[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 14501-14507]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2020
                    CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS HOUR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Bucshon). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 5, 2011, the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands 
(Mrs. Christensen) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the 
minority leader.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
  The Congressional Black Caucus is pleased, and we thank the 
Democratic leadership for allowing us, once again, to come to the floor 
for the Democratic hour.


                             General Leave

  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. First of all, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks 
and to add extraneous material on the subject under discussion this 
evening.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands?
  There was no objection.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. At this time, I am joined by two of my colleagues. 
I would like to yield to the gentlelady from Ohio, who, for 2 years 
religiously, had the responsibility in the last Congress to lead us in 
these Special Orders--with a lot of conviction and great information to 
share with the American people.
  Congresswoman Marcia Fudge of Ohio.
  Ms. FUDGE. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank Representative 
Christensen for anchoring today's timely CBC Special Order on 
unemployment in the African American community and on job creation.
  It is no secret that the unemployment rate for African Americans is 
almost twice that of the national unemployment rate. Studies show that 
16.7 percent of all African Americans are unemployed. It's probably 
closer to 20 percent when you take into consideration those who have 
given up looking for jobs or who are severely underemployed. In some 
cities, it is nearly three times the national unemployment rate.
  Mr. Speaker, the people I represent are not talking about budget 
cuts, and they're not talking about continuing resolutions. The people 
in my community are talking about being laid off, and they're talking 
about losing their homes while they're still trying to provide food for 
their families. We are in a crisis that will undoubtedly affect our 
children and our grandchildren as 11 percent of all American children 
have at least one parent who is unemployed.
  What does that mean for them?
  It means fewer opportunities, and it means fewer meals.
  As a Nation, we have always prided ourselves on defining ``success'' 
as providing a better future for our children. That's why my colleagues 
and I are speaking out today. That's why it is absolutely essential 
that we begin to make changes that will help our people get back on 
their feet. We must do something to create jobs, and we must do it now. 
I hosted a telephone town hall on the economy a few weeks ago. Seven 
thousand people from around my district joined the call to ask 
questions about resources for small businesses or how to find job 
training programs. These people, like so many others, are looking for a 
way out of this situation, and it must come now.
  It's clear to me that we have settled for short-term solutions to a 
problem that demands a long-term strategic resolution. We need to 
retrain workers for the jobs of today. Surprisingly, there are millions 
of positions that go unfilled in an economy where Americans are 
unemployed. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that there were 3 
million job openings on the last business day of May 2011, yet the 
unemployment rate at that same time was 9.2 percent. There were enough 
jobs available to employ just over 20 percent of all of these 
unemployed Americans. So there is an obvious disconnect.
  Many people searching for work lack the job-specific skills they need 
to be competitive for many of the job vacancies. Technology is 
outpacing the Nation's current approach to job-related education and 
training. The difference between white collar and blue collar jobs is 
fading because, traditionally, blue collar jobs are more specialized 
than ever before.
  As a solution, I've introduced H.R. 2742, the Hire, Train, Retain Act 
of 2011. This bill will give employers tax incentives for hiring 
unemployed Americans and providing job training to fill job vacancies 
specific to that employer. Employers will also receive a ``hire 
retention tax credit'' of up to $1,000 for each qualified employee 
retained for 52 weeks.
  Another proven way to get Americans working is through infrastructure 
projects. That is why I recently introduced the School Athletic 
Facilities Restoration Act of 2011. This bill authorizes the allocation 
of grants to local educational agencies for the construction, 
renovation, or repair of school facilities used for physical education. 
The funds will facilitate construction hiring while improving safe 
places for children to exercise and play.
  In closing, I want to mention that every single member of the 
Congressional Black Caucus has sponsored job creation legislation. The 
best way to

[[Page 14502]]

