I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3548, the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act. This legislation provides up to 3 months' additional Federal extended unemployment benefits to…
I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3548, the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act. This legislation provides up to 3 months' additional Federal extended unemployment benefits to long-term unemployed individuals in States where the unemployment rate is 8.5 percent or higher.
That's on top of the 18 months of State and Federal unemployment benefits already available in places with unemployment at those levels. With the passage of this bill, folks who are unemployed could potentially receive up to 21 months of combined unemployment benefits.
Right now, more than half of the States will benefit from this bill. An incredible 29 States are struggling with unemployment rates of 8.5 percent or higher. In my home State of Kentucky, the unemployment rate is 11.1 percent, leaving more than one out of every 10 Kentuckians out of work.
That's a staggering number. The fact that we're here today discussing a measure that will provide Americans with nearly 2 years' worth of unemployment benefits is yet another sign of the failure of this administration's stimulus plan to create jobs. Nothing establishes that more clearly than the economic trends in States like the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Since February, 2009, when the stimulus law was signed, almost 38,000 Kentuckians have been added to the unemployment rolls, and the unemployment rate has surged from 9.3 percent in February, to 11.1 percent today.
Over the past year, nearly 123,000 Kentuckians have claimed emergency unemployment benefits after their traditional benefit allowances expired. Every week, between 800 and 1,200 Kentucky residents are running out of unemployment benefits.
Earlier this month, Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear sent a letter to the Kentucky delegation stating that the loss of unemployment benefits would be devastating to many families. It will only sink Kentucky further behind in the race toward economic recovery. State and Federal unemployment accounts are already drained, and we are headed for more than $100 billion deficits in these supposed ``trust funds'' by the end of 2010, with $200 billion deficits by the end of 2012.
All of that spending will come at a huge price, which could require a doubling or more of State payroll taxes and possibly Federal tax hikes as well. Payroll tax hikes mean a tax on jobs--and ultimately on job creation--which brings us back to the real point: jobs.
In February, the administration promised its stimulus plan would create 3.5 million jobs. We're still waiting. While the administration claims to have ``created or saved'' 1 million jobs, in the real world, Americans have witnessed the continued destruction of 3 million jobs since the beginning of this year.
The administration promised with its stimulus bill that national unemployment would not exceed 8 percent. It's now 9.7 percent nationally, and the President has said he now expects it to exceed 10 percent by the end of the year.
Earlier this month, Larry Summers, Chair of the President's National Economic Council, said that the level of unemployment is unacceptably high and will remain so for a number of years.
It's time to provide much needed help and assistance to millions of Americans who are struggling in States with outrageous unemployment rates. They should not be made to suffer for the failure of this administration's policies that have failed to create the promised jobs.
I support these extended benefits in H.R. 3548 to help long-term unemployed workers in Kentucky and other States where jobs are hardest to find. But we need to move beyond this secondary debate to the primary task of creating jobs, instead of undermining job creation. Until we do that, we're missing the point. What Americans want are jobs, not handouts from the government. But that's sure not what they're getting right now.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I will insert in the Record a recent article about an innovative and bipartisan Georgia program designed to help unemployed workers get back on the job quickly. The program is called Georgia Works. It allows unemployed workers to go to work for selected businesses for up to 24 hours a week for 8 weeks.
Unemployment benefits serve as the workers' salaries and the State pays an additional stipend of up to $300 a month to cover child care, transportation, and related work costs.
Employers win because they get to test out qualified workers they might hire. Workers get a solid foot in the door to a new job and maintain and build work skills. And taxpayers get lower taxes in the form of shorter unemployment benefits and a quicker return to work.
This is a win-win program that other States would do well to replicate to help workers get back to work more quickly.
Ga. Work Program Grows, Attracts Followers
(By Christine Vestal)
As states struggle to help legions of jobless workers find
employment, some are seeking advice from Georgia, where a
growing number of people are landing jobs as a result of free
tryouts sponsored by the state unemployment system. The
program, dubbed Georgia Works, is so simple that experts say
other states should have no problem replicating it.
