[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 42 (Tuesday, March 30, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H1716-H1717]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    PUTTING AMERICA'S WORKERS FIRST

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about the 
problem we have with America's unemployed workers.
  My Texas colleague talks about how outsourcing is so good, and 
offshoring, well, I know it is not good in the area I represent because 
it is a blue collar district. For years and years we have suggested to 
our young people to go and get a high-tech skill so they can become a 
computer programmer, so they will not have to be a machine shop owner 
or a machinist, that they can go into the new economy. All of a sudden 
now we are finding out that that new economy, if you are making $45,000 
a year in the United States, you are having to compete with someone 
around the world who is happy to make $15,000 a year with your same 
level of education. So we do have a problem.
  Tomorrow marks the end of March and the 3-month period since the 
temporary extended unemployment compensation program began phasing out. 
During this last 3-month period, over 1 million American workers have 
exhausted their regular unemployment benefits and have been unable to 
receive additional help. There are 72,000 unemployed workers in my own 
State of Texas that have exhausted their benefits. There is no 
comparable figure in more than 30 years when this country has had so 
many unemployed workers exhausting their benefits.
  Despite these undisputable facts, the administration and our 
Republican colleagues refuse to extend this important program, saying 
economic growth will yield job creation. Well, it has not for the last 
3 years. Every indicator out there disputes this logic and tells the 
same story: This country is facing a jobless recovery. If it is a 
jobless recovery, it is not really a recovery where I come from.
  Mr. Speaker, these indicators are bad enough, but, unfortunately, 
there is another story behind them that makes the outlook even worse. 
The unemployment rate is currently 5.6 percent, but the true story is 
that rate does not take into account the 2.8 million Americans who have 
given up looking for a job and left the labor force altogether. These 
Americans are just as unemployed as those counted by the Labor 
Department; and if we include them in our statistics, the true 
unemployment rate stands at 7.4 percent.

[[Page H1717]]

  When we look at the job growth figures, we see that 21,000 jobs were 
created last month. The true story, however, is that none of these jobs 
were in the private sector. Furthermore, the country needs to add about 
125,000 jobs a month just to keep up with population growth. If we 
count the net 2.3 million jobs that have been lost to this country 
since this administration took office and add the 4.7 million jobs that 
are needed to be created since then to support our population growth, 
we have a 7 million job gap in the labor market.
  The measly job growth we have seen in recent months will not even 
begin to put a dent in that job gap; and, to make matters worse, the 
rolls of our long-term unemployed workers are growing. Technically, 
workers who have been out of work for more than 6 months are defined as 
long-term unemployed. Six months also happens to be the maximum length 
of regular unemployment benefits. Therefore, most economists consider 
the number of long-term unemployed workers as indicative of the need 
for temporary unemployment benefits.
  If my Republican colleagues need further proof of our need for a 
temporary extension of unemployment benefits, I would encourage them to 
look at the number of long-term unemployed workers in this country. In 
each of the past 3 months, almost 1.9 million unemployed workers have 
been counted as long-term unemployed. America's long-term unemployed 
represent 23 percent of the country's total unemployed workers, at 
least those who are counted.
  Moreover, the level of long-term unemployment is three times what it 
was when the recession began. Job growth in this country is, without 
question, weaker than any other post-World War II recovery period. As 
each week of this jobless recovery goes by, 80,000 more workers exhaust 
their unemployment benefits and have nowhere to turn.
  A recent Congressional Budget Office study shows that, without these 
benefits, unemployed Americans double their chances of entering poverty 
and lacking health insurance. Mr. Speaker, the need for an extension of 
unemployment benefits has never been greater. In the absence of true 
job creation, it is imperative that these benefits be extended.
  Again, when we see outsourcing, offshoring happening in the high-tech 
community, and we see the continual hemorrhaging of blue collar jobs 
being lost, our American worker's income security and their health 
depend on that extension.

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