[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 38 (Tuesday, March 19, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H2327-H2328]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           SUMMER JOBS PROGRAM CRITICAL FOR OUR YOUNG PEOPLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentlewoman from North Carolina [Mrs. Clayton] is 
recognized during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. Mr. Speaker, there are some in this House who would 
want to require young people of America to bear the additional burden 
of being denied and deprived of a job and of a chance. These Members 
talk about the dilemma of teenagers, teenage pregnancy. They talk about 
the horror of teen violence. They talk about the plague and the scourge 
of drugs in our communities. Yet those same Members in the House Labor-
HHS appropriation bill voted to eliminate the very program that serves 
to help prevent those problems, summer jobs. If those Members have 
their way, some 615,000 youth will not have a work experience, nor will 
they have educational assistance, in some 650 communities across the 
United States.
  Recently, however, the Senate, by an overwhelming majority, some 84 
to 16, Republicans and Democrats alike, voted to continue the Summer 
Youth Employment Program by restoring $635 million in funds. The 
House should follow the Senate in this critical matter.

  While funding under the Senate program obviously is at 75 percent of 
the level it was when George Bush was President, nevertheless our youth 
indeed would have jobs, and that is the critical point.
  Mr. Speaker, the Summer Youth Employment Program has worked, has 
served youths very well since 1964. This is not a perfect program, but 
it is a program that should be made stronger, not necessarily ended. It 
has been going on for 30 years, and it has meant the difference in the 
lives of millions of young people.
  This program does not provide charity; it provides a chance. Very 
often this is the first opportunity young people have to get a job, to 
obtain employment experience, to learn the work ethic through summer 
jobs programs. A job gives an individual dignity, a feeling of 
contributing, pride in oneself, and the resources to purchase needed 
goods and services. A job gives an individual worth and value.

[[Page H2328]]

  On the other hand, Hippocrates recognized some 400 B.C. that 
``Idleness and lack of occupation tend toward evil.''
  Unemployment rates among our youth is at 17.5 percent. That is three 
times as large as is in our general population. The unemployment rate 
for African-American teenagers is almost at 40 percent, and without the 
summer program, it would be almost 50 percent. If some in Congress have 
their way, Mr. Speaker, for every employed African-American youth, 
there would be one unemployed African-American teenager. Surely in 1996 
Congress could recognize the wisdom of Hippocrates, which has survived 
throughout the years.
  Also, Mr. Speaker, it costs so little to give a youth a chance, but 
it costs society so much when we do not give the youth a chance. Last 
year, the summer program cost less than $1,500, less than $1,500. In 
contrast, conservative estimates are that it costs $70,000 in prison 
construction and welfare spending when you have a student dropping out 
of high school from the ages of 18 to 54. Contrast that, $70,000 with 
$1,500. It cannot be disputed that there is a link between poverty and 
joblessness, and there is a link between joblessness and those who wind 
up in prison and those who wind up on our welfare rolls.
  If we really want to move from welfare to work, let us give our young 
people a chance. Let them work. If you really want to fight criminal 
behavior, let us give our young people an alternative. Let them work. 
They want to work.
  Last year there were two applications for every job available, and 
there were not enough jobs to go around. The summer employment program 
is broad-based, both in urban and rural communities. Indeed, there are 
more youth in rural communities than in urban communities. These young 
people use this money for critical needs, for going back to school, for 
clothing and special school items.
  Mr. Speaker, we can spend more money to build more jails, open more 
courts, incarcerate more youth, or we can spend less money, less money, 
build fewer jails, and employ our young people and give them 
opportunities. We can get less for more by ignoring the problem, or we 
can get more for less by giving young people a chance.
  Charity is getting something for nothing. A chance is an opportunity 
to become something rather than nothing. Most American youth I know 
want to have that chance. When we decide the spending for the rest of 
the year, I hope we do not disregard our Nation's youth.
  Mr. Speaker, remember, idleness breeds evil.

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