[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 176 (Thursday, November 17, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H7733]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                BIPARTISAN JOB FAIR IN WASHINGTON STATE

  (Mr. SMITH of Washington asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SMITH of Washington. I rise in support of a bipartisan effort to 
create jobs.
  Just as Congressman Reichert said, he and I are hosting a job fair 
next week. At a time when unemployment is over 9 percent in this 
country, when our economy desperately needs to put people back to work, 
I think this is the way we need to do it, in a bipartisan manner. At 
the end of the day, we're not going to have any job creation bills that 
aren't bipartisan because of the nature of Congress.
  I applaud Congressman Reichert for working with me on this idea, and 
it's really a very good idea in terms of job creation.
  Yes, there's huge unemployment, but less well known is there are 
actually employers out there that have jobs that are trying to find 
people to fill them. Matching the skills necessary with those jobs is 
critical. And that's what the HIRE America job fair that we're going to 
do next week in Kent is all about--bringing in 75 employers that 
actually have jobs available, with unemployed people looking for work, 
to match them up, to try to put people to work to get this economy 
moving again. It's a great idea.
  I thank Congressman Reichert for working with me to do this. It's 
bipartisan. And it's focused on the number one most important issue 
this country faces, getting Americans back to work and getting our 
economy moving.

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