reduce our deficit is to create jobs. That's why, in August, the CBC 
took our message on the road and connected job seekers with employers 
at job fairs across the country, and we listened to the voices of our 
constituents during town hall meetings.
  Mr. Speaker, I came to Congress to be a voice for struggling 
Americans. My number one priority is job creation and economic 
development. I am working hard to create jobs, and time is of the 
essence. This is not a time for political posturing and partisan 
bickering. The American people need help. They need our help and they 
need it now.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Congresswoman Fudge, for that 
legislation and for your leadership on so many issues that are 
important to the people of this country.
  I would next like to yield such time as she might consume to the 
former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus--again a leader on many, 
many issues, whether it be health care, global health, AIDS, as well as 
developing our agenda that we've continued even into this Congress of 
creating pathways out of poverty--Congresswoman Barbara Lee of Oakland, 
California.
  Ms. LEE of California. Let me thank my colleague, Congresswoman 
Christensen, for those kind remarks and also for leading this Special 
Order, once again, in order to sound the alarm about the jobs crisis in 
our country.
  Also, Congresswoman Christensen, I want to thank you for your 
leadership on so many issues, especially on health care. You remind us 
of the importance of health care reform, not only because people 
deserve affordable, accessible health care, but because of the many 
jobs that will be created in the health care sector as a result of 
these reforms. So thank you for continuing to remind us of that, 
because many, many jobs are going to be created as a result of the work 
that you did.
  Under the leadership of our very brilliant and bold chairman of the 
Congressional Black Caucus, Chairman Emanuel Cleaver, and of our jobs 
task force chair, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, the Congressional Black 
Caucus has been hitting the street about jobs for some time now. We 
held five ``for the people'' jobs initiatives around the country--in 
Cleveland, Miami, Atlanta, Detroit, and Los Angeles--bringing together 
employers who have jobs with people who need jobs. The response was 
overwhelming. Thousands of people showed up at each event, all wanting 
to share their stories, to learn how to interview or network or to just 
strictly apply for a job.
  As we know, communities of color are feeling this Great Recession 
more than others. In fact, for communities of color, especially in the 
African American community, the Great Recession has been more like the 
Great Depression. While the national average unemployment rate is 9.1 
percent, the unemployment rate for African Americans is 16.7 percent 
reported. For Latinos, it's 11.3 percent--and that is for those who are 
reporting they're out there looking for work. If we consider those who 
have essentially stopped looking or who have given up on getting a job, 
we can probably double these numbers. It's very, very tragic.
  For the people's jobs initiative, this initiative highlighted what is 
taking place throughout the Nation. People are desperately looking for 
jobs. People want to work. We must pass the American Jobs Act as a 
first step in addressing the jobs crisis that is sweeping the Nation. 
Sadly, the jobs crisis moves hand in hand with poverty. The Census 
released some staggering numbers last month in its report, ``Income, 
Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010.'' 
For example, 2.6 million Americans fell into poverty in 2010.

                              {time}  2030

  That's about 7,118 people a day falling into poverty. Let me put it 
another way: It's like a small town falling into poverty each and every 
day.
  The poverty rates in 2010 that the census revealed are as shocking 
and as staggering as the unemployment numbers. The poverty rate for 
whites, non-Hispanics, was 9.9 percent; for African Americans, the 
poverty rate was 27.4 percent; the poverty rate for Latinos was 26.6 
percent; and for Asian-Pacific Islanders, 12.1 percent.
  In 2010, 15.1 percent of Americans were living in poverty. Now, 
that's 46.2 million people, in the wealthiest and most powerful country 
in the world, 46 million people living in poverty, and 9.1 percent are 
unemployed. Creating jobs will improve our Nation's economy and provide 
people pathways out of poverty.
  We need to target Federal programs to communities most in need, and 
we can do this by using particularly the data sets like those from the 
census to target programs with the highest unemployment rates and the 
highest poverty rates. We can extend and should extend the Emergency 
Unemployment Compensation program and the Extended Benefits 
Unemployment program, both of which expire early in 2012. If we don't, 
millions of unemployed Americans will no longer have a safety net until 
jobs are created. Remember, for every four unemployed workers seeking a 
job, only one job exists. That is a fact.
  We also need to pass H.R. 589, which I introduced with a fellow CBC 
member, a good friend, a great leader, Congressman Bobby Scott, which 
gives an additional 14 weeks of unemployment benefits to those eligible 
people who have exhausted their benefits and no longer receive this 
support.
  We have no idea today how these people are surviving in these 
devastating times, and we can and must continue to support them while 
we work to create jobs. Speaker Boehner still will not move this bill 
to the floor for a vote and, once again, I am going to encourage the 
Republican leadership to bring H.R. 589 to the floor.
  We also must restore the TANF emergency contingency fund and increase 
the amount of money going to this program, which directly supports 
needy families with the basics and creates jobs. We also should develop 
and implement various corps, similar to those implemented through the 
Work Projects Administration, the Public Land Corps, and the Civilian 
Conservation Corps aimed at programs and services needed in communities 
across this country, including health care corps, public safety corps, 
community corps, and teacher corps.
  We should expand the Workforce Investment Act aimed at young people, 
particularly the 25 percent of teenagers and young people who are 
unemployed today--in the African American community over 40 percent, 
all losing hope for their futures.
  We should extend and support the expansion of on-the-job training for 
unemployed workers, including those who are long-term unemployed and 
those who have exhausted their unemployment benefits, to help them 
refresh their job skills and ease their reentry into the workforce. We 
know that these initiatives will put people back to work, and that is 
what the Congressional Black Caucus continues to fight for.
  We have to fight against the Republican opportunistic attacks on the 
environment and the regulations that protect the environment and public 
health which, of course, they are claiming as a jobs program.
  It's no jobs program. In fact, turning back the clock on the Clean 
Air and Clean Water Act will simply destroy jobs across the country, 
along with destroying our precious, natural resources, while placing 
human health in danger.
  It's completely misguided. It's a terrible move by the Republicans. 
They are turning a blind eye to the needs of Americans and the needs of 
our economy.
  Now, the most effective anti-poverty program is an effective jobs 
program, and the CBC has been working to create jobs and connect people 
to jobs. We are not going to back down. And as the CBC has done for 40 
years, we are going to continue to fight for jobs, justice, and 
equality. Our voice as the conscience of the Congress is needed now 
more than ever.
  So I want to thank, again, Congresswoman Donna Christensen, Chairman 
Emanuel Cleaver, Congresswoman Maxine Waters and all of our CBC

