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Issues

Highlights of Senator Boxer's Record on Jobs and the Economy

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Senator Barbara Boxer has a specific plan to create jobs and turn our economy around.   Her plan includes: creating thousands of clean energy jobs and making California the hub of the clean energy economy; ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas; cracking down on Wall Street speculation and instead lending to small businesses; investing in infrastructure and creating new jobs; and reducing the deficit.  Below are highlights of Senator Boxer’s record on these issues.  

Making California the hub of the clean energy economy

  • Senators Boxer and Kerry wrote a Clean Energy bill designed to create over a hundred thousand new clean energy jobs in California.  Boxer’s legislation will reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil, address global warming and create millions of clean energy jobs nationwide.
  • Senator Boxer was a strong supporter of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which included more than $80 billion in clean energy investments to jump-start the economy and create clean energy jobs.  The stimulus provided the largest single investment in clean energy in U.S. history.
  • Senator Boxer successfully advocated for $17.5 million from the Obama Administration to advance new clean-energy technologies in California transit systems.
  • Senator Boxer wrote a letter to Energy Secretary Bodman in 2008 asking him to start awarding loan guarantees under the Department of Energy’s program to provide financing for renewable energy systems that generate electricity or thermal energy in the U.S.  Senator Boxer continued her effort and called Energy Secretary Chu in 2009 asking that he begin to approve applications for this program.  The California company Solyndra was conditionally awarded the first guarantee in 2009.
  • Senator Boxer supported an amendment to the Foreclosure Prevention Act, which would have provided incentives for companies and individuals to develop alternative and renewable energy technologies. 

 Supporting American manufacturing and infrastructure

  • Senator Boxer advocated that President Obama fund California’s bid for high-speed rail with funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  President Obama designated $2.3 billion from the stimulus to help build an 800-mile-long, high-speed rail line tying Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles and San Diego.  The entire project is expected to create 600,000 jobs.
  • Senator Boxer consistently worked to provide funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program, which continues to help American manufacturing companies remain competitive and keep jobs in the United States. In 2010, Senator Boxer signed a letter requesting $129.8 million in funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership.
  • Senator Boxer helped secure a total of over $67 million in funds to support the continued deepening of the federal channels of the Oakland Harbor to accommodate the newest generation of deep-craft container ships.  The Port of Oakland anticipates that the dredging project will help create 8,800 California jobs.
  • Senator Boxer helped secure a total of over $370 million for the BART to San Francisco Airport light rail extension project.  The funding established an 8.7 mile, four-station rapid rail transit extension of the 95-mile BART system.  BART estimated that the project would create between 50,000 and 70,000 jobs during the construction period.
  • As chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, Senator Boxer helped craft the transportation provisions in the HIRE Act, which are expected to preserve over 1 million industry jobs. Senator Boxer voted for the HIRE Act, legislation that invested in transportation and extended authorizations for highway and transit programs.
  • In 2009, General Motors and Toyota announced that they would stop purchasing vehicles manufactured at the NUMMI facility in California.  Senator Boxer wrote to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis urging her to approve California’s request for Trade Adjustment Assistance for NUMMI, which employed 4,700 Bay Area  workers.  Thanks to Senator Boxer’s efforts, the Department of Labor approved the request and NUMMI workers can now apply for job training, job search and relocation assistance and tax credits to cover health insurance costs.
  • In May 2009, Senator Boxer asked Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar for assistance with drought relief measures to help California’s agriculture community.  Two months later, Secretary Salazar announced the allocation of $40 million from Recovery Act funds for California.  Funding was used for projects such as well enhancement and rehabilitation to increase the availability of water for irrigation.
  • Senator Boxer has led the fight in the Senate for continued production of C-17 aircraft, which she believes is critical to our national security.  Senator Boxer helped secure $2.2 billion in the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for the purchase of 8 additional C-17 aircraft.  Production of the C-17 supports 5,000 jobs at Boeing's Long Beach plant.

Ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas

  • Senator Boxer sponsored an amendment that would have ended tax subsidies to U.S. companies for employers that shipped production overseas.
  • The JOBS Tax Bill, signed into law in October 2004, included a provision long supported by Senator Boxer to help stop film and television production from leaving California and the United States.  The provision provided a tax benefit for film and television productions in which at least 75 percent of wages are paid for work done in the U.S.
  • Senator Boxer successfully led an effort to pass bipartisan legislation, encouraging American companies to bring overseas profits back to the United States.  Senator Boxer helped craft a bill that reduced the corporate tax rate on earnings by foreign subsidiaries if the funds were reinvested in America.

