[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 2 (Wednesday, January 21, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H66-H67]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          JOB CREATION AND THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S POLICIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, last evening the President of our country 
addressed us here in the House Chamber, and it is always a great 
historic moment when that happens. But subsequent to his address, he 
left on Air Force One this morning for our home district and landed 
there at taxpayer expense in Air Force One, 6 weeks before the Ohio 
primary. With his campaign coffers loaded, I am a bit surprised that he 
did not use campaign funds for his visit today. He moved from the 
Toledo Express Airport to Owens Community College in order to talk 
about worker training or job training, which is one of the topics that 
the President addressed in his address last night. And one of the 
questions I would ask the President is his administration has cut job-
training funds over the last 3 years and though Ohioans welcome any 
job-training funds this administration finally sees the light of day to 
produce, I am wondering if the President could not also concentrate on 
job creation so that jobs are there for workers who receive the 
training.
  It was somewhat ironic that in this morning's Toledo Blade, the major 
daily in the region, it was pointed out that though the President is 
talking about job training at Owens College, the headline reads ``Owens 
lays off training employees before Bush's visit,'' and one of the 
several workers who has been handling workforce development at Owens 
College says she has worked there for 7 years and has been given a pink 
slip and is this not ironic. Another worker says, ``I've been informed 
that my position has been eliminated.'' She had been employed at the 
college for 25 years and started there as a student in 1978. She said, 
``I'm 5 years from retirement. I really had thought after all this time 
I'd finish my career at the college and I'd still be a benefit'' to the 
college. ``It's just really hard for me to believe.''
  The other names of those who have been pink-slipped at Owens College 
I will place in the Congressional Record.
  This morning, as the President spoke, in his remarks he talked about 
job training. And Terry Thomas, the executive director of the Ohio 
Association of Community Colleges, which represents Owens College along 
with 23 other technical and community colleges in the State, added that 
there has been little funding for workforce development in Ohio; so any 
money from the government would help.
  I would also like to place in the Record that the Bush administration 
and the Taft administration, both Republican administrations, have had 
a devastating impact on the State of Ohio where we have had now over 
300,000 people out of work and 167,000 manufacturing jobs just in the 
last 3 years disappear from our State; and while all this is happening, 
hundreds of millions of dollars that I have voted for here in Congress 
have not been used by the State of Ohio. Indeed, there is over $242 
million still available for job training and workforce development on 
deposit here with the Federal Government under programs that have been 
severely cut back by this administration, and the State of Ohio is not 
spending those dollars. There are severe problems in Ohio, and it is 
one of the reasons that Owens College cannot do as good a job as it 
might do simply because of poor performance by our State government as 
well as cutbacks in these workforce development programs here at the 
Federal level.
  Mr. Speaker, the Bush administration nationwide has the worst record 
of job creation since Herbert Hoover, since the Great Depression.

                              {time}  1345

  Over 2,700,000 Americans are without work today. The President did 
not even use the words ``extending unemployment benefits'' in his 
remarks last night. What a tragedy.
  Few States have been more severely impacted by the failed Bush 
administration policies than our State of Ohio. So it is an honor for 
us to receive a President of the United States, but,

[[Page H67]]

really, he should be coming to help us. He should be coming to release 
the dollars that I had voted for here at the Federal level, and, most 
of all, helping us with job creation.
  He is landing in a major corn producing State in Ohio. He could be 
helping us with transitioning America to fuel independence. Our farmers 
want to build ethanol plants and biodiesel plants in order to help this 
Nation break its dangerous addiction on foreign petroleum. Why does he 
not help us? When over 60 percent of the petroleum that fires this 
economy is imported from some of the most dangerous places in the 
world, we need his help.
  Our State has been devastated by Republican economic policies at the 
national level and at the State level. Community after community has 
seen its jobs destroyed. The soaring Federal budget deficit and 
unemployment ranks deserve the President's attention. I am just so 
sorry he could not help us with job creation and workforce development 
when he visited our district today.

                 [From the Toledo Blade, Jan. 21, 2004]

         Owens Lays Off Training Employees Before Bush's Visit

                           (By Ryan E. Smith)

