[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 79 (Monday, May 24, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H3730-H3733]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. 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. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members be 
given 5 legislative days to enter remarks into the Record on this 
topic.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Ohio?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. FUDGE. Mr. Speaker, the Congressional Black Caucus, the CBC, is 
proud to anchor this hour on jobs and the economy. 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.
  CBC members are advocates for the human family, nationally and 
internationally, and have played a significant role as local and 
regional advocates. We continue to work diligently to be the conscience 
of the Congress, but we understand that all politics are local. 
Therefore, we provide dedicated and focused service to the citizens and 
congressional districts we serve.
  The vision of the founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus, 
which was to promote the public welfare through legislation designed to 
meet the needs of millions of neglected citizens, continues to be a 
focal point for the legislative work and political activities of the 
Congressional Black Caucus today.
  When I first became a Member of the Congress, in the fall of 2008 
when I joined Congress, our economy was at its worst since the Great 
Depression. Predatory and subprime lending were at an all-time high. 
The housing bubble had just burst, and many of our largest financial 
institutions had gone bankrupt. Retirement and savings accounts were 
cut in half, forcing many of us to hold off retirement and continue 
working well into our golden years.
  Over 200,000 American workers were being laid off each month. In the 
State of Ohio, unemployment was growing rapidly, quickly approaching 
double-digit numbers. The 11th Congressional District's unemployment 
rate was even greater, already at double digits and growing.
  In October of 2008, when I arrived in Congress, my number one 
priority was promoting policies that created jobs, spurred economic 
development, and helped struggling Americans. I have consistently 
advocated for these policies.
  In early 2009, one of my first and most important votes in this 
Congress infused more than $787 billion into the U.S. economy through 
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This legislation was 
desperately needed to create and save millions of jobs. It focused on 
rebuilding America using green technologies and LEED-certified 
construction, making the United States more energy independent. It 
invested billions of dollars in research and emerging technologies to 
make our Nation more globally competitive.
  It also gave 95 percent of all American workers an immediate tax cut 
through the Making Work Pay tax credit. It invested billions of dollars 
in infrastructure needs, including roads, bridges, mass transit, and 
energy-efficient buildings.

[[Page H3731]]

  Finally, it invested dollars quickly into our economy. In Cuyahoga 
County, which is where I live, this legislation meant over 4,500 jobs 
and it provided salaries for teachers and firefighters. It also paid 
for construction workers to make critical improvements to our roads and 
our bridges.
  Members of the Congressional Black Caucus continue to support 
policies that create jobs, that provide career training and improve our 
economy. In the American Clean Energy Act, Representative Bobby Rush 
offered an amendment requiring that jobs created from the legislation 
go to the residents of impacted communities.

