[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 84 (Monday, June 8, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H6298-H6303]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Kilroy). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 6, 2009, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Fudge) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.


                             General Leave

  Ms. FUDGE. Madam Speaker, I ask for unanimous consent that all 
Members be given 5 days to revise and extend their remarks.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Ohio?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. FUDGE. Madam Speaker, the Congressional Black Caucus, the CBC, is 
proud to anchor this hour.
  Currently, the CBC is chaired by the Honorable Barbara Lee from the 
Ninth Congressional District of California. My name is Congresswoman 
Marcia Fudge, representing the 11th Congressional District of Ohio, and 
I will anchor this hour.
  CBC members are advocates for humanity, nationally and 
internationally, and have played a significant role as local and 
regional activists. We work diligently to be the conscience of the 
Congress. But understand, all politics are local; therefore, we provide 
dedicated and focused service to the citizens of the congressional 
districts we serve.
  The vision of the founding members of the Congressional Black 
Caucus--to promote the public welfare through legislation designed to 
meet the needs of millions of neglected citizens--continues to be a 
focus for our legislative work and our political activities. Tonight's 
hour will focus on the unemployment crisis in this country.
  Just last week, Madam Speaker, the national unemployment numbers were 
released and the situation is dire. The Bureau of Labor Statistics 
reported that nationally another 345,000 people lost their jobs in the 
month of May. The total unemployment nationally has risen above 9 
percent. For African Americans, Madam Speaker, that statistic is much 
greater. African Americans suffer unemployment at a rate of almost 15 
percent.
  Over one-quarter of the 14.5 million individuals who are jobless have 
been unemployed for at least 6 months. Not only are they concerned 
about finding a job, but they are now fearful their benefits will soon 
expire.
  In my home State of Ohio, the situation is even worse. We have 
entered double-digit unemployment with a rate of over 10 percent. Not 
only must we work to help the newly unemployed, but we must assist the 
chronically unemployed who are many times forgotten.

                              {time}  2015

  On Friday, I heard from economist Dr. Paul Harrington at the Center 
for Labor Market Studies at Northwestern University. He gave three 
recommendations to deal with the job crisis: number one, radically 
expand the job training; number two, establish a connection between 
schools and jobs; and, number three, engage in direct job training 
activities.
  We need to assist the unemployed by retooling them, preparing them 
for employment opportunities now and for the future. We must always 
remember that when we work on health care reform, energy, tax 
legislation, we too must focus on the economy. Our national attention 
must remain focused on job creation and saving sustainable jobs for our 
workforce and to prepare them for new or better employment as 
opportunities present themselves because it is most important that we 
say to our people that there is a future.
  And that is why the topic today is so very important, Madam Speaker. 
Nationally, we have a unique opportunity through these difficult times 
to help our workforce. We must reinvent and reenergize our workforce 
with new training opportunities in existing and emerging industries. In 
my district, doing so involves investing time, money, and energy into 
health care, bioscience, advanced manufacturing, logistics and 
transportation, advanced energy and information technology.
  As of April, the State of Ohio's unemployment rate reached 10.2 
percent, up from 6.2 percent the same time last year. There are 
thousands of unemployed and underemployed individuals who must enhance 
their skills to become competitive in this knowledge-based economy 
which has now defined our Nation's economy. A strong public consensus 
supports enhancing the skills of America's workers especially through 
high-quality education and training. In today's environment, the demand 
for workers to fill mid-level jobs is quite high and will likely remain 
high in key sectors of our economy. These mid-level jobs require more 
education than a high school diploma or a GED but less education than a 
4-year degree. In Ohio, nearly 55 percent of all jobs are mid-level 
jobs, and many of these jobs receiving the new Federal job creation 
dollars are in health care, green jobs, infrastructure, and 
construction. Unfortunately, only 45 percent of workers in Ohio have 
the skill sets for these jobs.
  Alarmingly, Madam Speaker, the National Commission on Adult Literacy 
recently reported that 30 million adults score at ``below basic'' 
levels on assessment tests, meaning they can perform

