PROTECTING MISSOURI AUTOWORKERS IN THE PRO-JOBS SENATE By U.S. Senator Jim Talent I have said I want this Congress to be the pro-jobs, pro-growth, pro-production Congress. We are living up to this challenge in the U.S. Senate. One of the things we did this year was pass substantial tax relief for Missouri's workers and small businesses as part of President Bush's jobs and growth package. I was pleased to support the tax cut and I said on the day we passed it that it was just one of the things we needed to do to create jobs and stimulate economic growth in Missouri and around the country, especially in the manufacturing sector. Many Missouri autoworkers will be receiving tax relief as part of the jobs and growth package. But if you talk to these workers they will tell you that what they are most concerned about is losing their jobs. Missouri has six production facilities that make vehicles. Among them is the Ford Kansas City plant, located in Claycomo, which produces the Ford F-Series pickups and the Ford Escape and Ford's St. Louis Assembly Plant that produces the Ford Explorer and Mercury Mountaineer SUVs. There are 36,000 jobs in Missouri directly dependent on auto manufacturing and 220,000 jobs indirectly dependent on auto manufacturing. I recently visited the Ford assembly plant in Kansas City where they make the new Ford 150 truck. It is a triumph of American engineering and a tribute to the productivity of our workers. The workers there are proud of that truck, and they should be. It means that many people will be able to drive in this country safely and in comfort. Moreover, it means jobs for Missourians. Last week, a group of us in the Senate took on the environmental extremists and the liberals in the Senate who wanted to gamble with Missouri's auto manufacturing jobs. At issue was a proposal offered by Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and supported by Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) to require an immediate and substantial increase in the federal Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) standards for cars, trucks and SUVs. CAFE is the average fuel economy of vehicles sold by an auto manufacturer in one model year. Currently, there are 30 vehicles in showrooms around the country that get over 30 miles to the gallon, but guess what, consumers do not want them. In fact, these fuel-efficient vehicles represent less than 2 percent of American auto sales. Sales are low not because those purchasing a vehicle want to hurt the environment - they are low because in buying decisions, consumers consistently favor safety, utility, performance and other characteristics over fuel economy, even if it means spending more of the family budget each month on gasoline. Additionally, higher standards hurt the environment. The National Academy of Science says CAFE increases could add $3,000 per vehicle. By adding to the cost of new cars, CAFE discourages owners of older cars that from buying newer, cleaner cars. This extends the operating life of older cars, which results in more - not less - air pollution. Moreover, higher vehicle prices could reduce sales of new cars and light trucks by 575,000 units per year between 2005 and 2010. Decreased sales would mean thousands of autoworkers in Missouri and around the country would be laid off. There are also safety concerns associated with CAFE. The standard is responsible for an estimated 2,000 deaths and 20,000 injuries per year, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Occupant death rates are higher in smaller, lighter vehicles because they have less structure, mass and size to absorb crash energy. As the Senate debated CAFE, the Sierra Club launched a campaign attacking a General Motors sport utility vehicle while other extremists insisted that auto manufacturers should just manufacture vehicles that are more fuel-efficient even though the engineers, manufacturers and unions who actually produce the cars say it cannot be done and in spite of the fact that few Missourians are buying hybrid and electric cars. I spoke against CAFE on the Senate floor and I said in that speech that Congress has a responsibility to protect the jobs of our autoworkers. It is bad enough when we try and do things in Washington to help people get jobs and help preserve their jobs and those efforts fail because of extreme philosophies or partisanship. But it is worse when there are attempts in the Congress to actually take their jobs away from them. The workers in Missouri and around the country ought to be able to expect that the government is going to try and help them get jobs and preserve jobs. At minimum we ought not to pass things that take those jobs away from them. I joined other senators in voting against the CAFE increase and in support of an amendment offered by Senator Kit Bond to instruct the U.S. Department of Transportation to consider job losses, highway safety and economic security before making any changes to CAFE. This common sense amendment lets the experts determine how we can best address fuel efficiency standards without crippling our economy. In a victory for Missouri jobs, we approved Sen. Bond's amendment by a 66-30 vote. While we sustain and create jobs we also need to protect the environment. Over the years we have continued to develop environmentally-sensitive technologies to improve our air quality. Since the early 1970s, new vehicles have continued to become more fuel-efficient. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), fuel efficiency has increased steadily at nearly 2 percent per year on average from 1975 to 2001 for both cars and trucks. We should continue to support fuel efficiency advances and work to apply environmentally-sensitive technologies to our industries. But the government should also be conscientious not to endorse radical changes that will hurt jobs and the economy, especially in Missouri where we lost 77,000 jobs last year. In defeating this extreme CAFE standard increase, the U.S. Senate demonstrated its support for American autoworkers as well as its commitment to a pro-jobs, pro-growth agenda that will help create and sustain jobs around the country.