[[Page 14503]]

members for bringing us together to conduct this jobs tour, to speak 
out tonight, each and every day on this floor, in our communities on 
the critical issue of jobs, and to remind the Congress that people do 
want to work and we should hurry up and pass the American Jobs Act as a 
first start.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Congresswoman Lee. You were the chair of 
the Congressional Black Caucus as we created and passed the Affordable 
Care Act. And without your determination, many of the important 
provisions that we felt were important to our communities and to 
communities across our country would not have been there. We thank you 
for that.
  And thank you for reminding us that the Affordable Care Act is a jobs 
bill. It is reported that it may produce as many as 4 million jobs. And 
so it's not only a bill, an act, a law that would allow over 30 million 
people to finally become insured and provide access to quality health 
care for many people who have never had it, but it will also create 
jobs.
  It's interesting how health care is connected to so many of the other 
things that we are dealing with. Two of the most important things that 
have to be fixed, if we are to get out of this recession: We have to 
create jobs, and we have to fix the foreclosure crisis.
  There was an article in The New York Times today by Craig E. Pollack 
and Julia F. Lynch that was entitled ``Foreclosures Are Killing Us,'' 
and it caught my eye. I just want to read a little piece of it into the 
Record:
  ``A growing body of research shows that foreclosure itself harms the 
health of families and communities. In our 2008 survey of 250 people 
undergoing foreclosure in the Philadelphia area, 32 percent reported 
missing doctors' appointments and 48 percent said they let 
prescriptions go unfilled, significantly higher rates than others in 
their community. A paper released last month by the National Bureau of 
Economic Research found that people living in high-foreclosure areas in 
New Jersey, Arizona, California, and Florida were significantly more 
likely than those in less hard-hit neighborhoods to be hospitalized for 
conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart failure.
  ``More than one-third of homeowners in our study had symptoms of 
major depression.'' The N.B.E.R. study found significantly more 
suicides also.
  So these issues and these problems that affect, in large part, 
minority, racial, and ethnic minority populations are responsible for 
some of the health disparities that we talk about.
  Ms. LEE of California. Will the gentlelady yield?
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I yield to the gentlewoman from California.
  Ms. LEE of California. I am very pleased that you raised this article 
because the human toll, the physical and mental health impact of these 
horrific public policies that either have taken place over the last 8 
years or that are not taking place that we should enact are really seen 
each and every day in our communities every day, and people are 
desperate, they are suffering. And for the life of me I don't 
understand why especially Tea Party Republicans don't get it, because 
their people are suffering also.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Absolutely, absolutely.
  We have been joined by another former chair of the Congressional 
Black Caucus and the leader of our Health Care Task Force, 
Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and I would like to yield such time as she 
might consume to her.
  Ms. WATERS. Thank you very much, Congresswoman Donna Christensen. I 
am very pleased that you took this time out this evening to give us an 
opportunity to continue to focus on our top priority in the 
Congressional Black Caucus. We are absolutely focused like a laser beam 
on the fact that jobs are needed so desperately in all of these 
communities that we represent.
  We recognize that unemployment is unprecedented, at its highest 
levels perhaps since the 1980s across this country, with 9.1 percent 
being that of the country. But we also recognize that in minority 
communities it is so much higher; in the Latino community, 11.3 
percent; in the African American community, 16.7 percent.
  Why are we focused like a laser beam on this issue? Because we 
understand the pain that is going on. We understand the increasing 
desperation. We understand the growing hopelessness and, as public 
policymakers, we must do everything that we possibly can not only to do 
actual job creation, but to help people out there understand that we 
know what's going on. We feel their pain, and we are prepared to do 
everything possible to come to their aid.

