I

104TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1050

To establish a living wage, jobs for all policy for the United States in

order to reduce poverty, inequality, and the undue concentration of

income, wealth, and power in the United States, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

FEBRUARY 24, 1995

Mr. DELLUMS (for himself, Mr. BONIOR, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. EVANS, Mr.

FILNER, Mr. HASTINGS of Florida, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Ms.

MCKINNEY, Ms. NORTON, Mr. OWENS, Mr. PAYNE of New Jersey, Ms.

PELOSI, Mr. RANGEL, Mr. SANDERS, Mr. TOWNS, and Ms. VELA ́ZQUEZ)

introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on

Economic and Educational Opportunities and, in addition, to the Committees on Government Reform and Oversight, the Budget, and Rules,

for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case

for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the

committee concerned

A BILL

To establish a living wage, jobs for all policy for the United

States in order to reduce poverty, inequality, and the

undue concentration of income, wealth, and power in

the United States, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.

2 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the ‘‘A

3 Living Wage, Jobs For All Act’’.

4 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents is

5 as follows:

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.

Sec. 2. Basic rights and responsibilities.

Sec. 3. Program to implement basic rights and responsibilities.

Sec. 4. Truth in budgets.

Sec. 5. The Joint Economic Committee.

Sec. 6. Authorization of appropriations.

6 SEC. 2. BASIC RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES.

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Congress affirms the respon8 sibility of the Federal government to implement and, in

9 accordance with current and foreseeable trends, update

10 and extend, in accordance with subsections (b) and (c),

11 the statement by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the

12 State of the Union message of January 11, 1944: ‘‘In our

13 days these economic truths have become self-evident. We

14 have accepted so to speak a second Bill of Rights under

15 which a new basis of security and prosperity can be estab16 lished for all—regardless of station, rank or creed. Among

17 these are the following:

18 ‘‘(1) The right to a useful and remunerative job

19 in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the

20 Nation.

21 ‘‘(2) The right to earn enough to provide for an

22 adequate living.
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1 ‘‘(3) The right of every farmer to raise and sell

2 farm products at a return which will provide a de3 cent family living.

4 ‘‘(4) The right of every business, large or small,

5 to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair

6 competition and domination by monopolies at home

7 or abroad.

8 ‘‘(5) The right of every family to a decent

9 home.

10 ‘‘(6) The right to adequate medical care and

11 the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health.

12 ‘‘(7) The right to adequate protection from the

13 economic fears of old age, sickness, accident and un14 employment.

15 ‘‘(8) The right to a good education.’’.

16 (b) UPDATE AND EXTENSION OF BILL OF RIGHTS.—

17 In updating and extending the 1944 bill of rights de18 scribed in subsection (a), the Congress hereby proclaims

19 the following:

20 (1) The right of every adult American able and

21 willing to earn a living through paid work to a free

22 choice among opportunities for useful and productive

23 paid employment (part- or full-time) at decent real

24 wages or for self-employment.
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1 (2) The right of every adult American unable to

2 work for pay or find employment pursuant to para3 graph (1) to an adequate standard of living that

4 rises with increases in the wealth and productivity of

5 the society.

6 (3) The right of all employees to organize and

7 bargain collectively in this country and other coun8 tries, to abstain from any form of work or purchas9 ing when necessary to protect such right, and to re10 ceive full diplomatic, economic, and other support

11 from the Federal government in helping make this

12 right effective in other countries and eliminating

13 policies or activities that undermine such right.

14 (4) The right of every adult American to live

15 and work in a safe and sustainable physical environ16 ment.

17 (5) The right of every adult American to such

18 widely available health services as may be necessary

19 and desirable to extend both life expectancy and ac20 tivity expectancy, reduce mortality and disability

21 through such non-contagious afflictions as cancer,

22 heart disease, stroke, infant mortality, high blood

23 pressure and obesity, reduce the incidence of such

24 contagious diseases as the human immunodeficiency

25 virus (HIV), the virus that causes the acquired im-
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1 mune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), and tuberculosis

2 and raise the life and activity expectancy of men to

3 those of women, and reduce the incidence of all

4 forms of morbidity among ethnic minorities to the

5 level of others in the population.

6 (6) The right of every adult American to cur7 rently available and fully explained information on

8 recent and foreseeable trends with respect to sources

9 of pollution and on products and processes that

10 threaten the health or life of people and on employ11 ment, unemployment, underemployment, economic

12 insecurity, poverty, and the distribution of wealth

13 and income, with detailed attention to various

14 groups in the population and broader panoramic at15 tention to such matters in each region of the world.

16 (7) The right of every adult American to vote

17 and to seek nomination or election without having

18 that right debased by the domination of electoral

19 campaigns by large-scale private financing of cam20 paign operations or by the scheduling of elections

21 during weekdays or in other manners that may

22 interfere with regular working hours.

