[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5218 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5218

To promote the fulfillment of basic unmet needs and to protect certain 
basic economic rights of the people of the United States, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 6, 1994

   Mr. Dellums (for himself, Mr. Hinchey, Mr. Evans, Mr. Rangel, Mr. 
 Owens, Mr. Lewis of Georgia, Mr. Conyers, Ms. Norton, Ms. Velazquez, 
 Mr. Towns, Mr. Nadler, and Mr. Bonior) introduced the following bill; 
 which was referred jointly to the Committees on Education and Labor, 
    Foreign Affairs, Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, Government 
             Operations, Armed Services, and Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To promote the fulfillment of basic unmet needs and to protect certain 
basic economic rights of the people of the United States, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.

    (a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``A Living Wage, 
Jobs For All Act''.
    (b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents is as follows:

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Basic economic rights and responsibilities under the 1944 
                            ``Economic Bill of Rights''.
Sec. 3. Program to implement basic economic rights and 
                            responsibilities.
Sec. 4. Grants and incentives to States and local governments to 
                            encourage public works and public services 
                            planning.
Sec. 5. International economic policy to increase worldwide living 
                            standards.
Sec. 6. Establishment of conversion planning fund.
Sec. 7. Implementation.
Sec. 8. Authorization of appropriations.

SEC. 2. BASIC ECONOMIC RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES UNDER THE 1944 
              ``ECONOMIC BILL OF RIGHTS''.

    (a) In General.--The Congress affirms the responsibility of the 
Federal government to implement and, in accordance with current and 
foreseeable trends, update and extend, in accordance with subsection 
(b), the statement by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the State of 
the Union message of January 11, 1944: ``In our days these economic 
truths have become self-evident. We have accepted so to speak a second 
Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can 
be established for all--regardless of station, rank or creed. Among 
these are the following:
            ``(1) The right to a useful and remunerative job in the 
        industries or shops or farms or mines of the Nation.
            ``(2) The right to earn enough to provide for an adequate -
        living.
            ``(3) The right of every farmer to raise and sell farm 
        products at a return which will provide a decent family living.
            ``(4) The right of every business, large or small, to trade 
        in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and 
        domination by monopolies at home or abroad.
            ``(5) The right of every family to a decent home.
            ``(6) The right to adequate medical care and the 
        opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health.
            ``(7) The right to adequate protection from the economic 
        fears of old age, sickness, accident and unemployment.
            ``(8) The right to a good education.''.
    (b) Update and Extension of Bill of Rights.--In updating and 
extending the 1944 ``Economic Bill of Rights'' described in subsection 
(a), the following requirements should be met:
            (1) Every adult American able and willing to earn a living 
        through paid work has the right to a free choice among 
        opportunities for useful and productive paid employment (part- 
        or full-time) at decent real wages or for self- employment.
            (2) Every adult American unable to work for pay or find 
        employment has the right to an adequate standard of living that 
        rises with increases in the wealth and productivity of the 
        society.
    (c) Responsibility of Federal Government.--Each Federal agency and 
commission, including the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve 
System, has the responsibility to plan and carry out its policies, 
programs, projects, and budgets in a manner designed to help establish 
and maintain conditions under which all adult Americans may freely 
exercise the economic rights described in subsection (a). Each such 
Federal agency or commission shall not directly or indirectly promote 
recession, stagnation, or unemployment as a means of reducing wages and 
salaries or inflation.

SEC. 3. PROGRAM TO IMPLEMENT BASIC ECONOMIC RIGHTS AND 
              RESPONSIBILITIES.