                              {time}  2040

  So there are those who may get tired of us talking about it. There 
are those who wonder why we took our vacation time and traveled across 
this country in five cities with these job fairs and town halls that we 
did, but it is all because we understand, perhaps better than others, 
this pain and this desperation and this feeling of hopelessness; and 
that's not good for this country.
  So you're absolutely correct. The Congressional Black Caucus went to 
Detroit. We went to Cleveland. We went to Miami. We went to Atlanta. 
And we went to California, Los Angeles. And what did we see? As it has 
been said over and over again, thousands upon thousands of people in 
line desperate to be able to talk with employers.
  I must extend a big thank you to employers. They heard our call and 
they showed up. And they were at each of these meetings, these job 
fairs that we had; and people were able to fill out applications, to 
learn what the process is for that particular employer, to be able to 
talk with someone. And I had job seekers in Los Angeles who said to me: 
Ms. Waters, you know, I may not get a job, but I appreciate the 
opportunity that the Congressional Black Caucus is affording me and 
others to be able to take a shot at it, to be able to talk with 
someone.
  So in Los Angeles, in my own community, 10,000 people showed up. We 
organized it in ways that they wouldn't have to stand in line for long 
periods of time; and thanks to the Crenshaw Christian Center that has 
the Faith Dome that holds 10,000 people, we were able to get people off 
that sidewalk through that dome and to those employers where we set up 
tents for 170 employers who came behind the dome, and it worked very 
well.
  Congresswoman, I want you to know this past weekend, as I traveled 
throughout the area, people came up to me and said: Ms. Waters, I got a 
job. I can't tell you how great that made me feel. And, of course, it 
was only a small number of people that I encountered. But just to have 
them say, thank you, I received a job, was extremely impressive and 
inspiring and made me feel so very, very good. We are going to follow 
up with the employers and have them feed us back the information about 
how many people they were able to hire so that we can give a report on 
that.
  But in all of this, I am so worried that the unemployment in the 
African American community may reach as high as 20 percent. Our 
communities have been hit hard. I heard you allude to the foreclosures 
that we're experiencing in our communities. Our communities were 
targeted. They were targeted by financial institutions because they saw 
that people were eager to have homes. They understood that if you gave 
people an opportunity, that they would take advantage of it. But what 
they didn't say was that they were coming up with all of these exotic 
products, products that literally got people into homes, but it could 
not be sustained because of the way these products were organized.
  You had people who were told: you don't have to pay anything down; 
you just have to pay a little down. Don't worry about the resets; don't 
worry about what will happen 2 years from now. And these exotic 
products were products that had the devil in the details. And so people 
entered into mortgages they certainly could not afford down the road; 
and so our communities are overwhelmed with foreclosures, the loss of 
wealth, the loss of the only wealth that many of our families certainly 
had and could ever have for years to come.

[[Page 14504]]

