[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 72 (Wednesday, May 14, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H4099-H4100]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOBS CRISIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Ballance) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. BALLANCE. Mr. Speaker, today as we stand in these halls, we are 
experiencing an unprecedented crisis in our

[[Page H4100]]

community, our cities, and our towns all across America, as dedicated 
hardworking citizens find themselves receiving pink slips, they are 
laid off. And the big problem is that they are unable to find jobs.
  This economic crisis is at its worst. In the district that I 
represent in rural eastern North Carolina, an area that once thrived on 
agriculture and textiles, both of which have been hard hit, it appears 
that as far as the textile industry, there is little or no hope for 
recovery. More than half a million jobs have been lost nationwide in 
the last 5 months alone. At this moment there are fewer jobs in the 
labor market than at any other time since the current recession began.
  Since January of 2001, the Nation has lost 2.7 million private sector 
jobs, and the unemployment rate has risen from 4.5 in 2001 to 6 percent 
2 years later. In North Carolina we have lost 130,000 jobs since the 
Bush administration took office; 80,000 of these jobs have been lost in 
the manufacturing sector; 5,328 textiles/apparel jobs have been lost in 
the first district alone since 1999; 32,640 textile/apparel jobs have 
been lost in North Carolina since 1999; 12,669 manufacturing jobs lost 
in the first district since 2001.
  In addition to plant closings all across the State, they are leaving 
thousands of families in financial peril. In the Halifax County town of 
Roanoke Rapids, in my district, the closure of the West Point Stevens 
textile plant, and many of you may remember the plant immortalized as 
the foundation for workers' rights in the movie ``Norma Rae,'' will put 
350 families out of work next month. There will not be one yard of 
textile production in Halifax County once this West Point Stevens 
facility closes, abandoning a city on the Roanoke River founded on 
textiles.
  Unless some long-term remedies are found, North Carolinians and, most 
specifically, workers in northeastern North Carolina, will face a 
crisis of chronic unemployment with shrinking safety nets to combat 
this crisis.
  The percentage of workers nearly receiving regular unemployment 
benefits who subsequently exhausted those benefits without finding work 
was at its highest level ever just a few months ago in February.
  The tax plan forced through this House last week included no 
provision whatsoever for extending unemployment insurance benefits, 
which are due to expire in just 17 days.
  We have got to do something about this problem. It is time that we 
pass the bill that extended this deadline and provided jobs for our 
people. I urge us to take this step.

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