Providing incentives to businesses that hire local workers

  • Senator Barbara Boxer supported and voted for the HIRE Act, a bill that will create jobs by investing in transportation and providing tax credits to small businesses that hire more workers. The HIRE Act offers an exemption from social security payroll taxes for every worker hired that has been unemployed for at least 60 days.  There would also be an additional $1,000 income tax credit for every new employee retained for 52 weeks to be taken on the employer’s 2011 income tax return.
  • Senator Boxer requested from the Obama Administration and National Economic Council Director Larry Summer increased funding for Economic Development Agency (EDA) grants that would spur job creation in economically distressed areas.  Senator Boxer introduced a bill to reauthorize the EDA and expects the bill to pass the Senate in 2010.
  • Senator Boxer wrote an amendment that would have set aside $24 billion for a jobs reserve fund to improve the economy and create jobs.  In addition, the amendment would have established a manufacturing jobs tax credit for companies that created jobs in the U.S. and would have provided a tax credit to small businesses to pay for health insurance for employees.

Cutting taxes for the middle class

  • Senator Boxer strongly supported the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act., which contained $288 billion in tax cuts and credits, and gave 98% of American working families and individuals a tax cut.  The Wall Street Journal concluded that the stimulus bill was the largest tax cut in history.
  • Senator Boxer voted over 130 times for smart tax cuts for working class families who need relief.
     
  • Senator Boxer voted for 31 bills that redistributed the Bush Tax Cuts to benefit middle class families instead of benefiting only the wealthiest Americans.
  • Senator Boxer voted for a bill that provided over 60 tax relief extensions.  The legislation extended tax cuts to support research and development, tax relief to help families afford college tuition and tax incentives to encourage business to invest in low-income communities.
  • Senator Boxer authored legislation to increase the federal child care tax credit.  President Obama proposed a similar initiative that would double the federal child care tax credit for families earning less than $85,000 and increase the credit for all families earning less than $115,000.

Increasing loans to small businesses

  • Senator Boxer proposed legislation that assisted community banks in extending credit to small businesses and individuals to spur job growth.  Senator Boxer’s proposal provided capital to community banks with requirements that they lend to small business owners and individuals
  • Senator Boxer cosponsored legislation that would increase the maximum size of various Small Business Administration loans, ensuring that more small business owners can access lending programs.
  • Senator Boxer strongly supported the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that supplied loans for small businesses.  The Recovery Act has provided 4,712 small business loans to Californians worth $2.2 billion in lending authority.  Senator Boxer held a Recovery Act hearing in Oakland to examine small business participation in grant programs, and her staff hosted two Recovery Act grant workshops for small businesses.
  • Senator Boxer authored a bill that provided immediate tax relief to the millions of home-based small business owners by establishing a standard home office deduction option of $1,500.
  • Senator Boxer cosponsored legislation that would have increased the small business start-up expenses deduction and would have increased the threshold for the deduction phase-out.  This legislation would have helped new entrepreneurs with startup administrative costs, hiring employees, and finding suitable facilities.

Reforming Wall Street by cracking down on financial speculation

  • Senator Boxer supports Wall Street reform legislation to hold Wall Street accountable and stop the reckless practices that brought our economy to the brink of collapse.  Her amendment to the bill passed 96-1 to ensure no taxpayer bailouts for Wall Street.
  • Senator Boxer championed a measure that would have instituted a one-time windfall tax on bonuses above $400,000 paid to executives of financial institutions that received $5 billion or more in taxpayer funds from the financial bailout.
  • Senator Boxer authored legislation ensuring that national banks would not be allowed to act as real estate brokers, which would compromise their lending decisions and create conflicts of interest.
  • Senator Boxer successfully passed an amendment requiring the Treasury to develop strict rules to prevent collusion and conflict of interest when the Treasury Department established its program to help banks sell of their toxic assets.
  • Senator Boxer cosponsored bipartisan legislation that would have promoted transparency and established strict accountability standards for firms receiving Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) funds. The legislation would have prohibited firms from using TARP funds for lobbying expenditures or political contributions and required firms receiving assistance to provide publically available quarterly reports outlining how funds were spent.
  • Senator Boxer successfully wrote and passed an amendment requiring that homeowners be alerted within 30 days if their lender sells or transfers their home mortgage loan.  This provision ensures that homeowners have the information they need to help them work with their lender to prevent falling into foreclosure.
  • Senator Boxer was one of eight Senators who voted against repealing the Glass-Steagall Act.  Senator Boxer’s vote was unsuccessful, and the repeal rewarded financial companies by ensuring that commercial banks, securities houses and insurers could easily and cheaply enter one another's businesses.  Repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act is now considered to have contributed to the financial crisis by encouraging reckless lending practices that led to the meltdown of the credit markets.  Boxer is now cosponsoring a bill to restore Glass-Steagall.