[[Page H6299]]

no more than the most rudimentary literacy tasks. Another 63 million 
adults are only able to perform only simple, basic everyday literacy 
tasks. Consequently, Madam Speaker, we have a mismatch between skills 
of our Nation's workforce, and we must have the ability to succeed and 
the skills our Nation's workforce actually possesses. What we need to 
do is match those skills and the people who need jobs.
  Years ago, our Nation established a number of workforce development 
programs to meet this demand by preparing workers for mid-level jobs. 
Since that time, Federal education and training policies have invested 
very little in these jobs. Investments in the programs that prepare 
middle-skilled workers have plummeted. As a result, too many workers 
struggle to find decent jobs, and too many employers struggle to find 
skilled employees.
  Education and training institutions like community colleges are at 
the forefront in identifying emerging market demand and training 
workers to meet 21st century employer needs for professional or career-
path opportunities. It is critical that our Federal workforce 
development policy support the kind of work they are doing.
  Cuyahoga Community College, or, as we call it at home, Tri-C, 
established the Center for Healthcare Solutions, which specializes in 
fast-track training, allowing displaced workers an opportunity to 
quickly transition into living wage occupations such as State-tested 
nursing assistant, dental office assistant, the medical coding 
specialist that provides stackable credentials and opportunities for 
rapid career advancement. To meet the needs of a growing health care 
sector, Tri-C has partnered with the Cleveland/Cuyahoga County 
Workforce Investment Board to offer State-tested nursing assistant 
training at the Employment Connection, which is our local one-stop 
career center. The partnership removes barriers to success for clients 
by providing wraparound services, which are fundamental skills job 
training and placement services.
  With over 60 hospitals, 30 colleges and universities, strong 
manufacturing capabilities, and billions of dollars in public and 
private investment, northeast Ohio is poised to become a biomedical 
hub. The business development organization BioEnterprise reports that 
the biomedical industry has grown more than 30 percent in the last 5 
years, helping northeast Ohio become home to over 600 biomedical 
companies. Tri-C offers training for all facets of this growing 
industry through its one-of-a-kind bioscience laboratory featuring 
medical device manufacturing, pharmaceutical drug manufacturing, and 
business startups through its Key Entrepreneur Center for 
Sustainability.
  In 2007, approximately 1,500 positions were unfilled in the 
bioscience industry due to the lack of a trained workforce. It is 
estimated that approximately 900 of the unfilled positions are in the 
functional areas of manufacturing and quality control. We have to 
bridge this disconnect, Madam Speaker, and help obtain the skill set 
for this job and others like it. Tri-C's Advanced Manufacturing & 
Engineering Center was honored with Team NEO's Economic Development 
Impact Award for developing a remedy for this workforce shortage. The 
center has more than 12,000 square feet of renovated space and more 
than $6 million of modern equipment and tooling simulators.
  Although manufacturing jobs have decreased significantly over the 
last 30 years, the manufacturing sector in and around my district 
provides nearly 300,000 jobs, which is 15 percent of the total 
workforce. It also generates $36 billion in gross regional product, 
which is 20 percent of the total gross regional product. Many of the 
low-skilled occupations have left the region, but there is a 
significant number of high-skilled, high-wage-paying jobs in advanced 
manufacturing. This increasingly computerized sector requires a new set 
of skills. Model job training would work hand in hand with employers to 
develop customized training for state-of-the-art equipment. Locally, we 
have developed a Ford Manufacturing Technician Program that is offered 
for Ford workers at the regional plants for college credit.

