[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 44 (Thursday, April 1, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H2040-H2041]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  THE TIME FOR CREATION OF JOBS IS NOW

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, today we commemorate the 10 
years of the tragedy of genocide in Rwanda. Before I speak to the issue 
that I rose to speak to, I want to, again, as I did earlier in the 
tragedy in Iraq, acknowledge the importance of humanity and the respect 
for human life.
  I ask that we have just a moment of silence in commemoration of the 
massive loss of life in Rwanda.
  Mr. Speaker, my wish for the Rwandan people is the implementing of 
democracy, the protection of lives, respect for human life, and as well 
the opportunity for economic prosperity, educational opportunity for 
the children, and as well for them to take their rightful place in the 
world family.
  Mr. Speaker, I rose today to comment on an issue that is extremely 
prevalent in my district, and that is the loss of 3 million jobs in the 
United States over the last 2 years and the failure of this 
administration to be able to create one single job that has had a 
lasting impact.
  Now, that sounds rather extreme, because the government is going to 
report shortly its job creation in the last month, and certainly they 
did so in the month preceding. But as they create jobs in certain areas 
and certain disciplines, job loss remains strong in the manufacturing 
industry; and there has been no effort, no, if you will, direct effort 
at building a long-standing opportunity for job creation by this 
administration. There has been no policy announced. There has been a 
complete, if you will, ignoring of the large numbers of industries that 
are leaving our shores and going overseas.
  We recognize that as the world grows smaller, we will be 
interrelated, and trade is an important aspect of that;

[[Page H2041]]

and we do not discount that. But, Mr. Speaker, there is nothing more 
devastating than a family that has lost their source of income. First 
maybe the father or the spouse, and then the mother or the wife, or 
then an individual single parent who has lost their job.
  I can assure you that no amount of patriotic statements will quash 
the pain of not being able to make ends meet, of providing for one's 
family. And those families who are on minimal income have been hurt 
even more, because as they have sought to lift themselves up, as they 
have experienced the results of welfare reform, and they have taken the 
jobs at the Burger Kings and McDonald'ses, how interesting it is now to 
compete with individuals with higher education who have lost their jobs 
who can find no other work than to work at Burger King, McDonald's and 
other fast-food establishments, which we have the greatest respect for, 
because they are jobs. But, frankly, when you have those at the lesser 
income level competing, then you know that you have a serious problem.
  You have more of a serious problem when officials of the Bush 
administration continue to emphasize that the putting together of the 
hamburger is manufacturing and are completely insensitive to 
outsourcing that is causing more and more jobs to leave the shores of 
the United States of America.
  So, Mr. Speaker, my thrust this evening is to again put this very 
crucially in the minds of this administration: it is imperative that 
the President give a national, a national, call to job creation, and 
stop the reckless giving of large tax cuts to the richest of our 
Nation, and begin to take those dollars and invest in this economy, to 
provide more job training, to provide more bridges for those who are 
transitioning from jobs because plants were closed, such as the plant I 
saw in South Carolina when traveling in that area, and the plants 
throughout Texas that I have seen and throughout the rest of the United 
States. We need a real jobs effort to secure jobs on behalf of the 
American people.
  Mr. Speaker, it is important to note that Americans want to work, but 
they cannot work where there is no work. They certainly cannot work 
where we do not have a policy that is definitively done on behalf of 
job creation.
  Right now we have on the floor of the House a massive job creation 
bill, as well as a bill to help our crumbling infrastructure. One of 
the issues that we have noted in homeland security, as a member of the 
Select Committee on Homeland Security, is we have a crumbling 
infrastructure.
  Again, I ask the President not to veto this bill, which will help the 
crumbling infrastructure of this Nation and transportation needs, but 
also will create jobs for millions and millions of Americans.
  Mr. Speaker, the time for creation of jobs is now. The President must 
respond to this question and to this need.

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