                              {time}  2000

  In the 2010 budget, Congressman Bobby Scott and Congresswoman Gwen 
Moore fought for and secured more dollars for job training and block 
grants. Congresswoman Corrine Brown, with the support of her CBC 
colleagues, authored a letter to the White House to promote funding for 
surface transportation projects.
  Tomorrow, the Congressional Black Caucus, along with the 
Congressional Progressive Caucus, the Congressional Asian Pacific 
American Caucus and the Jobs Task Force will lead a timely and 
necessary forum titled ``Putting Americans Back to Work: Direct Job 
Creation in Local Communities.''
  This is only a sample of the important legislation my colleagues in 
the CBC have created. We are beginning to see more growth in our 
economy. Even The Wall Street Journal reported that the economist from 
the National Association for Business Economics predicts solid growth 
and employment gains through 2011. This growth would not have happened 
without the Recovery Act and other Democratic-led legislation putting 
Americans back to work.
  We have done a great deal in a short period of time, but there is 
still much work to be done. There has been much improvement in the job 
outlook since I first came to Washington. The number of job losses each 
month, as well as the unemployment rate, have begun to fall.
  In April, the Federal Reserve Bank noted that economic activity has 
continued to strengthen and the labor market is improving. While we 
have a better outlook than when I first came to Congress during the 
height of the financial crisis, there is still more to be done.
  The Nation's unemployment rate is alarming--9.5 percent of the 
population is without a job. In northeast Ohio, the rate is 12 percent. 
Unfortunately, African Americans across the Nation have been hit 
hardest by this recession.
  We see the devastating effects of unemployment in all of our 
communities. The most recent data shows 16.2 percent of African 
Americans are unemployed. Many parts of the greater Cleveland area 
suffer from abject poverty and unemployment.
  Nearly one in every four Cuyahoga County residents live below the 
poverty line. These statistics demonstrate that Americans need and 
deserve a more concerted Federal effort to reduce poverty and create 
jobs among struggling populations.
  We must do more to curb our Nation's unemployment problem. We must do 
more to create jobs for our people.
  Yet there is still much work to be done.
  I cosponsored the Local Jobs for America Act. The Education and Labor 
Committee on which I serve recognizes we are going through one of the 
most difficult economic times in our history. The recession is forcing 
States and municipalities to cut critical jobs, those of teachers, 
police officers, and firefighters.
  I recently spoke with Mayor Clinton Hall of Warrensville Heights, 
Ohio. His community desperately needs money to keep its firefighters. 
Mayor Joe Cicero of Lyndhurst, Ohio, has been struggling to keep his 
police force. The city of Cleveland has had massive layoffs in the 
public school workforce.
  The Local Jobs for America Act will provide our economy a big boost 
by putting 1 million people to work by restoring services to local 
communities. The legislation will create and save public and private 
jobs in local communities this year. It will help ensure these 
communities have the ability to provide essential services.
  Finally, the legislation will help teachers by providing $23 billion 
this year to help States support 250,000 education jobs, $1.18 billion 
to put law enforcement officers back to work, and $500 million to 
retain and hire firefighters.
  Mr. Speaker, I have been joined by the chair of the Congressional 
Black Caucus. I now yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee).
  Ms. LEE of California. Thank you very much. Let me begin my thanking 
my friend and colleague, the gentlewoman from Ohio, Congresswoman 
Fudge, for anchoring once again tonight's Congressional Black Caucus' 
special hour.
  We are talking tonight about job creation and the economy. Every 
Monday the House of Representatives is in session, we hold Special 
Orders so that we can bring attention to some of the most pressing 
issues confronting our country that often really don't make headlines. 
And so I have to thank Congresswoman Fudge once again for her 
leadership and for leading these Special Orders, because this continues 
to keep our caucus and the entire country focused on the critical 
issues that sometimes do not receive the type of attention, really, 
that they should receive and, also, really puts forth what the agenda 
is of the Congressional Black Caucus.
  As chair of the CBC, I rise once again this evening sounding the 
alarm for the urgent and vital need to create jobs in America. We have 
to create jobs in our communities that have disproportionately suffered 
the brunt of this economic crisis and who, as a result, are in 
desperate need of targeted, concrete, and meaningful relief.
  For many months now, members of the Congressional Black Caucus have 
been and continue to be laser focused on stimulating the economy and 
creating jobs, particularly for the chronically unemployed. We have 
sought to engage the Obama administration, our House and Senate 
leadership, committee chairs, and our coalition partners to develop a 
legislative strategy to address the needs of millions of Americans who 
are struggling in this tough, economic environment.
  Last week we tried but this week I hope we will pass H.R. 4213, the 
American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act. This includes funding for 
summer youth jobs and emergency assistance for needy families. These 
provisions will target resources to communities with the most urgent 
need for help.
  Over the past several months, we have worked to develop a job 
creation strategy that will address needs of the chronically 
unemployed, and one of our top priorities has been the creation of a 
summer youth jobs program for America's youth.