``It's a brilliant little program. There's no cost to the
employer and the only cost to the state is a small stipend
for transportation,'' said Don Peitersen, workforce director
for the American Institute for Full Employment, which advises
states on employment issues. ``I go out and actively recruit
states to recreate the Georgia model,'' he said. Officials
from at least 15 states have told Georgia's labor department
they are considering the option.
Started in 2003, Georgia Works allows people collecting
unemployment benefits to work for selected businesses up to
24 hours a week for eight weeks at no cost to the employers.
When not working, unemployment recipients are expected to
search for other jobs.
Unemployment benefit checks serve as the workers' salaries
and the state pays for workers' compensation insurance when
needed. The state also gives job seekers as much as $240 to
cover child-care, transportation or clothing costs--a stipend
slated to increase to $300 this month.
All employers have to do is certify that they intend to
immediately hire for the position and follow up with a
performance evaluation, whether they hire the worker or not.
Georgia considers the program valuable on-the-job training,
but unlike other training programs, it is not federally
funded under the Workforce Investment Act. As a result,
Georgia Works is open to all job seekers, not just low-
income, disabled or dislocated workers who qualify under
federal rules. In addition, there is no need for
participating companies to fill out reams of paper to be
certified. In Georgia, no legislation was required to launch
the unique program.
Critics argue that the unemployment insurance system that
funds Georgia Works was not intended to help businesses
create jobs, but federal officials say they approve. ``It's
an innovative program and it's a good one. We think it's a
plus all the way around,'' said the U.S. Department of
Labor's southeastern director Pete Fleming.
Under the program, job seekers get a chance to show
employers their skills and businesses can test prospective
workers before hiring them. So far, more than 3,000 Georgians
have landed permanent jobs through the program.
With the recession creating a much larger pool of
unemployed workers, Labor Commissioner Michael L. Thurmond
aims to quadruple that number over the next year. ``Stimulus
job creation is not sustainable. Georgia's economy will not
rebound unless we jump-start private-sector hiring,''
Thurmond told Stateline.org.
He said plans are under way to make Georgia Works the
state's lead re-employment strategy by aggressively
recruiting businesses to get on board and offering job tryout
options to every job seeker.
In its six years of operation, Georgia's program has grown
primarily through word of mouth, with some job applicants
proposing it to prospective employers as a way to get their
foot in the door. Successful job seekers have also
recommended Georgia Works to unemployed friends, and
workforce agencies have proposed it to a small number of
businesses and unemployment recipients.
Under the expansion, Thurmond says the state will post
signs saying ``Ask me about Georgia Works'' at all workforce
centers, frontline staff will offer the option in initial
interviews with job seekers, and a marketing campaign will
target some 6,000 small- and medium-sized businesses across a
broad spectrum of industries, including retail, hospitality,
construction, manufacturing, transportation and public
utilities.
In the process, Thurmond says, the program will help
struggling companies get back on their feet and start hiring.
As in the rest of the nation, layoffs have subsided in
Georgia, but thousands of jobs remain unfilled, in part
because employers are uncertain about their economic future.
Even as the number of jobless workers soared to nearly 15
million nationwide last month, some 2.6 million jobs remained
open, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
By taking some of the risk and expense out of hiring,
Thurmond says Georgia can leverage unemployment trust fund
dollars to stimulate job growth. Instead of simply serving as
income support, benefit checks become a job seeker's
investment in new employment and an opportunity for companies
to lower the cost of hiring and training. ``That's two for
the price of one,'' Thurmond said.
But advocates for workers say the unemployment trust fund
was not designed to subsidize jobs. Instead, the insurance is
intended to support people while they search for the best
possible work. ``I don't buy the idea that pushing unemployed
workers to fill just any opening is better than searching for
a suitable job,'' said Andrew Stettner, deputy director of
the National Employment Law Center, which advocates for
workers.