23 (8) The right of every adult American to per24 sonal security against any form of violence, whether
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1 in the home, in the workplace, on the streets and

2 highways, or the Nation or world as a whole.

3 (c) PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.—The Congress

4 hereby recognizes that every person benefiting from the

5 rights set forth in subsections (a) and (b) has a personal

6 responsibility to promote her or his health and wellbeing,

7 rather than relying exclusively on health services by oth8 ers, to provide for appropriate care of children and elderly

9 parents, to protect the environment to the best of her or

10 his individual ability, to work productively, to register and

11 vote, to involve herself or himself in public concerns and

12 in ongoing education and training, to speak out against

13 corruption or injustice, and to cooperate with others in

14 promoting the nonviolent handling of inevitable conflicts

15 in the household, the workplace, and elsewhere.

16 (d) RESPONSIBILITY OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.—

17 Each Federal agency and commission, including the Board

18 of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, has the re19 sponsibility to plan and carry out its policies, programs,

20 projects, and budgets in a manner designed to help estab21 lish and maintain conditions under which all adult Ameri22 cans may freely exercise the rights or responsibilities rec23 ognized in subsections (a), (b), and (c). Each such Federal

24 agency or commission shall not directly or indirectly pro-
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1 mote recession, stagnation, or unemployment as a means

2 of reducing wages and salaries or inflation.

3 SEC. 3. PROGRAM TO IMPLEMENT BASIC RIGHTS AND RE4 SPONSIBILITIES.

5 (a) ESTABLISHMENT OF PROGRAM.—

6 (1) IN GENERAL.—The President shall establish

7 a program—

8 (A) to establish and maintain conditions

9 under which the rights and responsibilities rec10 ognized in section 3 may be exercised; and

11 (B) to implement the economic and social

12 obligations of the Federal Government under

13 the Employment Act of 1946, the Full Employ14 ment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978, the

15 Charter of the United Nations, the Charter of

16 the Organization of American States, the Uni17 versal Declaration of Human Rights, and the

18 International Covenant on Civil and Political

19 Rights.

20 (2) GOALS AND GENERAL PERSPECTIVES.—The

21 program established under paragraph (1) shall set

22 forth—

23 (A) specific goals for reducing, not later

24 than three years after the date of the enact25 ment of this Act, officially measured unemploy-
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1 ment to the interim goal of 3 percent for indi2 viduals who have attained the age of 20 and 4

3 percent for individuals who have attained the

4 age of 16 but have not attained the age of 20,

5 as set forth in the Full Employment and Bal6 anced Growth Act of 1978; and

7 (B) general perspectives for the quality of

8 life in the United States by the year 2000 and

9 the early years of the 21st century.

10 (3) POLICIES AND PROJECTS.—The program

11 established under paragraph (1) shall include gen12 eral and specific policies and projects designed—

13 (A) to provide quick action to enlarge em14 ployment opportunities through reductions in

15 real interest rates, and programs of private and

16 public works and services to use the abilities of

17 the jobless in repairing and improving the Na18 tion’s infrastructure of private industry, public

19 facilities, and human services, with special em20 phasis on the availability of good and affordable

21 education, health promotion services, housing,

22 child care, artistic cultural activities, and basic

23 as well as applied research and development;

24 (B) to provide quick action to begin staged

25 reductions in the length of the work year
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1 through longer paid vacations, the elimination

2 of compulsory overtime, curbing excessive over3 time through an increase in the premium to tri4 ple time on all hours in excess of 40 hours in

5 any week, exempting administrative, executive,

6 and professional employees from the overtime

7 premium only if their salary levels are three

8 times the annual value of the minimum wage,

9 reducing the average work week in manufactur10 ing and mining to no more than 35 hours with11 out any corresponding loss in weekly wages,

12 and voluntary work-sharing arrangements;

13 (C) to vastly increase the opportunities for

14 freely-chosen part-time employment, with social

15 security and health benefits, to meet the needs

16 of older people, students, the individuals with

17 disabilities and people with housekeeping and

18 child care responsibilities;

19 (D) to take such other steps as may be

20 needed to cope with the threats of increased

21 joblessness caused by technologies that replace

22 people with robots and other machines, includ23 ing vastly improved opportunities for up-to-date

24 and effective education, training, or retraining;
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1 (E) to prevent or control inflationary ten2 dencies through a full battery of standby poli3 cies, including public controls over price fixing

4 through monopolistic practices or restraint of

5 trade, the promotion of competition and produc6 tivity, and wage-price policies arrived at

7 through tripartite business-labor-government

8 cooperation;

9 (F) to provide improved Federal incentives

10 for investment, expansion, and increased em11 ployment by small, medium, and large business

12 enterprises, and by such other private sectors

13 entities as labor unions, professional associa14 tions, and non-profit, voluntary, and cooperative

15 organizations, including neighborhood, tenant,

16 home owner and self-help associations, and or17 ganizations of family farmers, women, minori18 ties, and the unemployed; and

19 (G) to promote conditions for more self20 empowerment by people victimized by discrimi21 nation in hiring, training, wages, salaries,

22 fringe benefits, or promotion on the basis of

23 prejudice concerning race, color, sex language,

24 religion, political or other opinions, national so25 cial origin, property, birth or other status, sta-
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1 tion in life, political or sexual orientation, or

2 personal disability.