    (a) Establishment of Program.--
            (1) In general.--The President shall establish a program to 
        implement the basic economic rights and responsibilities 
        described in section 2 in the United States for the purpose of 
        improving the quality of life in the United States by the year 
        2000 and the early years of the 21st Century.
            (2) Policies and projects under the program.--Such program 
        shall include policies and projects designed to--
                    (A) implement the economic and social obligations 
                under the Employment Act of 1946, the Full Employment 
                and Balanced Growth Act of 1978, the Charter of the 
                United Nations, the Charter of the Organization of 
                American States, the Universal Declaration of Human 
                Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and 
                Political Rights;
                    (B) provide quick action to enlarge employment 
                opportunities through reductions in real interest 
                rates, and implement programs of private and public 
                works and services to use the abilities of the jobless 
                in repairing and improving the Nation's infrastructure 
                of private industry, public facilities, and human 
                services, with special emphasis on the availability of 
                good and affordable education, health promotion 
                services, housing, child care, artistic cultural 
                activities, and basic as well as applied research and 
                development;
                    (C) provide quick action to begin staged reductions 
                in the length of the work year through longer paid 
                vacations, the elimination of compulsory overtime, 
                curbing excessive overtime through an increase in the 
                premium to triple time on all hours in excess of 40 in 
                any week, exempting administrative, executive, and 
                professional employees from the overtime premium only 
                if their salary levels are three times the annual value 
                of the minimum wage, reducing the average work week in 
                manufacturing and mining to no more than 35 hours 
                without any corresponding loss in weekly wages, and 
                voluntary work-sharing arrangements;
                    (D) vastly increase the opportunities for freely-
                chosen part-time employment, with social security and 
                health benefits, to meet the needs of older people, 
                students, the disabled, and people with housekeeping 
                and child care responsibilities;
                    (E) take such other steps as may be needed to cope 
                with the threats of increased joblessness caused by 
                technologies that replace people with robots and other 
                machines, including vastly improved opportunities for 
                up-to-date and effective education, training, or 
                retraining;
                    (F) prevent or control inflationary tendencies 
                through a full battery of standby policies, including 
                public controls over price fixing through monopolistic 
                practices or restraint of trade, the promotion of 
                competition and productivity, and wage-price policies 
                arrived at through tripartite business-labor-government 
                cooperation;
                    (G) provide improved Federal incentives for 
                investment, expansion, and increased employment by 
                small, medium, and large business enterprises, and by 
                such other private sector entities as labor unions, 
                professional associations, and nonprofit, voluntary and 
                cooperative organizations, including neighborhood, 
                tenant, home owner and self-help associations and 
                organizations of family farmers, women, minorities, and 
                the unemployed;
                    (H) promote conditions for increased self-
                empowerment by individuals victimized by discrimination 
                in hiring, training, wages, salaries, fringe benefits 
                or promotion on the basis of prejudice concerning race, 
                color, sex, language, religion, political or other 
                opinions, national origin, property, birth or other 
                status, station in life, political or sexual 
                orientation, or personal disability;
                    (I) through these and other activities work toward 
                reducing, not later than three years after the date of 
                the enactment of this Act, officially measured 
                unemployment to the interim goal of 4 percent, as set 
                forth in the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 
                1978;
                    (J) achieve American leadership in goods production 
                through such specific innovations as--
                            (i) agricultural systems geared to 
                        delivering the kinds and -quantities of food 
                        needed to abolish hunger and malnutrition in 
                        the world and the kinds and quantities of fiber 
                        needed for -adequate clothing in all climates;
                            (ii) more efficient transportation (such as 
                        railroads, buses, trolley cars, and subways) 
                        and passenger cars that are safer, pollute 
                        less, and are more efficient than cars 
                        currently produced;
                            (iii) exportable housing modules that 
                        include communication, -weatherization, 
                        lighting, plumbing, heating, cooking, and -
                        washing equipment;
                            (iv) the mining of urban regions for the 
                        enormous amount of valuable materials that can 
                        be recovered through the integrated recycling 
                        of liquid, gaseous, and solid wastes; and
                            (v) improved software needed for 
                        supercomputers for the purpose of establishing 
                        and maintaining an information highway 
                        available to all educational institutions and 
                        individuals at all levels of income, wealth, 
                        and power; and
                    (K) develop American leadership in the provision of 
                services through such specific innovations as--
                            (i) educational systems based on adding an 
                        ``r'' for reasoning and an ``r'' for 
                        responsibility to the traditional ``reading, 
                        `riting, and `rithmetic'';
                            (ii) health services oriented not only 
                        toward better disease treatment but also the 
                        promotion of well-being as the best form of 
                        preventing disease and disability, extending 
                        the life span, and providing the elderly not 
                        only with medical and other health services but 
                        with opportunities to make productive use of 
                        their experience, knowledge, wisdom, and 
                        skills;
                            (iii) child care systems dedicated to 
                        excellence through staffs composed of three 
                        generations of both men and women; and
                            (iv) training and financing facilities to 
                        help small and medium-sized enterprises develop 
                        efficient systems for the repair or updating of 
                        broken or obsolete equipment now lying idle 
                        throughout the Nation.
    (b) Inclusion of Program in Annual Submission of Budget.--Section 
1105(a) of title 31, United States Code, is amended by adding at the 
end the following new paragraph:
            ``(30) beginning with fiscal year 1995, a description of 
        the program to implement basic economic rights and 
        responsibilities in the United States as provided for in 
        section 3(a) of the A Living Wage, Jobs For All Act.''.