  Transportation and logistics is also an in-demand sector because of 
our local regional concentration of warehouses and factories. Utilizing 
labor market intelligence, the Regional Transportation Institute 
features a truck driving institute and radio frequency identification 
lab that sits on the cutting edge of logistics and material tracking 
systems. Cleveland, Madam Speaker, is within 500 miles of 43 percent of 
the United States population and is ideally situated as a 
transportation and logistics hub. The occupations are high tech and 
hands on.
  Recognizing the increasing need for construction contractors to 
interpret green job specifications, the Green Academy and Center for 
Sustainability was developed in the fall of 2008. The academy offers 
both professional development training in the areas of sustainable 
business practices, Leadership and Energy in Environmental Design 
accreditation and certification along with a multitude of other 
offerings in the new green economy requested by businesses and the 
community. Through GACS, the Pathways to Green Jobs programs will 
transition at-risk populations into green occupations through training 
opportunities in deconstruction, weatherization, wind turbine 
components, manufacturing, and solar panel installation. The first 
Pathways class, consisting largely of formerly incarcerated individuals 
and people lacking permanent homes, provide soft skills training along 
with contextualized hands-on training in a green job.
  Federal workforce development programs have faced extremely deep 
funding cuts over the past 8 years. The Workforce Investment Act, or 
WIA, and the Wagner-Peyser Employment Services lost more than $9 
billion in funding since 2001, reducing the capacity of our national 
workforce system to respond even to normal levels of demand for skilled 
workers, let alone the extraordinary demands for job training and 
reemployment services we now face.
  The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act made nearly $4 billion in 
new funding available through the Department of Labor for jobs training 
programs. Just under $3 billion of this funding has already gone out to 
States through formula grants under the Workforce Investment Act. 
Speaking with the Deputy Director of Workforce Training in Cuyahoga 
County, I learned that the county will receive nearly $14 million in 
training. The money will help dislocated adults and youth workers. 
Another $750 million is due to go out in the form of competitive grants 
to train people in green jobs, health care, and other high-demand 
sectors.
  There are funds from the Recovery Act that are available to agencies 
to create jobs in the energy efficiency and renewable energy fields, 
build roads and bridges, create a new broadband infrastructure, address 
our Nation's ever-growing health care needs, retrofit public housing 
and government buildings, and weatherize hundreds of thousands of homes 
for low-income homeowners. While some of these jobs can be filled by 
displaced workers already in the affected sectors, many more will be 
filled by workers dislocated from other sectors like young people 
entering the labor market for the first time and disadvantaged 
individuals who previously lacked the skills and opportunities. We 
cannot expect untrained workers to simply show up at a work site 
``shovel ready.''
  It is essential that institutions and training facilities have the 
capacity and resources necessary to identify the emerging needs of the 
region in order to best prepare the workforce for lifelong 
employability. Tri-C is currently serving as a regional co-coordinator 
for the Ohio Skills Bank initiative through Governor Strickland's 
Turnaround Ohio plan. The Ohio Skills Bank shares Tri-C's goals of 
having seamless career pathways and certifications that allow adult 
workers to earn college credit while increasing their job skills and, 
ultimately, their wages. Employers must create and implement these 
programs. Through the Ohio Skills Bank, northeast Ohio has decided to 
first focus on the health care, manufacturing, and information 
technology sectors as key industries that have immediate workforce 
needs.
  My region is poised to leverage funding made available through the 
American Reinvestment and Recovery Act

[[Page H6300]]

with an existing and nimble infrastructure focusing on career pathways, 
industry partnerships, and increased training. To best address emerging 
industry needs with a new kind of workforce that requires a high level 
of transferrable skills, it is necessary to adjust funding structures 
so that training opportunities are accessible and usable. The United 
States Department of Labor has asked that each State revise their State 
Workforce Investment Act plans to reflect the strategies they intend to 
pursue and implement these goals. States have the opportunity to 
increase training capacity through the reauthorization of the Workforce 
Investment Act with a few key shifts in how the funding is structured.

