetime in financial crisis, stuck with bills for emergency care or other long-term treatments.

In response to this problem, I have worked with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to introduce the Small Business Health Options Program Act of 2008, known as SHOP. It has broad support of groups across the political spectrum, including the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the National Association of Realtors, and the Service Employees International Union.

This legislation will help our small businesses – the backbone of our communities – offer health insurance to their employees, which boosts recruitment, retention, employee performance, and the overall success of the business. Most importantly, the bill will allow us to begin to address the needs of the millions of working uninsured Americans whose top priority is access to quality and affordable health care for their families.

April 27-May 3 is National Cover the Uninsured Week – a great time for all of us to begin looking for reasonable solutions to the small business health care crisis. Together, we can help working men and women across the nation sleep a little easier knowing their health care needs are covered.

Sen. Enzi is ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.

This evening, the Majority Leader is forcing a vote on legislation aimed at overturning the Supreme Court’s decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear which would effectively eliminate the statute of limitations on employment discrimination cases as guaranteed in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and make it much more difficult to resolve claims quickly and fairly.

Rather than moving this legislation by regular order, and through the Committee process, the Democrat leadership opted simply to spring this bill on the Senate in the hope of forcing a vote with little or no meaningful deliberation and no realistic opportunity to improve the bill. This action is a transparent attempt to score political points at the expense of responsible legislating.

The writers of the Civil Rights Act intentionally included a well-reasoned statute of limitations, but the Ledbetter bill would reverse that intent. A statute of limitations serves an important purpose, and that is fairness. The Fair Pay Restoration Act, on the other hand, isn’t really about fairness. By effectively eliminating the statute of limitations, it undermines the goal of resolving employment discrimination claims fairly, quickly, and based on sound evidence. Read the rest of this entry »

The Senate farm bill is a strong bill and should be the model for the final farm bill that will become law. It addressed myriad national priorities and looked ahead to the future by strengthening farm income and disaster protection and filling the gaps in nutrition assistance, investing in farm-based renewable energy, helping farmers and ranchers conserve our natural resources, and devoting substantial new funding to initiatives for growers of fruits, vegetables and horticultural crops.

On Friday, Senate farm bill conferees presented House conferees with a proposal for the farm bill that maintains the investments of the Senate-passed bill with strong farm income protection as well as investments in nutrition, conservation and renewable energy and a program to provide disaster assistance to farmers.

The framework sent to the House maintains the investments of the Senate-passed bill and thanks to the Senate Finance Committee, it is deficit neutral. Later today, all Senate and House conferees will meet to consider the proposal, so I urge House conferees to consider this framework and negotiate in good faith so that we can meet our April 18th deadline for the bill.

Details of the framework are available on the Senate Agriculture Committee web site.

Sen. Harkin is chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry and the Senate-House Conference on the Farm Bill.

Rep. Baca is chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

It was not long ago that laborers were being overworked and underpaid while
spending long days picking fruits and vegetables.  They did so in an
environment that was dangerous to their health, with no voice to help them.
There was no voice to call for basic human rights, basic labor protections, and
civil rights.

César Chávez would become that voice for them.

That is why I introduced H. Res. 76, a Congressional resolution calling on the President to create a national holiday honoring his life, and urging public schools to teach about his life and contributions.

Several Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) along with
Congressional Black Caucus Members and other Representatives went to the House floor to celebrate his life. Read the rest of this entry »

This morning, SEIU, on behalf of its 1.9 million members and working families across America, sent the following letter to Arizona Senator John McCain. Every presidential candidate, Democrat and Republican, was invited to participate in the “Walk A Day In My Shoes” program. This one-of-a-kind program gives candidates a chance to learn what life is like for workers today by spending time with SEIU members on the job and with their families. Senator McCain has refused to participate in this or any other opportunity to visit with America’s workers and get their input. Since he will not reach out to them, we will reach out to him. This is the first of a number of letters SEIU will send Senator McCain with ideas on how to help working people. More information is at available here.

The letter follows:

“Dear John,

“We understand that to win your party’s nomination you had to embrace the failed economic policies of President Bush. Now we challenge you to shake up your economic team and bring in advisors who can help you address our current crisis in a way that helps America’s working families. Read the rest of this entry »

Sen. Enzi is chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.

Today, I introduced the “Small Business Health Plans Act of 2008,” bipartisan legislation that would expand access to affordable health care by allowing small businesses and working families to pool together and negotiate the health insurance plans they need at prices they can afford.

We need to do something – anything – about our nation’s health care crisis.  Small businesses and working families are struggling to stay afloat amid rising health care costs, and it is past time for Congress to throw them a life preserver. Small business health plans are one step toward making sure that every American has access to affordable health coverage

Small business health plans (SBHPs) are a key part of my comprehensive health care reform bill, “10 Steps to Transform Health Care in America,” S. 1783, which builds on market-based solutions to ensure that every American has access to affordable, quality health care.  (For more information on S. 1783, please visit my website). Read the rest of this entry »

Sabul Vijayan and Daniel Castellanos, two former H-2B guest workers, traveled to Washington this week and told Congressional staff that the lack of safeguards in the program failed to protect them and many of those who worked along side them from unscrupulous employers and labor recruiters.

Vijayan and over 100 other guest workers from India recently filed a federal lawsuit alleging they were the victims of human trafficking at the Signal International shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi. These workers have said that they each paid up to $20,000 to a recruiter who made the false promise that the H-2B program included permanent residency.

Castellanos was recruited from his native Peru to work in the U.S. and claims he was promised a good wage to help rebuild New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Once he arrived in New Orleans, however, Castellanos said that the job that was promised to him didn’t exist. Instead, he said he was forced to work in a hotel earning a significantly lower wage for fewer hours a week – well below minimum wage when you consider the thousands of dollars of fees Castellanos owed to the recruiter who brought him to the U.S.

Sabul and Daniel’s experiences with the H-2B guest worker program are only two examples of the many abuses documented over the years by worker advocates. Unfortunately, countless other foreign workers with H-2B work permits are afraid to speak up about their conditions for fear that they will loose their job and be deported. Read the rest of this entry »

On March 22, 2008, Adolfo Gonzalez Montes, a Colombian coal miner and leader of the union SINTRACARBON, was assassinated in his home, leaving behind his wife and children. Adolfo Gonzalez Montes was the 13th unionist murdered in Colombia this year, putting Colombia on course to far exceed its rate of 40 trade unionists killed last year.

Since 1991, around 2,300 union leaders have been killed in Colombia — a country which continues to lead the world in the murder of trade unionists. It must be noted that 433 of these unionists have been killed since President Alvaro Uribe took office in 2002. Some of these, moreover, have been killed by the Colombian military itself. And, all were put at risk by the Uribe Administration, which continues to wrongly stigmatize trade unionists as “guerillas” and “terrorists.”

As the LA Times recently reported, the Colombian military’s share of extra-judicial killings has been on a steady increase recently, with the military responsible for the killing of 287 civilians last year alone — a 10% increase over the previous year. In total, the Colombian military has been responsible for over 955 extra-judicial killings since Alvaro Uribe was elected president in 2002. Read the rest of this entry »