SEC. 4. GRANTS AND INCENTIVES TO STATES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS TO 
              ENCOURAGE PUBLIC WORKS AND PUBLIC SERVICES PLANNING.

    (a) Authorization.--In order to implement the basic economic rights 
and responsibilities described in section 2, the Secretary of Labor may 
provide grants and other incentives to States and local governments to 
encourage short- and long-term public works and public services 
planning in urban, suburban, and rural areas.
    (b) Application.--
            (1) In general.--The Secretary may provide a grant or other 
        incentive under subsection (a) to a State or local government 
        only if such State or local government submits an application 
        at such time, in such form, and containing such information as 
        the Secretary may reasonably require.
            (2) Contents.--Such application shall include a strategic 
        and tactical plan that--
                    (A) focuses on projects--
                            (i) to improve the quality of life for all 
                        people in such State or jurisdiction of local 
                        government, as the case may be;
                            (ii) to renovate, and to the extent 
                        desirable, enlarge, the decaying infrastructure 
                        of public facilities and services required for 
                        productive, efficient, and profitable 
                        enterprise;
                            (iii) to utilize wasted labor power and 
                        improve the productivity of those suffering 
                        from joblessness and poverty; and
                            (iv) that are, for the most part, conducted 
                        under contracts awarded competitively to 
                        smaller as well as larger businesses or such 
                        other private sector entities as non-profit 
                        enterprises, cooperatives, labor unions, 
                        neighborhood corporations, or voluntary 
                        associations,
                    (B) includes a balanced combination of capital 
                intensive projects, which promote more off-site 
                employment in basic industries, and labor intensive 
                projects, which provide for more on-site employment, 
                through such valuable activities as the clean-up, 
                conservation, restoration, or rehabilitation of 
                buildings, grounds, and land, water and forest 
                resources;
                    (C) provides for accelerated implementation of such 
                projects to help meet the varying employment needs of 
                those people who have been victimized by long-term 
                unemployment, recession, plant closings, agricultural 
                decline, employment discrimination, or inadequate 
                education or training by implementing activities such 
                as project analyses, feasibility and cost-benefit 
                studies, zoning, land acquisition, or site preparation;
                    (D) provides for systematic on-the-job training, 
                including additional classroom education, as necessary, 
                for individuals described in subparagraph (C), together 
                with appropriate priorities for employing the poor, 
                unemployed, or displaced living in the immediate 
                neighborhood of any project;
                    (E) includes action to obtain necessary funds from 
                various combinations of private, local, and State 
                resources without undue reliance on Federal funding; 
                and
                    (F) places all projects in the perspective of 
                publicly discussed goals for improving the quality of 
                life in the United States by the year 2000 and the 
                early years of the 21st Century.

SEC. 5. INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY TO INCREASE WORLDWIDE LIVING 
              STANDARDS.