                              {time}  2030

  To increase training, as prioritized by Congress, funding must 
directly support educational training facilities. This will allow 
institutions like Tri-C to increase capacity and provide a more 
effective, less expensive way of receiving immediate training. A few 
ways to achieve this would be for Congress to eliminate the mandatory 
sequence of services that very often hurts individuals seeking job 
training, thereby slowing down the process by which people access the 
services they need most. In the majority of cases, strong worker 
training would be the answer. An increased emphasis on training must be 
coupled with direct support for the development of additional training 
at community colleges.
  A second way to improve the program is through the authorization of 
Community-Based Job Training Grants created in 2004. These grants build 
the capacity of community colleges to train workers and develop the 
skills necessary for success in high-growth and high-demand industries. 
Finally, Congress should give local workforce investment groups greater 
flexibility to utilize training contracts. This is especially helpful 
with low-tuition training providers. We have the opportunity to think 
broadly about the most effective ways to deliver Workforce Investment 
Act funds at the regional and local levels. This would ensure the 
proper mix between participant access to training and the development 
of training capacity. The Community-Based Job Training Grants provide a 
model for examining possible reforms of service delivery under the 
adult and dislocated worker program.
  It appears that we are moving toward a pyramid economy, with a small 
number of highly skilled jobs at the top, a large number of low-skill, 
low-paying jobs at the bottom, and relatively few middle-class, mid-
level jobs, which actually drove the unprecedented growth of our 
Nation's economy in the 20th century and made the American Dream a 
reality for millions of families. But the reality is that mid-level 
jobs still account for almost half the jobs in this country and will 
continue to be the largest job segment in the economy for years to 
come. As we look to reform our workforce development system to meet the 
demands of the 21st century labor market, we need to make sure we focus 
on proven strategies that help workers acquire the skills necessary to 
fill these jobs and ensure that employers have a skilled workforce 
which is able to compete in today's global economy. Two strategies 
emerged as best practices at the State level--sector partnerships and 
career pathways. Both can help us achieve this goal, and we should 
ensure that a reauthorized WIA supports these strategies.
  Sector partnerships work by bringing together multiple stakeholders 
in a specific industry with the interest in developing and implementing 
workforce development strategies that can contribute to local and 
regional growth. These stakeholders include firms, labor organization, 
education and training providers, community-based organizations, and 
State and local agencies. Sector approaches draw upon the experience of 
many partners who improve worker training, retention and advancement by 
developing cross-firm skill standards, career ladders, job 
redefinitions, and shared training and support capacities that 
facilitate the advancement of workers at all skill levels, including 
the least skilled. An emerging body of research demonstrates that 
sector strategies can provide significant positive outcomes for 
workers, including increased wages and greater job security.
  Sector strategies have become an integral part of the way some States 
respond to local and regional workforce needs. For example, as 
discussed earlier, the Ohio Skills Bank is implementing workforce 
development efforts across a broad range of industries in each of the 
State's 12 economic development regions. Another example is Congressman 
Fattah's State of Pennsylvania, which has more than 6,000 firms 
participating in nearly 80 partnerships, and 70,000 workers receiving 
training services since 2005.
  To date, at least 39 States have adopted industry or sector 
strategies; but for the most part they are doing so in spite of the 
Workforce Investment Act, not because of it. As written, the Workforce 
Investment Act does not adequately support the hard work of convening 
multiple stakeholders and allowing a local area or a region to develop 
targeted depth and capacity in high-growth and emerging industries in a 
way that complements broader workforce development efforts. The SECTORS 
Act, introduced in the House, of which I am a cosponsor, would 
establish a separate title under WIA to support industry or sector 
partnerships and strategies. As a supporter of the legislation, I am 
working to ensure that the principles set forth in this bill are 
included in a reauthorized WIA.
  Federal workforce development policy also needs to recognize that 
different workers enter the job market in different ways, from young 
people entering apprenticeship programs or community colleges, 
dislocated workers seeking new skills to transition to new careers, to 
low-income adults enrolling in adult education courses to obtain the 
basic skills and the literacy needed to pursue an industry-recognized 
credential. For reasons of both equity and economic necessity, we must 
work to provide every individual interested in improving their skills 
with the means and the opportunity to do so while removing barriers 
they may face along the way.
  Career pathways accomplish this goal of easing individuals into the 
job market by aligning adult education, job training and higher 
education systems to create seamless transitions for workers at all 
points of their educational and career trajectories. Successful career 
path models allow individuals to easily move between institutions and 
programs to acquire the skills and credentials they need to take 
advantage of new career opportunities while continuing to work and 
support their families.
  As with sector partnerships, States have tapped into career pathways 
models as a way to provide economic opportunities for citizens while 
supplying businesses with new sources of talent. Washington State has 
had significant success with its own I-Best model, which combines 
occupational skills training, college-level coursework, and English 
language and basic skills education to prepare workers for a broad 
range of occupations. Research indicates that I-Best participants are 
more likely to continue into credit-bearing coursework and earn 
occupational credentials than other adult education students. 
Congressman Bobby Scott's State of Virginia just recently announced the 
implementation of a statewide strategy to facilitate student 
transitions between education and employment systems and expand the 
provision of supportive services to ensure success.
  Unfortunately, current law across a number of Federal programs--
including WIA, the Higher Education Act and Temporary Assistance For 
Needy Families--presents significant obstacles to the development of 
career pathways, establishing different funding streams for various 
educational and employment programs and often creating conflicting 
performance measures between systems.
  Even within a single program such as WIA, we often see disconnects in 
the system. For example, one outcome measure for an individual 
receiving adult basic education services under WIA title II is the 
attainment of a GED. However, simply having a GED does not mean that a 
person has the skills he or she needs to enroll in a job training 
program funded under WIA title I. Unfortunately, far too often people 
confronted with such obstacles get frustrated and drop out of the 
system and never get the skills they need to succeed in the workforce. 
We must