  I just want to share with you, in addition to the joblessness and the 
foreclosures and the loss of homes, the median wealth of white 
households is 20 times that of black households and 18 times that of 
Hispanic households, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of 
newly available government data from 2009.
  These lopsided wealth ratios are the largest since the government 
began publishing such data in 1984, and roughly twice the size of the 
ratios that had prevailed between these three groups for the two 
decades prior to the Great Recession that ended in 2009. The median 
wealth of United States households in 2009 was $113,149 compared to 
$5,677 for blacks and $6,325 for Hispanics. The percentage of African 
Americans with no wealth has increased. About 35 percent of black 
households and 31 percent of Hispanic households have zero or negative 
net worth in 2009 compared with 15 percent of white households.
  Basically, just looking at the joblessness and the lack of wealth, 
the decreasing wealth tells the story. No communities can survive under 
these conditions. Everybody must be concerned about unemployment in 
general, but specifically these communities that are so bad off under 
the situation and the environment that we're living in at this time. So 
we support the jobs bill. We want to create jobs in our infrastructure. 
This country needs to repair its roads and its bridges and its water 
systems, and we believe that creating those jobs will help all of our 
communities, not only get jobs but put money back into the economy.
  The economy needs stimulating. You stimulate the economy not by cut, 
cut, cuts, but by investing in the economy, both the private sector and 
the public sector. So we've got to fight for it. We've got to stand up. 
We've got to resist any Tea Party efforts that say that they came to 
Congress to dismantle government and they want to cut, cut, cut. They 
will not support anything that will raise revenues, or even maintain 
revenues in some instances. We've got to push back on that. We've got 
to be strong. We've got to say to our colleagues: the facts are clear; 
they are in front of you. Nobody can deny these facts, and we're asking 
you to join with us in making sure that not only we deal with the most 
vulnerable in our society, but we pay attention to all of those who are 
suffering and the families that are suffering.
  I want to tell you, I have witnessed that some of our friends on the 
opposite side of the aisle who represent very poor communities don't 
seem to be able to rise to the occasion to offer them support. It seems 
to me that they can basically talk about and inflame issues that have 
nothing to do with the economic well-being of their constituents. And 
so we have to keep reminding them that this is for everybody. This is 
for your constituents that you're not really representing, those poor 
people in rural communities who don't have health care clinics, those 
poor people who don't have jobs, those poor people who don't have the 
kind of education that they should have.
  So thank you for bringing us to the floor this evening to once again 
put the focus on jobs, jobs, jobs.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Congresswoman Waters, and thank you for 
the work that you've done to ensure that our financial regulatory 
agencies have women and minorities on their boards, for the work that 
you've done to help homeowners stay in their homes and address the 
mortgage crisis, and for all that you do.
  You know, even though many of the people who came to those fairs 
didn't get a job, they got hope, and many of them had given up. I'm 
sure that re-energized them to go out and keep looking. If they didn't 
get a job then, they will get one. Thank you so much for your 
leadership on that.
  I'd like to yield now to the gentleman from Michigan, Congressman 
Hansen Clarke. Thank you for joining the ladies this evening.
  Mr. CLARKE of Michigan. You're very welcome, Representative 
Christensen. What I wanted to do was, on behalf of all metro 
Detroiters, I wanted to thank the Congressional Black Caucus and, in 
particular, our chairperson, Representative Maxine Waters, the head of 
our Jobs Task Force, for coming to Detroit and giving folks in Detroit 
some chance of getting a job and definitely some hope that they have a 
future for themselves.
  This was so important for me because years ago back in the 1980s when 
we had our last big recession, I was one of those guys who was 
unemployed. What happened was I did give up hope for a moment there, 
and it was devastating for me after I lost my income and then my food 
stamps were cut off. When you give someone the dignity that they 
realize they have something to offer themselves, their family and their 
city, it doesn't matter if they don't get a job at that interview. They 
will have then the drive to fight for themselves and not to give up. 
That's why our people are still here thriving because we didn't give 
up. But that jobs session did show that there are a lot of folks in 
Detroit who still need a job.

                              {time}  2050

  And I have introduced legislation to help provide those jobs 
opportunities to Detroiters. And if I could, I wanted to share with you 
and then share with our public how that would work. When you visited 
Detroit, Representative Waters, you may have noticed we had all these 
big parcels of vacant land with just nothing on it or maybe some burnt-
down houses or buildings. We could actually build plants on those 
properties as we built plants back decades ago in World War II that 
housed the arsenal of democracy that saved this world from fascism and 
helped us win World War II, those same plants that build those great 
American-made automobiles that put Detroiters to work but also put 
millions of Americans back to work.
  So in the same way, we have the land to attract these new plants. We 
also have roads that have all these potholes in them that need to be 
filled. We have bridges, we have water systems that need to be 
repaired, we have a plan for a transit system that could connect 
Detroit with the suburbs, help people get to jobs in the suburbs, help 
folks in the suburbs come to Detroit and enjoy themselves; but we need 
matching money to be able to do that.
  What businesses have told me and what families have told me is that 
they moved out of Detroit for a couple of simple reasons. Number one, 
they didn't feel safe in the city. So it didn't matter how many 
economic development incentives we provided businesses; few businesses 
would take those incentives if they felt that their office would be 
broken into or their employees would be robbed.
  Similarly, businesses that had to hire a large number of people, 
folks that they didn't know, they were concerned that the Detroit 
public schools really didn't graduate folks that had the ability to 
work on the job, that had the ability to read and write adequately to 
be able to do a good job if they were hired.
  And then, finally, because Detroit had overspent a lot of its money 
and they had to finance that deficit with bonds and then pay off those 
bonds by raising the property tax, a lot of businesses said, look, for 
the services I'm getting, the taxes are too high. On top of it, many of 
their employees, even if they lived in the suburbs, had to pay a city 
income tax, definitely the residents had to do that.
  So I said, look, the taxes are too high. If the perception is that 
the city is dangerous, I'm not sure if we are going to hire qualified 
people. They decided to leave the city. Safe streets, good schools, low 
taxes. If we could have those pieces in place, we could attract all the 
business. And I'll tell you why we could, because in spite of all of 
our challenges in Detroit, we still have the best manufacturing know-
how in this country and in this world. We have the trained workforce to 
put our State back to work and our country back to work. But we just 
need the money to hire the police officers, to hire the school 
teachers, to pay off our debt and cut our taxes.
  Now, this Congress says we don't have the money. But I say we do. 
It's in the very Federal taxes that Detroit individuals and Detroit 
businesses pay

