[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 20 (Wednesday, February 9, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H557]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              JOB CREATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Tonko) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, I have said time and time again that my top 
priority this session of Congress is to focus on job creation and 
growing our economy. I think that many, if not all, of my Democratic 
colleagues share that same goal. However, let me share a few numbers 
with you here this morning on this new session of Congress. These 
numbers suggest that perhaps not every Member in this body shares that 
goal.
  Five, the number of weeks that this House has been in session under 
the new leadership.
  Twelve, the number of bills the House has voted on.
  Zero, the number of House votes on bills that have been through their 
respective committees.
  Zero, the number of House votes on bills intended to create jobs and 
address what should be our very top priority.
  The most important contest we face today is not between Democrats and 
Republicans; rather, it's America's contest with competitors across the 
globe for the jobs and industries of our time. And economic growth is 
crucial for us to win this global race, not only for the future of our 
workforce but also as a way to balance our budget and drive down the 
deficit.
  During his State of the Union address, I was happy to hear President 
Obama reiterate that we share the same top priority--jobs, jobs, and 
jobs. In fact, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, is 
sitting before the Budget Committee today. I plan to discuss the 
economic growth rate and the GDP with the Chairman later this morning.
  In June 2010, Chairman Bernanke suggested that the GDP would rise by 
about 3 percent over the course of the year last year and would likely 
increase at a slightly higher pace in 2011. In fact, the fourth quarter 
of 2010 showed a rate of growth at 3.2 percent. Compare that nearly 
double-digit turnaround to the end of the Bush administration where we 
saw a 6 percent downturn in GDP.

                              {time}  1020

  In addition to that slow but steady growth, we've seen the private 
sector add 1.2 million jobs, another stark turnaround from the final 
month of the Bush administration, where we lost more than 8 million 
jobs.
  Though we all acknowledge that job numbers need to grow more, I've 
been surprised at the enthusiasm for these GDP and private sector 
growth numbers coming from my colleagues on the other side of the 
aisle. They've been quite enthusiastic, claiming that the growth we've 
seen in the past few months is, in large part, from their policies. And 
yet we return to the numbers I mentioned previously--zero, the number 
of House votes on bills intended to create jobs since the start of this 
new session of Congress--and now we look to finish the budget for this 
year and await the budget proposal from President Obama for next year.
  We heard a lot in the campaign last year about the other side's job 
plan to cut and grow. In fact, we've seen that plan come to fruition 
through the Republican Study Committee. They have proposed $2.5 
trillion in discretionary spending cuts over the next 10 years. This 
plan would put more than 1 million jobs at risk, halt our economic 
growth, and hurt middle class families. Let me repeat that. This plan 
would put at risk more than 1 million jobs.
  Some of the examples of job losses include small businesses, where 
some 161,000 jobs would be lost due to $4 billion less in guaranteed 
loans. Law enforcement officials would lose their jobs where 12,900 
jobs would be cut. Approximately 4,000 positions for FBI agents, 800 
ATF agents, 1,500 DEA agents, and some 900 U.S. marshals would be lost, 
as would 5,700 correctional officers in our Federal prisons.
  And 27,500 weatherization jobs would be cut. Just imagine, as one of 
the largest and strongest winter storms of the season just swept across 
the country, with some areas receiving record snowfall accumulations, 
temperatures that dropped dozens of degrees below zero, and deadly 
storms that knocked out power and left people in the cold. We are 
telling the weakest and neediest amongst us that they simply are not 
worth our investments.
  Americans' top priorities are job creation and deficit reduction, and 
they demand that we work together to meet these goals. We are committed 
to deficit reduction, but we are not going to do it in an irresponsible 
way that will threaten jobs, economic growth, and the security of our 
middle class.
  The budget cannot be slashed at the expense of jobs and investments 
in transportation, clean energy, innovation, and rebuilding--rebuilding 
America, not jeopardizing our economic recovery.
  I agree with President Obama that we must out-innovate, out-educate, 
and out-build the rest of the world, but we cannot risk our economic 
future by rolling back investments that will help our private sector 
grow and put people back to work.

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