    (a) Policy Statement.--To protect employment, wage levels, living 
standards and private industry in the United States and elsewhere, it 
shall be the policy of the Federal government to cooperate with the 
governments of other countries and with the United Nations to help 
develop an international community based on rising living standards, 
particularly for those people with the lowest levels of income, wealth, 
access to public facilities, free trade union organization, and 
political power.
    (b) Review of Certain Provisions of Law and Regulations.--
            (1) In general.--The President, acting through the 
        appropriate Federal agencies, shall review all provisions of 
        Federal law, including regulations issued under such 
        provisions, that interfere with the implementation of the 
        policy described in subsection (a).
            (2) Submission of proposed changes in provisions of law and 
        regulation to the congress.--The President shall submit to the 
        Congress proposed changes, if any, in the provisions of law and 
        regulations described in paragraph (1) for the purpose of 
        implementing the policy described in subsection (a).
            (3) Considerations.--In reviewing the provisions of law and 
        regulations under paragraph (1), and submitting proposed 
        changes in such provisions of law and regulations under 
        paragraph (2), the President shall consider the extent to which 
        actions can be taken to--
                    (A) reduce unemployment and underemployment in pre-
                industrial and industrializing countries by increasing 
                opportunities for productive paid work and non-wage 
                work (such as self-employment, parenting, household 
                work, and volunteering) at higher and steadier levels 
                of real income without reducing general levels of 
                employment in the United States;
                    (B) promote higher levels of wages and salaries in 
                such countries as will provide larger markets for their 
                own industries and for exports of goods and services 
                from the United States;
                    (C) withdraw Federal incentives, guarantees, and 
                tax concessions from any United States-based 
                transnational corporation whose operations in pre-
                industrial or industrializing countries may directly 
                undermine the standard of living or deny to employees 
                the rights of free collective bargaining; and
                    (D) reduce trade barriers without reducing general 
                levels of employment in the United States.
    (c) Contributions by United States to Certain International 
Financial Institutions Contingent Upon Development and Implementation 
of Certain Policies and Procedures.--Notwithstanding any other 
provision of law, amounts appropriated for the purpose of making 
contributions to the International Monetary Fund and the International 
Bank for Reconstruction and Development may be provided to such Fund or 
Bank only if such Fund or Bank, as the case may be, has developed and 
implemented such policies and procedures that will--
            (1) raise the standard of living in countries receiving any 
        financial assistance from such Fund or Bank, as the case may 
        be, rather than impose austerity; and
            (2) contribute to the economic viability, credit 
        worthiness, and the ability to import goods and services into 
        such countries from the United States.
    (d) International and Regional Conferences To Reduce 
Unemployment.--Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment 
of this Act, the President--
            (1) shall instruct the United States representative to the 
        United Nations to propose to the United Nations the prompt 
        beginning of a series of international and regional conferences 
        on alternative methods of planning for the reduction of 
        involuntary unemployment; and
            (2) shall, acting through the Secretary of Labor, promote 
        the convening in the United States or elsewhere of 
        international and regional conferences on coping with 
        unemployment and underemployment and moving toward fuller 
        employment in the world.
In carrying out paragraph (2), the Secretary of Labor shall provide 
financial and technical assistance to organized labor and cooperative, 
community, non-profit and voluntary organizations, with priority for 
widespread communication on how best to control facility closings and 
capital flight by large businesses and to facilitate transnational 
labor organizations and collective bargaining.

SEC. 6. ESTABLISHMENT OF CONVERSION PLANNING FUND.

     (a) In General.--In the annual message of the President to the 
Congress at the beginning of the first session of the Congress after 
the date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall include a 
specific proposal for the establishment of a Conversion Planning Fund 
(in this section referred to as the ``Fund'') to be administered by 
such Federal agencies as the President may recommend and as shall be 
determined by law.
    (b) Duties.--The Fund shall promote and activate short- and long-
term plans for coping with declines in civilian or military activities 
by developing specific policies, programs, and projects (including 
feasibility studies, education, training, and inducements for whatever 
increased labor mobility may be necessary or desirable) for the 
expansion of economic activities in sectors where additional or 
improved goods or services are needed.
    (c) Authorization of Appropriations.--
            (1) In general.--In addition to amounts described in 
        paragraph (2), there are authorized to be appropriated to carry 
        out this section such sums as may be necessary.
            (2) Availability of defense funds.--Of the amounts 
        appropriated pursuant to the authorizations of appropriations 
        contained in each Act authorizing appropriations for a fiscal 
        year for military activities of the Department of Defense, the 
        Secretary of Defense shall transfer 1 percent of such amounts 
        to the Fund for the purpose of carrying out this section.

SEC. 7. IMPLEMENTATION.