[[Page 14505]]

every year; $2 billion a year Detroiters pay to the Federal Government, 
to the IRS in Washington. My bill, House bill 2920, would ask this 
Congress to say this: instead of sending Detroit tax dollars to 
Washington, D.C., let's redirect that money to Detroit, place it in a 
trust fund where it can't be touched, only to go to projects that will 
create jobs, to retire our debt, to hire police officers, to hire 
school teachers to keep our school buildings open longer, high-quality 
schools, and, yes, to cut taxes to eliminate our city income tax and 
reduce our property taxes. That would attract jobs back.
  And then we would have the money to fix up those roads, repair the 
deteriorating water system, and train people for jobs and then possibly 
even create a job program like the CETA job program that I got hired 
into that saved me, that saved me from a life that my friends ended up 
in--prison, incarcerated, on drugs, or dead. Those programs that this 
Congress stood for 30 years ago helped save my life, and it can help 
save this country.
  So I want to thank you for giving me this time to speak before the 
body. Detroit, we've got the money to put our people back to work. We 
pay it to the IRS every year. I'm asking this Congress to allow us to 
keep our money for 5 years, to put our people back to work as a pilot 
basis, and to show this country what Detroit can do for itself and for 
America. Thank you so much, and God bless you.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Congressman Clarke. Your passion is 
clear, and Detroit doesn't have a stronger advocate than you, and we 
are pleased to be a co-sponsor of your bill. Thank you for joining us.
  As you've heard, the Congressional Black Caucus is here this evening. 
We're still waiting for the first jobs bill to pass this Congress. And 
as you've heard from my colleagues, we need to begin with the American 
JOBS Act which was proposed by our President Barack Obama. And just to 
be clear, while we're advocates for the African American community, we 
are advocates for everyone; and this bill is good for everyone, 
everyone who lives in this country, and it is a good bill for our 
country.
  We happen to feel that putting people back to work in this country 
now is more important than fighting over an election that is more than 
a year away. The American JOBS Act provides tax cuts that will help 
businesses grow and create jobs, it will help provide incentives to 
hire the long-term unemployed, and it will keep teachers and other 
essential workers like police and firefighters in their jobs where we 
need them to be; and it will strengthen, repair, and build needed and 
faulty infrastructure and in doing so will create even more jobs; and 
it will give people a decent job which will allow them to take care of 
their families, to buy what we make here in America, and it will 
stimulate economic growth.
  It would give every American worker and their family a tax cut 
through extending the tax payroll tax holiday and do more to fix the 
mortgage crisis that got us here in the first place by allowing more 
refinancing of mortgages. It would help our fellow Americans take 
better care of their families, putting their children in better 
schools, supporting small businesses, building consumer confidence and 
spurring the spending that our economy needs to get back on track. This 
is what this Congress ought to be doing, not focusing on the solitary 
goal of making President Obama a one-term President. That is a losing 
proposition anyway.
  No one should be willing to let our fellow Americans suffer, fall 
into and become mired in poverty, remain unemployed, lose homes and to 
cause our economy to crumble further just because they have political 
and whatever other differences with our President.
  Mr. Speaker, the Republican leadership, led by the Tea Party 
extremists, are taking this country in the absolute wrong direction by 
insisting on cutting and cutting and cutting important programs and 
services like the Women, Infants and Children program, Maternal and 
Child Health and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance programs at a time 
when there are more people and more children in poverty, by working to 
deny the opportunity for health care to the over 30 million people who 
we worked so hard to get insured, including sick children, and people 
who would otherwise go bankrupt because of catastrophic illnesses over 
which they had no control, people who are already getting care because 
of the Affordable Care Act that is being so wrongly maligned.
  I agree with some of the posters I saw in the newspaper this weekend 
calling for jobs, not cuts; jobs, not cuts. That is what we have been 
saying all year, including here on the floor of the House every Monday 
that we've been in session. If our leadership listened instead of talk, 
talk, talk, I believe that is what they will hear the American people 
at large are saying: jobs, not cuts.
  And we have a golden opportunity to listen to them. For over the last 
2 weeks, there has been an ``occupation of Wall Street'' because while 
homeowners and pensioners and many people have suffered because of 
their meltdown, we have not seen the kind of remedies for the folks on 
Main Street, the side streets or the rural roads that would make them 
whole. They are speaking loudly and effectively on their and on our 
behalf.
  And then right here in Washington, D.C. today and for the next 3 days 
the Take Back the American Dream conference is here. They will be on 
the Hill on Wednesday calling on us to end the nightmare that the dream 
is turning into for far too many people and to restore the American 
Dream access which has been the hallmark and the pride of this country.
  What is happening at this conference and the one in New York is that 
Americans are saying enough is enough. And they are fighting back 
against the cuts that are making it hard for far too many people in 
this country to survive.