Still, some workers say they would rather get back to work
quickly than live with the uncertainty and frustration of a
drawn-out job search.
Randall Crenshaw was one of those people. At 41, he lost
his job of 22 years last January at hair-products company
Goody Products, in Columbus, Ga. After two months of job
searching, he said, ``I was in shock because I was used to
getting up and going to work every morning.'' So, when his
adviser at the employment center suggested he enter the
Georgia Works program, Crenshaw jumped at the opportunity.
``There were about 50 of us in the room when he invited us
to stay after class if we were interested in hearing more
about the program. Only two or three people took him up on
it. So many people got up and walked out. I was just amazed
by that,'' Crenshaw said.
Acknowledging the program is not for everyone, Thurmond
says the soon-to-be announced expansion will set a goal of
enrolling 10 percent of the state's approximately 200,000
jobless workers. With the program's historic success rate of
placing more than 60 percent of participants in permanent
positions, the program should result in new jobs for some
12,000 unemployed workers.
Crenshaw got the job he tried out for at a home health-care
company in Columbus, and his salary of $35,000 is only $2,500
less than he was making in his last job. He said he'd
recommend Georgia Works to anyone.
According to data from the state's department of labor,
Georgia Works has helped lower the average amount of time it
takes jobless workers to find new employment, reducing the
draw on the trust fund by $6 million. After program expenses,
including worker's compensation insurance and stipends, the
net savings as of March 2009 was $3.7 million.
The U.S. Department of Labor maintains state-by-state data
on the average length of time unemployed workers remain on
benefits, but allows states to set their own rules limiting
the number of weeks each worker can receive a check. While
experts consider average duration of benefits a measure of
state performance in helping people find work, the
availability of jobs is a bigger factor.
Georgia currently requires participants in the Georgia
Works program to have at least 14 weeks of state unemployment
benefits left. That way, if they land a job during the eight-
week trial, it will save the state money on benefits. But
Thurmond says he plans to broaden the program to include
people closer to the end of their state benefits and those
already on federally funded extensions. In addition, the
trial period may be shortened to six weeks, since most
companies hire applicants they like in the fourth to sixth
week, so they won't take a job somewhere else.
Although stanching the drain on the unemployment trust fund
is still a goal, Thurmond said he is more concerned about
spurring private-sector hiring and reviving the state's
economy.
Georgia has been cited by two organizations--UWC Strategic
Services on Unemployment & Workers' Compensation and the
American Institute for Full Employment--for its innovative
approach to helping people on unemployment benefits find
work.
``We're in an unprecedented job market so it's a unique
opportunity to see if we can make this work,'' Thurmond said.
``Oftentimes in government you have to step back and
recalibrate. It's not so much a new idea, but an improvement
on a good one. We're flying this airplane while we build
it.''
The biggest objection Thurmond said he hears from other
states and potential business partners is that the program
sounds ``too good to be true.'' It involves scant paper work
and a minimal investment.
But simple, low-cost ideas are often the best. ``One of the
great strengths of the unemployment insurance system is that
states provide 50 separate incubators of innovation and
change,'' Fleming of the labor department said.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, as I said in my opening statement, I truly urge support for H.R. 3548, to extend benefits to help long-term unemployed workers in States with the highest unemployment rates, which include my home State of Kentucky. We also need to redouble our efforts to focus on the task of creating jobs, especially like those that would be coming from allowing Americans to take an all-of-the-above energy policy to create jobs across the board. As our Democratic majority leader in the State House says, If we were to do that, we could have a third industrial revolution across the heartland.
What Americans really want are jobs, not handouts. Even as we help those in places where jobs are the hardest to find, promoting job growth should be our broader goal and our number one priority as we move forward in this Congress.
With that, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.