        Just days before President Bush's visit today to Owens 
     Community College to tout job training programs at such two-
     year schools, at least six Owens employees who handle work-
     force development have been given pink slips, The Blade has 
     learned.
        The timing of the news, so near the presidential visit and 
     expected speech about proposed federally funded job training 
     grants for community colleges, was not lost on Kathy Munger.
        Ms. Munger, who has worked at Owens for seven years, is 
     one of those given a pink slip. ``It's very ironic,'' she 
     said.
        Although some of those who received the two-week notices 
     on Friday may be able to relocate in other departments, Ms. 
     Munger, a training coordinator, and three other employees 
     interviewed by The Blade said they will no longer have jobs.
        ``I've been informed that my position has been 
     eliminated,'' said Pam Pullella, director of special projects 
     who has been employed at the college for 25 years and started 
     there as a student in 1978.
        ``I'm five years from retirement,'' she said, ``I really 
     had thought that after all this time I'd finish my career at 
     the college, and I'd still be a benefit. It's just really 
     hard for me to believe.''
        Others with the college's Center for Development and 
     Training who confirmed to The Blade that they have received 
     pink slips were Dr. Joseph Conrad, director of health and 
     wellness; Jim Kronberg, director of spatial projects; Donna 
     Brecht, records specialist, and Veronica Rice, records 
     specialist. All work on the Perrysburg Township campus except 
     for Mrs. Brecht and Ms. Rice, who are part of the college's 
     Findlay operation.
        Owens President Christa Adams called the personnel action 
     a ``realignment,'' but could not say last night whether any 
     of the movement would result in layoffs.
        She and other officials were busy preparing for the 
     President's visit and could not be reached for further 
     comment.
        Earlier in the day, Owens officials refused to discuss any 
     of its work-force programs with The Blade.
        The affected employees who spoke with The Blade said they 
     believe the cuts at the Center for Development and Training 
     are not the only ones to occur at the college. They said they 
     were given no reason other than restructuring.
        Dr. Conrad, who has been at the college for almost eight 
     years, said he worries about whether the programs will be 
     able to function adequately with the reduction in personnel.
        ``It has to be detrimental,'' he said. ``We don't have the 
     manpower to continue the level of service to the community.''
        Mrs. Brecht, 40, who said she helps put together classes 
     and make sure there are enough instructors, indicated the 
     move will leave Findlay's Center for Development and Training 
     with only half its manpower. She said she will not be bumped 
     to a new position because she is the ``low man on the totem 
     pole.''
                                  ____

       Toledo, Ohio.--President Bush promoted his job-creation and 
     worker-training goals Wednesday in Ohio--a state hit hard by 
     manufacturing losses and one that is key to his 2004 
     campaign.
       Hours after his State of the Union speech, Bush touted his 
     proposal for new job-training grants channeled through 
     community colleges at one of the state's fastest growing 
     community colleges.
       He called for $250 million for programs to match workers 
     and employers during his speech at Owens Community College.
       ``There's no better place to do that than the community 
     college system,'' he said.
       In addition to offering classes that help workers learn a 
     new skill, community colleges often work with businesses to 
     train their workers to use computer software or other skills.
       ``It's what we're all about,'' said Terry Thomas, executive 
     director of the Ohio Association of Community Colleges, which 
     represents 23 technical and community colleges.
       But he added that there has been little funding for work 
     force development, so any money from the government would 
     help.
       Owens Community College has seen its enrollment increase 
     for 26 consecutive semesters. It now has about 40,000 full- 
     and part-time students at its campuses in Toledo and Findlay.
       Job training and counterterrorism proposals were among 
     several plans Bush said Tuesday night that he would offer in 
     his 2005 budget--a blueprint to be released Feb. 2 that will 
     be constrained by record deficits expected to approach $500 
     billion this year.
       Even as Democrats scrapped among themselves over who would 
     oppose him in November, the State of the Union address touted 
     his administration's successes: the toppling and capture of 
     Saddam Hussein, revival of economic growth, and passage of 
     major tax cuts and a Medicare prescription drug benefit.
       The address contained few major new proposals, underlining 
     the limitations of a budget burdened by deficits and a 
     campaign year in which far-reaching legislative 
     accomplishments probably will be hard to come by. After 
     calling last week for a resumption of human flights to the 
     moon and eventually sending astronauts to Mars and beyond, 
     Bush didn't mention space exploration in his speech.
       From Congress to the presidential campaign trail in New 
     Hampshire, where next week's presidential primary will be 
     held, Democrats balked. They said Bush had ignored the job 
     losses, ballooning budget deficits, diplomatic reversals and 
     growing ranks of Americans without health insurance that have 
     characterized his administration.
       Bush touted a cluster of issues sure to energize 
     conservative voters who are the core of the Republican Party.
       He said he would support a constitutional amendment 
     defining marriage as being between a man and a woman if 
     courts struck down a law mandating that. He asked lawmakers 
     to renew expiring portions of the USA Patriot Act that 
     strengthen the investigative reach of law enforcement 
     agencies, double funds for abstinence education and codify 
     his administration's award of federal grants to religious 
     charities.
       He also took a swipe at Democrats who have challenged the 
     path he took in Iraq, who have said his tax cuts were an 
     unnecessary boon to the rich and that his Medicare expansion 
     and education initiatives were inadequate.
       He said the nation needed to stay the course against 
     terrorism and admonished those who would ``turn back to the 
     dangerous illusion that terrorists are not plotting and 
     outlaw regimes are no threat to us.''
       ``We have not come all this way--through tragedy and trial 
     and war--only to falter and leave our work unfinished,'' the 
     president said.
       By far, the most expensive proposal in his speech was one 
     he has made repeatedly: Making his already enacted cuts in 
     personal income and other taxes permanent. That has a price 
     tag estimated at $2 trillion, and an uncertain fate in 
     Congress, considering projections for year after year of huge 
     budget deficits.
       Bush also called for more money--likely to be relatively 
     small amounts--for spreading democratic institutions abroad, 
     helping students performing poorly in math and reading, 
     training prisoners for future employment and testing for 
     drugs in schools.
       He proposed tax breaks to help low-income people afford 
     health care, and renewed his call to let people divert part 
     of their Social Security taxes into retirement accounts whose 
     investment they would control.
       Congress is unlikely to touch an overhaul of politically 
     sensitive Social Security at least until next year, after the 
     elections.

                          ____________________