                              {time}  2100

  They're fighting back against attempts to repeal health care reform, 
fighting back against proposals that would weaken Social Security, 
Medicare, and Medicaid, and fighting back against voter suppression 
laws. They're fighting for jobs, for a future for our children, and 
they're fighting for our democracy.
  It is so very interesting this talk about President Obama and 
Democrats waging class warfare all because we want everyone in this 
country to do their part to help this country recover from a deep 
recession, all because we want to let tax cuts that were only supposed 
to be around for 10 years that have now been extended to 12 years 
finally expire like they were supposed to. Come on, colleagues, let's 
be honest. They were never meant to be permanent.
  And how many jobs have these tax cuts created as was loudly touted 
they would do? In 2001, at the end of the Clinton administration, he 
handed over this government with an over $2 trillion surplus. Now, 
after those tax cuts enacted in 2001, after almost 12 years of them, we 
are in record deficits and the worst recession since the Great 
Depression. And President Obama did not create that; he inherited it.
  The poverty rate is at the second highest in 45 years, and it is 
hitting, as you've heard, African Americans and Latino Americans 
hardest. The share of Americans in deep poverty, with incomes below 
half of the poverty line, is at the highest level ever recorded. And 
African Americans are more likely to be in extreme poverty.
  While we hear a lot about how much of a share of taxes the richest 1 
percent or the richest 10 percent pay, let me remind everyone that 
white Americans' wealth is 20 times--and you heard it earlier, but it 
bears repeating--20 times that of African Americans and 18 times that 
of Latinos. And that between 2000 and 2007, not 10 percent, not 20 
percent, not 40 percent, but 100 percent, all of the increase in wealth 
went to the top 10 percent in this country--all, the top 10 percent. 
The gap between rich and poor got wider. The rich got richer; the poor 
got poorer. That's a very dangerous trend for the future of this 
country.
  And then unemployment has reached record highs as well. You don't 
hear

[[Page 14506]]

