Date: 2003-04-08
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. I yield myself 4 minutes. I rise in opposition to H.R. 1261. This is the wrong bill being considered at the wrong time for the wrong reasons. This bill fails to extend unemployment benefits. it fails to create jobs. and it fails to stinliulate the economy. This economy is in the grips of a devastating economic stagnation. and it is now clear to everyone that the Presidents economic policies have utterly failed to date to create new jobs. they fail to stimulate new business growth. and they have richly succeeded in turning historic Federal surpluses into staggering deficits. Unemployment is at 6 percent. That means that almost 9 million Americans are officially unemployed and another 9 million are either working part time because they cannot find fulltime work or they are so completely discouraged that they have stopped looking for work. The Department of Labors own data shows that there are three job seekers for every job available today. And yet this legislation comes forth and begins to unravel what has been a carefully constructed Jobtraining program over the last 20 years on a bipartisan basis. It does so by undermining the ability of workers who are dislocated and others to get the services that they need to go back into the job market. But It also does it because of the insensitivity of this administration. because in this year. in this last year. as hundreds and hundreds of thousands of Americans join the ranks of the unemployed. this administration and this Congress cut $650 million of the programs under WIA. The Presidents budget this year suggests another $200 million in cuts. So while they talk about the block grant and they talk about efficiencies. let us understand what they are doing. As the ranks of the unemployed grow in staggering numbers. there will be fewer resources available to help those individuals get back Into the job market. There will be fewer resources available to help the 6 percent of Americans who are unemployed. to the 4 million Americans who are underemployed and are looking for longer hours. Payroll employment has not been this depressed since the Great Depression of the 1930s. and why is that? Because there is not enough demand in the economy. But unfortunately tomorrow the Republicans will give us an economic program based upon tax cuts for the wealthy that most economists in the country have already said while they may agree with the tax cuts. it will not stimulate the economy. It is still questionable whether or not the Democrats will be able to put forth their program which economists tell us will create 1 million new jobs this year. This legislation. because it Is within the jurisdiction of the committee and our ability. could have also extended unemployment benefits for those who are about to run out on May 31. But unfortunately the Republican leadership of the committee would not support that amendment and the Republican Committee on Rules would not make it in order. So as we stand here in these dark times for unemployed American families who do not know yet whether or not unemployment benefits are going to be extended at the end of this month. where they will be playing with whether or not we will extend them. we know that within the Republican part the last time there was a huge amount of opposition to the extension of the unemployed benefits. that many people were lost because of the gap in that coverage. But this legislation is silent on that issue. This legislation is like a narcotic. It wants to say we are moving around the structure of WIA. we are cutting the funding of WIA. but things are going to get better for the unemployed in this country. It is just simply not so because the Bush economy has been so terribly devastating to so many segments of the economy. whether it is in manufacturing. whether it is in high tech. whether it is in services. whether it is in transportation. whether it is in accommodations. and this President has yet to take a single step. Yes. he got his tax cut his first months in office. He has lost 2.5 million jobs since then. since then. That did not work. What he is suggesting is that we do more of the same. That is not an answer for these desperate families who are trying to hold themselves together through these dark economic times.