[[Page H6301]]

work to reduce the barriers between systems under current Federal law 
and create incentives for States to better align and connect their 
workforce development, education and human services systems. WIA 
authorization is certainly one great place to start.

  Madam Speaker, with that, I would now yield to the distinguished 
Member from California, our Chair, the gentlelady from California, 
Barbara Lee.
  Ms. LEE of California. Thank you, Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, the 
gentlelady from Ohio, for continuing to, as I say, beat the drum every 
Monday night on behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus, on behalf of 
many of our communities, which have been really shut out and 
marginalized for years and years and years but also on behalf of the 
American people because we know and we recognize, as members of the 
Congressional Black Caucus, that what's good for our communities, 
especially communities of color, the African American community, makes 
America stronger. It's good for the country. So thank you very much for 
continuing to lift our voices on behalf of the people.
  Tonight you've done a great job talking about really the reason and 
the rationale that we have to embrace workforce development training, 
job training. Because so many of our constituents are not only recently 
unemployed, but they just haven't been employed for many, many years, 
for many, many historic reasons, many of which are systemic. The 
opportunities just have not been there. As I was listening to you, I 
was reminded of the new green industry. It's a trillion-dollar 
industry, but of course there are many in our country who don't have 
the requisite skills to be able to even apply for these jobs in this 
new industry.
  I want to just call attention to one organization in my district, in 
Oakland California, the Oakland Green Job Corps, where young people are 
learning green technology, are learning to weatherize homes, are 
learning to put solar panels on roofs. They are learning and developing 
the skills necessary to be able to be fully employed in this new 
industry, and these are young people who may not have had a chance, had 
it not been for the Cyprus Mandela Training Center, Mayor Ron Dellums, 
our city of Oakland, and of course the Department of Labor and all of 
the partners who have helped put that together. Our energy czar from 
the White House, Ms. Browner came out, and she looked at the Green Job 
Corps, and we are hoping that this will be seen as a model to replicate 
throughout the country.
  Let me just remind you that the Congressional Black Caucus has 
historically been known as the conscience of the Congress, and we 
recognize that the dignity of all human beings is extremely important 
in our work to close these--some of us call it these moral gaps that 
exist, these disparities. And tonight of course we're talking about 
jobs, employment and unemployment.
  Well, the good-paying jobs recognize the dignity of all human beings; 
and when people are unemployed, when they don't have jobs, it's very 
difficult to take care of their families, take care of themselves. As a 
person who majored in psychiatric social work, I understand all the 
psychological effects. We just see that each and every day now, the 
emotional trauma, the depression. Suicide rates are soaring now as a 
result of this Bush recession. So we have to remember that when people 
are unemployed, it's not only that they don't have a job to make money; 
but it's their self-esteem, their self-worth, it's their dignity that 
becomes shattered as a result of this, and so we have to work very hard 
each and every day to make sure that we provide the vehicles and the 
opportunities for everyone in our country to get a job.
  The trigger may have been, of course, the bubble in the housing 
markets in terms of the unemployment rate; but I tell you, these 
excesses on Wall Street and the failure of the Bush administration to 
enforce any securities laws, the deregulation of the financial services 
industry--and I was on the Financial Services Committee for 8 years, 
and we kept talking about that with Chairman Greenspan, and there were 
very few who really wanted to bite the bullet and say, we have to not 
do this. But we did, unfortunately. So now we have an industry that's 
just run wild, really. It's run amok. We also have to remember that 
there was very little oversight of the banks, and this unfortunate 
situation has spread this crisis to each and every household and 
business in our country. We've seen 7 million jobs lost since the 
beginning of the Bush recession, and the unemployment rate has now 
risen to 9.4 percent nationally--14.9 percent, however, for African 
Americans and for Latinos.
  Now during the Bush administration, 5 million more people fell into 
poverty. Unfortunately now we have 37 million Americans living in 
poverty, 47 million with no health insurance, and that is rising. So we 
have to tackle this because if we don't tackle this, we will have 
millions more living in poverty. Actually, last week the Congressional 
Black Caucus released our agenda as well as our biannual report, and we 
call it Opportunities for All--Pathways Out of Poverty.