about it much. You hear it from us. But in far too many places, our 
rural and our urban areas, communities of color, unemployment remains 
in double digits. African American unemployment nationally is over 16 
percent, but as you've heard, we know that it is higher than that in 
many parts of our country.
  So if we want to talk honestly about class warfare, class warfare is 
what too many people in this country have been experiencing since 2001. 
And now that we have a President who wants to end it, he is being 
accused of class warfare. If we really want to end class warfare, my 
colleagues, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle should be 
supporting rather than opposing him. Let's get real.
  In all of our 40 years, the Congressional Black Caucus has always 
been a caucus of action. Our agenda has been consistent, and we've 
pushed every Congress and every President. And so we resent anyone 
trying to put a wedge between us and our President to further their own 
agenda, one which is clearly not ours.
  But we continue to be the conscience of the Congress, as Maxine 
Waters coined when she was chair, the ``fairness cops of our Nation.'' 
That is why, when we could see none of our 40 job-creating bills come 
to the floor under the leadership of our chairman, Emanuel Cleaver, and 
the Jobs Task Force chair and former CBC chair, Maxine Waters, we 
called on the private sector as well as government agencies to come 
with us across the country to get people working again. And that is why 
we worked so hard with our Hispanic and Asian colleagues to get the 
Affordable Care Act passed. And we will work just as hard to see that 
it gets implemented. We are not going to sit quietly and let a vital 
door that is just opening for many to be slammed shut in our 
communities and communities like ours who need it most.
  Many scholarly reports have shown that just eliminating health 
disparities could save $1.24 trillion in just over 4 years in indirect 
and direct costs, in addition to saving lives. So if we really wanted a 
deficit reduction, eliminating health disparities and achieving health 
equity is deficit reduction at its best.
  And that's why we will continue to work relentlessly as a caucus to 
save homes, to build and equip better schools, to support regulations 
that protect our families and all families from the health and other 
effects of pollution. We have also worked together on budgets. And 
because we know that our country can invest where needed in health 
care, education, green energy, and job creation and reduce the deficit 
at the same time, we are preparing to send our recommendation to the 
Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. It will likely be based on 
our proposed 2012 budget. And it will end class warfare by allowing the 
high-end Bush tax cuts to expire while strengthening the middle class, 
continuing to create pathways out of poverty for our fellow Americans, 
and protecting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
  This country, Mr. Speaker, is fortunate to have a Congressional Black 
Caucus fighting on its behalf. And it is not only our duty, but it's 
our honor and privilege to do so.
  With that, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Ms. CLARKE of New York. Mr. Speaker, the American people made it 
abundantly clear what they expected from the 112th Congress. They 
expect us to stop fighting each other and to do the right thing for the 
country.
  However, instead of doing that, the Republican majority has done the 
exact opposite by engaging in partisan political games that cost the 
U.S. our triple-A credit rating, resulted in several near government 
shutdowns and nearly led to the first national default in our history.
  These actions don't reflect the American people's will, but rather 
the priorities of the Republican leadership of the House. The American 
people have done everything they can to make it clear, but Mr. Speaker, 
allow me to repeat their refrain: Jobs!
  Last month, President Obama unveiled his vision for job creation in 
the United States. While I would like to see a bit more with regards to 
direct job creation, it is a good start to addressing our nation's high 
unemployment, a rate that hovers around 16 percent for African American 
communities.
  Mr. Speaker, the Congressional Black Caucus has been at the forefront 
of the call for jobs legislation in the 112th Congress. The CBC put 
together a nationwide jobs fair to not only bring attention to the 
appalling unemployment numbers in the black community and help bring 
those seeking jobs together with employers, but to turn up the volume 
on a national crisis that has taken a back seat to the majority's 
favored approach of simply cutting our way to prosperity.
  Would you believe Mr. Speaker, that just today, the Majority Leader 
said that the House would not be holding a vote on the American Jobs 
Act; saying that voting on the complete package was ``unreasonable''.
  Mr. Speaker, what Americans find ``unreasonable'' is that the 
Republican majority is, once again, going to allow the American people 
to continue to suffer through our national jobs nightmare and continue 
in their insistence to not bring a single jobs bill to the floor.
  What, Mr. Speaker, is the majority afraid of? Are they afraid that 
the American people, recognizing that this could be the start toward 
resolving our national unemployment tragedy? Is the Republican 
leadership so afraid of the tea party that they are willing to allow 
continued national misery to satisfy a minority of their caucus?
  Regardless, as Members of Congress we represent the concerns of our 
constituents and I know what my constituents are telling me. They are 
telling me that Congress needs to get its act together and start 
focusing on the priorities of the American people and not those of a 
tiny, radical fringe of the majority.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, for the past 40 years the 
Congressional Black Caucus, has earned the reputation as the conscience 
of the Congress by providing a voice for the voiceless and fighting for 
the forgotten. This summer, we worked diligently to live up to and 
maintain our reputation.
  To address unemployment and the need for job creation solutions in 
underserved communities, the Congressional Black Caucus called upon 
private and public sector partners to immediately remedy the crisis by 
going into communities with legitimate, immediate employment 
opportunities for the underserved with the ``For the People'' Jobs 
Initiative--which included nationwide town halls and job fairs.
  During the month of August, nearly half of the Congressional Black 
Caucus traveled the country and saw firsthand how unemployment 
continues to devastate our communities during the ``For the People'' 
Jobs Initiative.
  Nearly 30,000 people from all walks of life attended CBC Jobs 
Initiative events in Cleveland, Detroit, Atlanta, Miami, and Los 
Angeles.
  Given the substantial coverage of the events, our nation's citizens 
will have great difficulty saying they were unaware of the suffering of 
millions of unemployed Americans.
  Like us, they too saw the lines wrapped around city blocks with 
hopeful citizens searching for a job opportunity to provide economic 
security for themselves and their families.
  We all know that job fairs and town halls are not sufficient to 
address the jobs crisis; however, it is a small step in the right 
direction.
  The unemployment numbers released in August demonstrate that there is 
a significant hemorrhage in the African American community that is not 
being addressed, which has resulted in extremely high job loss.
  Overall unemployment remains stagnant at 9.1 percent while 
unemployment in the African American community has risen dramatically 
from 15.9 percent to 16.7 percent.
  Well into the 112th Congress, the Congressional Black Caucus 
continues to urge the Republican Leadership to address unemployment in 
any meaningful way.
  We cannot afford to watch a segment of our community suffer from 
depression level unemployment, hoping that overall solutions will 
trickle down and fix the problem. It is clear that method will not 
work.
  Therefore, the Members of the CBC unanimously co-sponsored and 
introduced the Congressional Black Caucus ``For the People'' Jobs 
Initiative Resolution (H. Res. 348) to urge the House of 
Representatives to immediately consider and pass critical jobs 
legislation.
  Additionally, CBC members have introduced over fifty job creation 
bills since the beginning of the 112th Congress, launched a national 
jobs initiative, and provided nine job creation proposals targeting our 
nation's most vulnerable communities in this document.
  We believe that through Creating, Protecting, and Rebuilding those 
who have suffered relentlessly from our country's great recession would 
be granted another chance at perusing the American dream.
  We stand at a critical point in our nation's history. The time for 
bold action on jobs is now.

[[Page 14507]]

  Every American has the right to be gainfully employed and CBC Members 
will not rest until there is equality in access to jobs and economic 
opportunity.

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