3 (b) INCLUSION OF PROGRAM IN ANNUAL SUBMIS4 SION OF BUDGET.—Section 1105(a) of title 31, United

5 States Code, is amended by adding at the end the follow6 ing new paragraph:

7 ‘‘(30) beginning with fiscal year 1996, a de8 scription of the program to implement the basic

9 rights and responsibilities in the United States as

10 provided for in section 3(a) of the A Living Wage,

11 Jobs For All Act.’’.

12 SEC. 4. TRUTH IN BUDGETS.

13 All budget messages transmitted from the President

14 to the Congress shall be based on policies and programs

15 to reduce officially measured unemployment to the interim

16 levels set forth in the Full Employment and Balanced

17 Growth Act of 1978 and toward this end shall include—

18 (1) such full distinctions between operating and

19 investment outlays as regularly appear in the budg20 ets of business organizations and State and local

21 governments;

22 (2) not only gross outlays but also net outlays

23 calculated in terms of estimates on consequences of

24 additional paid employment may have on—
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1 (A) reducing outlays by reducing the num2 ber of people receiving unemployment com3 pensation, public assistance, and other transfer

4 payments (without necessarily including re5 duced outlays resulting from improvements in

6 public health and safety); and

7 (B) increasing tax receipts as a result of

8 more people earning income subject to social se9 curity and income taxes and more business en10 terprises earning the larger, more stable and

11 less subsidized total profits possible under con12 ditions of full employment;

13 (3) a general impact analysis on the direct and

14 indirect consequences flowing from each over-all

15 budget for levels of employment, output and prices,

16 foreign trade, environmental quality, the distribution

17 of income and wealth, and whatever benefits may be

18 conferred or costs imposed on various institutions,

19 groups and persons in society;

20 (4) to facilitate local initiatives and State re21 sponsibilities, estimates of the direct and indirect

22 flow of all Federal outlays (including off-budget out23 lays) to each State and each district represented by

24 the members of the House of Representatives;
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1 (5) a tax expenditure budget, as defined in the

2 Congressional Budget Act of 1974, but presented

3 not only in a separately published special analysis

4 but also incorporated into the general revenue provi5 sions of the budget and accompanied by estimates of

6 the benefits sought and thus far obtained by such

7 planned losses of tax revenue;

8 (6) a zero-based budgetary review of every pro9 gram involving more than $1,000,000,000 in gross

10 outlays;

11 (7) a wealth inventory providing information on

12 recent and prospective changes in the type and esti13 mated value of assets owned by the Federal govern14 ment and State and local governments, personal

15 wealth, and the net stock of both reproducible and

16 non-reproducible tangible wealth in the United

17 States; and

18 (8) the expression of any debt and deficit data

19 in constant as well as current dollars.

20 SEC. 5. JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE.

21 (a) MONITORING OF ACTIONS UNDER THIS ACT.—

22 In addition to its responsibilities under the Employment

23 Act of 1946, the Joint Economic Committee shall monitor

24 all actions taken or proposed to be taken to carry out the

25 purposes under this Act.
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1 (b) REPORT.—The Joint Economic Committee shall

2 prepare and submit to the Congress, and publish in Fed3 eral Register, an annual report containing a summary of

4 the findings of the Committee with respect to the actions

5 monitored under subsection (a) for the preceding year,

6 with special attention to the extent to which the President

7 and Federal agencies have faithfully executed or may have

8 failed to faithfully execute the provisions of this Act and

9 fulfill their obligations under international covenants and

10 conventions.

11 (c) CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON ECONOMIC POL12 ICY.—Not later than July 1 of each year the Joint Eco13 nomic Committee shall submit to the Senate and the

14 House of Representatives a Concurrent Resolution on

15 Economic Policy setting forth both in aggregate terms and

16 in detail its proposed goals for employment by type of em17 ployment, with special attention to hours, wages, and so18 cial benefits, and for reducing unemployment,

19 underemployment, and poverty in urban, suburban and

20 rural areas. Notwithstanding any other provisions of law,

21 these goals shall serve as the framework for any concur22 rent resolutions on the Federal budget.
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1 SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

2 There are hereby authorized to be appropriated such

3 sums as may be necessary to implement the policies, pro4 grams and projects set forth in accordance with this Act.

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