  The Congressional Black Caucus met with President Obama, and we 
raised the importance of the summer jobs program to address the huge 
unemployment rate among young people. We need this targeted assistance 
to help put our young people to work and to teach them an array of 
valuable job skills that they can use throughout their life but, even 
more importantly at this point, in many of our communities and in our 
districts, many of our young people have to help their families just 
survive. They have to help pay the rent and put food on the table.
  While the most recent job reports issued at the beginning of May show 
the overall teen unemployment rate dropping significantly, African 
American and Latino teens remain unemployed at significantly higher 
rates than their white peers. African American and Latino teens are 
unemployed at 37.3 percent and 29.2 percent respectively, compared to 
an overall national rate of 23.5 percent. These figures underscore the 
urgent need for this legislation and for the United States Senate to 
quickly follow. We know that these jobs and the jobs initiative 
provisions in these bills will help all young people.
  Due to this recession and due to parents being unemployed, again, our 
young people have a critical role to play now in terms of just the 
stability of their families. Studies have shown also that teenage 
joblessness has many long-term consequences. Young people who fail to 
find early jobs are more likely to be unemployed, are underemployed 
into their 20s and permanently, mind you, trapped at the margins of the 
economy.
  So I urge all of us to support H.R. 4213 and get this passed. This 
bill will

[[Page H3732]]

also provide critical tax cuts and support for American workers through 
the end of this year. Some of the other provisions included in this 
legislation would provide tax relief to businesses and State and local 
governments to help them invest and to create jobs, provide important 
tax cuts to put money back into the pockets of working families, and 
help restore the flow of credit to enable small businesses to expand 
and hire new workers by extending small business loan programs. This 
bill also expands career training for Americans who are looking for 
work. It extends eligibility for the unemployed who need the 
unemployment insurance benefits, also COBRA, the health care tax 
credits, and other critical programs that families and communities 
depend on through these hard economic times. This, and sometimes I call 
it the survival package, which is what it is, helps families maintain 
and only maintain until they can get back on their feet and also until 
we can do more in terms of creating some real good paying and 
sustainable jobs.
  This bill also ensures that seniors and military servicemembers and 
Americans with disabilities continue to have access to doctors that 
they know and trust. Also, it closes tax loopholes for wealthy 
investment fund managers and foreign operations of multinational 
corporations.
  So we need to consider this bill quickly. We also need to look at 
Chairman Miller's bill, which is called the Local Jobs for America Act, 
because many of the provisions that the Congressional Black Caucus has 
been championing are included in that bill also.
  In the Miller bill we target funding to community-based organizations 
serving communities with poverty rates of 12 percent and-or 
unemployment rates that are 2 percent or more than the national 
average. We provide for on-the-job training for thousands seeking new 
skills for a new economy. In many of our districts throughout the 
country, even if we created jobs, our workforce may or may not have the 
requisite skills and may not have the preparation and the job training 
for those jobs because they have been undereducated, they have not had 
the type of resources, and have been chronically unemployed for many, 
many years. And so we need to have on-the-job training and workforce 
training as part of any comprehensive jobs package.

  Also in the Miller bill we target communities that are hit hardest by 
the recession, and we support programs that train, retrain, and hire 
teachers, law enforcement officers, and firefighters. So this bill that 
we are working on and talking about tonight, H.R. 4213, is building a 
foundation. It is an excellent first step, but we must move forward and 
have a comprehensive jobs bill to invest in people, invest in our 
workers, provide for worker training and retraining, apprenticeship, 
pre-apprenticeship programs, but also direct investment in job creation 
efforts.
  I want to thank once again my colleague from Ohio for sounding the 
alarm. Certainly in Ohio we have witnessed an economic downturn that is 
hard to imagine with the foreclosure crisis, the loss of jobs, 
outsourcing, the lack of health care. I know Ohio has really gone 
through some very difficult times.
  In my own State of California we are facing a huge budget deficit. 
People are being cut. Of course, unfortunately, the safety net is being 
cut. And so what we need to do here is provide Federal investment in 
job creation, because this ultimately will help us reduce our deficit, 
put people back to work, and allow American men and women and families 
to finally regroup and be part of the American dream.
  Ms. FUDGE. Thank you, Madam Chair.
  Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to say that our chair is involved in so 
many things, but one of the things that I can always say is that she 
has been a tireless advocate for jobs programs, especially summer jobs 
programs for our young people, and has always made sure that we kept at 
the top of our agenda what we need to do for those who are most in 
need. I just appreciate that, and I appreciate her leadership and her 
friendship.
  And I think that under her leadership the caucus has made great 
strides in making our communities aware of the work we do and how hard 
we work on their behalf. I thank you so much, Madam Chair.
  Mr. Speaker, as we in Congress have worked to ensure that all 
Americans have access to affordable health care, I thought to include 
an important provision in the health care legislation. This provision 
requires the Advisory Committee on Health Workforce Evaluation and 
Assessment to monitor the retention and expansion of the health 
workforce and to maintain quality and adequate staff levels in the wake 
of reform.
  This legislation will create job opportunities for my constituents. 
It provides a rapid response to the current shortages in the health 
care workforce.
  Recently, I, along with Chairman Towns of New York, introduced H.R. 
5055, the College Debt Swap Act of 2010. This proposal allows college 
graduates to exchange a portion of their private college student loan 
debt for Federal loans.
  As a result of the conversion, the Federal Government would earn 
about $9 billion, and this would improve funding for the Pell Grant 
program and provide opportunities for learning and training in various 
jobs that are available right now.
  Finally, I am introducing CAREER, Career Attainment Remedial 
Education and Resources Act of 2010.