    (a) Implementation Schedule.--
            (1) In general.--The President shall establish an annual 
        schedule for the purpose of implementing this Act. Such 
        schedule shall include recommendations for--
                    (A) a restructuring of Federal budget priorities to 
                provide for--
                            (i) reductions in wasteful or unnecessary 
                        military expenditures;
                            (ii) increased Federal revenues through 
                        reducing or eliminating wasteful tax 
                        expenditures and other loopholes in the tax 
                        laws;
                            (iii) reducing the interest on the Federal 
                        debt by reductions in both Federal deficits and 
                        real interest rates;
                            (iv) the appropriate use of public and 
                        private pension funds to help attain the 
                        investment, output, and employment goals of 
                        this Act; and
                            (v) the promotion or creation of private 
                        and public development banks in urban and 
                        agricultural areas of high joblessness and 
                        poverty; and
                    (B) the promotion of educational activities within 
                each State on locally-based over-all planning, with 
                special attention to educational processes that promote 
                and use the creative abilities of small, medium, and 
                large business enterprises, and by such other private 
                sector entities as labor unions, professional 
                associations and non-profit, voluntary and cooperative 
                organizations, including neighborhood, tenant, home 
                owner and self-help associations and organizations of 
                the unemployed.
            (2) Inclusion of implementation schedule in presidential 
        economic report.--Section 3(a) of the Employment Act of 1946 
        (15 U.S.C. 1022(a)) is amended--
                    (A) in paragraph (3), by striking ``; and'' and 
                inserting a semicolon;
                    (B) in paragraph (4), by striking the period at the 
                end and inserting ``; and'' and
                    (C) by adding at the end the following new 
                paragraph:
            ``(5) beginning with fiscal year 1995, the annual 
        implementation schedule established under section 7(a)(1) of 
        the A Living Wage, Jobs For All Act.''.
    (b) Oversight by Joint Economic Committee.--Section 11(b) of the 
Employment Act of 1946 (15 U.S.C. 1024(b)) is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (2), by striking ``; and'' and inserting a 
        semicolon;
            (2) in paragraph (3), by striking the period at the end and 
        inserting ``; and'' and
            (3) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
            ``(4) beginning with fiscal year 1995, to monitor actions 
        taken or proposed to be taken under the A Living Wage, Jobs For 
        All Act and report its conclusions thereon to the Congress and 
        the American people, with special attention to the extent to 
        which the Federal agencies have successfully carried out the 
        provisions of such Act.''.
    (c) Budgets.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, all 
budgetary data for specific programs, whether in budget messages and 
resolutions or in legislative authorizations and appropriations, shall 
include or be accompanied by descriptive evaluations and quantitative 
estimates (including monetary quantities) of the direct and indirect 
impacts on--
            (1) gross outlays and net outlays calculated in terms of 
        estimates on whatever consequences additional paid employment 
        may have on--
                    (A) reducing outlays by reducing the number of 
                people receiving unemployment compensation, public 
                assistance, and other transfer payments (without 
                necessarily including reduced outlays resulting from 
                improvements in public health and safety); and
                    (B) increasing tax receipts as a result of more 
                people earning income subject to social security and 
                income taxes and more business enterprises earning the 
                larger, more stable and less subsidized total profits 
                possible under conditions of full employment; and
            (2) benefits that may be conferred or costs imposed on 
        various groups or persons in society.
    (d) Presidential Budget Messages.--All budget messages from the 
President to the Congress shall be based on policies and programs to 
reduce officially measured unemployment to the interim levels set forth 
in the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978 and toward this 
end shall include--
            (1) a total impact analysis on the direct and indirect --
        consequences flowing from each over-all budget for levels of 
        employment, output and prices, and on foreign trade, 
        environmental quality, and the distribution of income and 
        wealth;
            (2) to facilitate State and local public works and public 
        services planning under section 4, estimates of the direct and 
        indirect flow of all Federal outlays (including off-budget 
        outlays) to each State and each district of the House of 
        Representatives,
            (3) a tax expenditure budget as defined in the 
        Congressional -Budget Act of 1974 but presented not only in a 
        separately published special analysis but also--
                    (A) incorporated into the general revenue 
                provisions of the budget; and
                    (B) accompanied by estimates of the benefits sought 
                and thus far obtained by such planned losses of tax 
                revenue;
            (4) a zero-based budgetary review of every program 
        involving -more than $100,000,000 in gross outlays;
            (5) such full distinctions between operating and investment 
        -outlays as regularly appear in the budgets of business 
        organizations and local and State governments;
            (6) a wealth inventory providing information on recent and 
        -prospective changes in the type and estimated value of--
                    (A) assets owned by local and State governments and 
                the Federal government;
                    (B) personal wealth; and
                    (C) the country's net stock of both reproducible 
                and non-reproducible tangible wealth; and
            (7) the expression of any debt and deficit data in constant 
        -as well as current dollars.

SEC. 8. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be 
necessary to carry out this Act.
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