WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 – As the Senate prepared to take up President Barack Obama’s jobs package, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a Senate floor speech today that it’s time to put Americans back to work.

With real unemployment at more than 16 percent, Sanders called for the creation of millions of jobs by investing in much-need road and bridge repairs and other construction projects to repair the nation’s crumbling infrastructure and transform our energy system.

Sanders also said he was pleased that the Senate’s Democratic leadership adopted his idea to help pay for the jobs program with a surtax on millionaires.

“At a time when the wealthy are doing phenomenally well and their effective tax rate is the lowest in decades, it is appropriate to ask those people to help fund a major jobs program,” Sanders said.