                              {time}  2015

  This act is for dropouts and adjudicated youth. With the help of the 
National Urban League, I crafted this legislation to help those most in 
need of career training services. This bill will provide grants to 
communities and organizations helping young people find jobs.
  We must retrain workers in expanding industries. Instead of those 
industries that are shrinking, we must provide financial support for 
students to complete their trade certifications and their college 
degrees. Education is the only way to end the cycle of poverty. We must 
demand innovation in lending so small businesses and those in minority 
communities have access to capital. We must aggressively advocate for 
loan modifications to reduce foreclosures and keep Americans in their 
homes. In short, Mr. Speaker, we need a concerted effort from the 
Federal Government to expand critical services and resources in 
minority communities. Targeted assistance to those Americans who have 
been disproportionately suffering from the recession is crucial to 
reducing the unemployment rate for all.
  Mr. Speaker, I just want to make sure that the American people 
understand that even though we know that we need jobs and we know that 
we need them badly, we understand that there are many issues in this 
country, but jobs will solve a lot of the problems. In fact, we have 
done more in the short time that Mr. Obama has been the President of 
the United States than has been done in recent history. We have done 
more for our military; we have increased and provided better pay and 
better benefits. Taxes are lower than they have been in recent history. 
Business policies have been put in place that encourage growth of small 
businesses.
  Mr. Speaker, we have been mayors. We know what difficulties cities 
are having today. We understand that our cities can no longer provide 
fire service, police service, trash pick-up, trash removal. Times are 
tough. When you live in communities that survive by property taxes and 
people are losing their homes every day, people are losing their jobs 
every day, these communities cannot survive. It is our job as a 
government--and I say this to anyone--the only job the government has 
is to take care of the people it serves. And so it is important for us 
to make sure that we do our part to pass legislation that is going to 
make life better for the citizens we serve.
  Jobs do more than just put money in your pocket. Jobs can change our 
whole attitude, and they can change the attitude of an entire 
community, an entire class of students, an entire street. When you have 
a job, you start to feel good about yourself, Mr. Speaker. You start to 
feel that you can do things that are going to contribute not only to 
your household, but to society. So jobs are of significant importance.
  I would just ask that we continue to keep jobs in the forefront; but 
as well, that we continue to help those who

[[Page H3733]]

can't find a job because we are in tough, difficult times. We want to 
make sure that we do extend the unemployment benefits, and we want to 
make sure that we do continue to assist people with COBRA payments. We 
want to make sure that we can keep people living in their homes at 
least until they can find a way to better their situation.
  So I would ask all of my colleagues, those being on either side of 
the aisle, Mr. Speaker, that we work very, very hard to ensure that we 
pass the kind of legislation that is going to be something that is good 
for this country so that people will understand that we do know their 
pain, we do understand that America is hurting, we do understand that 
these are difficult times. And we certainly do want to encourage people 
to go to work. We want to encourage the small businesses to hire more 
people. We want to make people understand that we are doing the very 
best we can.
  And with that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back.

                          ____________________