                              {time}  2045

  All members of the CBC put one of their bills on this agenda. We have 
42 bills, and if you look at each and every one of the pieces of 
legislation that is pending that we consider our priority legislation, 
each one provides a pathway out of poverty and an opportunity for all.
  We also, unfortunately, in the last few years have watched company 
after company cut their benefits, and millions more Americans now, as I 
said earlier, have lost their health insurance and their retirement 
plans and pension plans have fallen, unfortunately, off the table.
  The last administration has left us and our Nation in shambles, and 
it is really critical that we come together to begin the work of 
providing opportunities for all in America and ending this spiral of 
poverty that is spiraling downward, unfortunately, with millions more 
people in this situation.
  We have got to expand and extend the proven anti-poverty programs 
that were included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, like 
expanding access to the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax 
Credit. We have to maintain support for the vital extensions of 
unemployment insurance and COBRA health insurance.
  Millions of Americans need these subsidies, while millions of 
Americans continue to face job loss and extended periods of 
unemployment. These are stopgap measures, but this has to be seen as 
necessary just to stop the hemorrhaging and give people some relief so 
they can survive and sustain themselves until the jobs that we are 
working so hard to create are created.
  We have got to maintain support for and invest in education and job 
training programs, as Congresswoman Fudge talked about earlier, and 
fully support initiatives such as the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and 
the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, which our colleague 
Congresswoman Maxine Waters, who chairs the Housing and Opportunity 
Subcommittee of the Financial Services Committee, worked so hard with 
the Congressional Black Caucus' support to bring some stability to our 
hardest-hit communities.
  But we all know we have to do more. We need to raise and index the 
minimum wage so that every working person can be assured that they will 
earn a wage that will lift them up and out of poverty each and every 
year without having to rely on legislation to keep up with increases in 
the cost of living. Yes, we increased the minimum wage several years 
ago; but I believe, like many of my colleagues believe, that we must 
support and find ways to provide for a living wage. Raising the minimum 
wage is not enough.
  We also must ensure access to early childhood education, guarantee a 
quality public education for every American student, and make sure that 
every working family has access to affordable, quality child care.
  Again, why is child care so important? Well, we have millions of 
women, millions of single moms and single men who want to work, but 
they can't afford the child care. So we cannot look at creating jobs 
without understanding we must provide for the job training and child 
care assistance so that they can really afford to get a job and will 
not have to worry about their young people.
  Also, and oftentimes we forget this, there are millions of men now 
that we call in my community ``formerly incarcerated individuals'' who 
have been released from jail. We know that the recidivism rate is very 
high, and part of

[[Page H6302]]

the reason is because there is very little employment for these 
individuals. So we have to provide support for our reentry initiatives.
  I am very proud of the fact that Congressman Danny Davis, a member of 
the Congressional Black Caucus from Illinois, continues to work on 
behalf of those who would not have this second chance. We passed the 
Second Chance Act a couple of years ago, but we must fully fund this so 
that we can provide for that job training and those jobs for formerly 
incarcerated individuals.
  Also our disconnected youth. We have young people who need jobs. Many 
families now, because of the fact that mothers and fathers are 
unemployed, oftentimes young people have to help, and they deserve to 
be able to get a job too. So we have to fully fund and support summer 
job programs for our young people, which I am very proud of the fact 
that President Obama, Speaker Pelosi and all of our leadership here, 
our majority whip, Mr. Clyburn, supported with the economic recovery 
package to make sure we have funding in there for our summer jobs 
program for youth.
  Also access to health care. Some of us believe, and I know many of us 
in the Congressional Black Caucus believe, that health care should not 
be a privilege. It is a basic right. It is a basic right, and as we 
begin health care debate, again we cannot forget that closing health 
care disparities in communities of color must be part of any health 
care reform package. Otherwise, those communities, those individuals 
who have historically been discriminated against in our health care 
system, and really that is what has happened over the years, it has 
been discrimination, they deserve to have some of these gaps closed. So 
this has to be part of, again, a comprehensive approach to job creation 
and employment.
  So let me just conclude by saying that during this economic crisis, 
we think that we have to see this also as an opportunity to make the 
changes that we seek, some of the systemic changes that we seek, to 
guarantee access to health care, to guarantee and ensure fair and 
adequate housing for all, and to provide top-flight education for all 
of our children and support the growth of the new green living wage 
economy that will carry America into the 21st century.
  We have to support the Employee Free Choice Act, because many of us 
in the African American community know if it hadn't been for labor 
unions, many of our families would not have become middle income. So 
the right to organize, the right to participate and to be in a union is 
essential, because when we are talking about jobs, we are not just 
talking about a job; but we are talking about a job with justice, jobs 
with good pay, with benefits, with a pension, with health care, the 
type of a job that any American deserves. So this Employee Free Choice 
Act is an extremely important part of any jobs movement that we have 
developed here in the Congress.
  The Congressional Black Caucus continues to be the conscience of the 
Congress, and we are going to continue to speak out and work with those 
who don't have a voice, who have been marginalized, and who could 
possibly be left behind were it not for members of the Congressional 
Black Caucus who stand strong, 42 of us, in moving forward an agenda, 
opportunities for all, pathways out of poverty.
  Let me thank Congresswoman Marcia Fudge again for stepping up to the 
plate and for bringing this very critical debate once again on a Monday 
night to the country.
  Ms. FUDGE. Thank you, Madam Chairman.
  I would again like to thank our Chair for her leadership. Certainly 
Congresswoman Lee has kept the focus of the CBC on those who have the 
least, and that is very, very important. She has kept our focus on job 
creation and has allowed us to be the voice for the voiceless. With her 
leadership, we know that we represent more of the poor than any other 
group of people in this House, and it is just refreshing to know that 
our focus as a caucus is on poverty and jobs. I thank you again for 
your leadership.

  Ms. LEE of California. If the gentlelady will further yield for a 
moment, please, let me talk about very quickly one of the aspects of 
job creation and the issue as it relates to pay equity for women.
  As I remember, the numbers are really staggering when you look at 
women. They make I think it is maybe 70-some cents on the dollar; 
African American women a lot less, maybe 60-some cents on the dollar; 
and Latinas even less than that.
  I think it is very important as we talk about jobs and job creation, 
we have to really first applaud the President for signing the Lilly 
Ledbetter Act, and, secondly, in each and every initiative that we take 
here in the House, make sure that we look at the bills in terms of the 
type of equity and justice it brings to women, because women have a 
long way to go in our society.
  We have made tremendous gains, but when you look at these moral gaps 
in terms of wages, we have to understand that we do need to take, and 
some don't want to say affirmative action, but I consider affirmative 
action a very Democratic policy, and so we do need to take affirmative 
action to make sure that these disparities in wages as they relate to 
women are closed and closed very quickly as we create these new jobs in 
the industries of the future.
  Ms. FUDGE. Thank you, Madam Chairman. I would say there are so many 
things we need to be addressing. Certainly what I have found in my home 
district is that as you look at what is happening with women and 
children, it is really appalling. Right now, the fastest growing group 
of children in schools today are homeless children. That means their 
parents are homeless, and more times than not it is just a mother. So 
these are people who most of the time don't have jobs and don't have 
the ability to take care of their children, and we have to do what we 
have to do as a government. We have to make sure we provide.
  So I am really happy that in the Recovery and Reinvestment Act we put 
significant money in there for shelters, for meals for children, for 
food stamps, for many things that I think are going to make their lives 
better. We have done what we think we needed to do to at least get them 
back moving in the right direction.
  So I think you are right. As we look at where women are today, not 
just in equal pay, not just in benefits, but in how we live as people 
in this society, I think it is very, very important that we focus on 
where women are going in this society. I know that because of your 
leadership, that is one of the things the CBC has been looking at.
  So I thank you again for all that you do to make sure that women get 
equal treatment, that women have the ability to raise their children in 
a positive and safe place, because if we hadn't done some of the things 
that we have done with this recovery package, where would they be? 
Certainly you may be poor, but you still deserve a decent place to 
live. You still deserve to be able to feed your children and send your 
kids to school in a safe environment.
  Again, I thank you just for the kind of leadership that you have 
given to us that makes us really take a look at what is happening in 
our communities.
  Ms. LEE of California. Well, I thank the gentlelady for her comments, 
and I just want to say, we have to look at what is taking place with 
everyone in our country during this economic downturn. Many have said, 
why would we do some of the things we did in the economic recovery 
package, such as many of the initiatives that you spoke of? How could 
we not do it? Otherwise we would leave millions behind once again. So 
that was a mandate that we had to do.
  Another area that you helped us so brilliantly on was the involvement 
of and ensuring the involvement of minority and women-owned businesses 
in the economic recovery package.
  Oftentimes, as difficult as it is when you lose a job and are 
unemployed, new opportunities open up. Small entrepreneurs now have the 
opportunity, those with creative ideas, to establish small businesses. 
We put I believe it was $35 million in a micro-loan program, so the 
small entrepreneurs, people who have been unemployed, who want to start 
a business, who want to start whatever type of a business, can go to 
the SBA now and apply for a loan without having to go through all of 
the rigmarole that oftentimes businesses have to go through. Now people 
who

[[Page H6303]]

have been recently unemployed can have the opportunity to actually 
establish a small business so that they can take care of themselves and 
their families during this very difficult time.
  We also made sure that we put some very strong language in terms of 
the involvement of minority and women-owned businesses in all the 
Federal funding that was coming through the agencies in our package, 
for example, the Department of Transportation and the infrastructure 
money.
  Well, I am saying this loud and clear now to everyone in this country 
in terms of minority and women-owned businesses: that money that will 
be coming to these States, you have to make sure that you involve your 
minority and women-owned companies in contracts and subcontracts in 
this construction money, in this infrastructure money, because it is 
all well and good to be able to hire people for the jobs, but there are 
many who have the skills and the businesses who want to participate in 
the economic vitality of our country through the business route. So it 
is very important that our small and minority-owned and women-owned 
businesses are able to create the jobs themselves.
  That is a Federal requirement. Hopefully, States are complying with 
the law. But if they are not, we definitely have an oversight process 
that is going to be looking at this.
  I happily yield back to my colleague from Ohio.

                              {time}  2100

  Ms. FUDGE. Again, Madam Chairman, I think that we have done a lot of 
work in a very short period of time. And I thank you for your 
leadership, and certainly I thank our leadership, the leadership of our 
caucus, as well as the leadership of the administration of our Nation 
for their vision.
  I yield back the balance of my time, Madam Speaker.

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