Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert materials related to the topic of this Special Order. Thank you. The Congressional Black Caucus is proud…
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert materials related to the topic of this Special Order.
Thank you. The Congressional Black Caucus is proud to anchor this hour on job creation in the African American community. Currently, the CBC is chaired by the Honorable Barbara Lee from the Ninth Congressional District of California. My name is Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, representing the 11th Congressional District of Ohio, and I anchor this hour.
Mr. Speaker, I would now like to yield to our chairwoman, the Honorable Barbara Lee.
Thank you. I want to thank you as well, Madam Chair, just for keeping our caucus focused on jobs and poverty and, of course, pushing for the fundamental fairness we all deserve and what is expected of all of us in this House. I thank you for your work and for your leadership.
Mr. Speaker, I now yield to my friend, Mr. Cleaver, the Representative from Missouri.
Mr. Cleaver.
I want to thank my friend, Mr. Speaker, for just saying to us in a clear and concise way that it is time to be honest about where we find ourselves as a Nation, and that it is important that people be given an opportunity, just an opportunity--not a handout, an opportunity--to find work because, if we don't, we will have more problems than we can ever imagine. Not only does it take a toll on the wallet and on your home, but on your physical and on your mental health. So I certainly do hope that we will take heed to the things that were said by our Chair tonight as well as by Representative Cleaver and start to move in a direction that is going to positively impact the people of this country. I thank you both for being with me tonight.
Mr. Speaker, the CBC believes that stable employment at a fair wage is a fundamental right for all Americans. In times of economic weakness, such as this recession, government should empower our Nation's workforce by providing training and placement opportunities for dislocated workers. During the month of March, the CBC will engage in a 5-week campaign to seek policy solutions for the chronically unemployed, engaging President Obama, Congress, and the coalition partners in a strategy to put Americans back to work.
The chronically unemployed are not counted by labor statistics, Mr. Speaker. They are not counted in the Workforce Investment Act, which is designed to get people back to work. Congress inadvertently sent them a message that they don't count. But they do count, and they want to work.
The CBC's agenda, Opportunities for All--Pathways Out of Poverty focuses on six areas: education for low-income communities, increasing the reach of economic security, eliminating health disparities, providing affordable housing options, reforming our judicial system to break the cradle-to-prison pipeline, and addressing global poverty. During tonight's Special Order, Chairwoman Lee discussed with you some of the progress we've made in our efforts in this endeavor. If you wish to receive additional information or ask for updates, you can email the Congressional Black Caucus at congressional black [email protected].
I want to just talk a bit about some of the things that you've heard tonight but maybe in a different way. We know that national unemployment is somewhere around 9.7 percent. There are currently 15 million people seeking employment in this Nation, up from 7.5 million in December of 2007. There are 2.5 million people out of work, and 9 million are employed only part time
rather than the full-time employment they prefer and need. With the unemployment rate at 9.7 percent, U.S. labor market conditions are certainly grim. We all, I think, can agree with that.
The unemployed who have been out of work and searching for a new job for at least 6 months remains at a record high, at or above 27 percent, and hitting a record 41 percent in January of this year. If we examine unemployment rates by demographic information, you will see proof of the inequality of which we speak tonight. While all major groups have experienced substantial layoffs during this downturn, communities of color, particularly African Americans and Hispanic Americans, are experiencing the worst of these job losses.
According to the Department of Labor, although the national unemployment rate was 9.7 in February, the rate for African Americans was 15.8 and the rate for Hispanics was 12.4. Not only is the unemployment rate for African Americans nearly twice that of Caucasians, the gap in some important demographics has widened rapidly over the past 14 months. Over those months, the unemployment rate for Caucasian college graduates under 24 years of age grew by about 20 percent. The rate for African Americans in the same demographics grew by almost twice that much.
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that the gap in unemployment rates for communities of color is widening. As a result, minority children and families are entering poverty at an increasingly alarming rate. More than 24 percent of African Americans live below the poverty level and are 55 percent more likely to be unemployed than other Americans.
As then-Candidate Obama said in a speech during the Democratic primary, ``Race is an issue that I believe this Nation cannot afford to ignore right now.'' In a speech to the Hispanic Caucus Institute earlier this year, President Obama said that when unemployment reaches over 10 percent among Hispanics, that was not just a problem for them, it was a problem for the Nation. We believe it is the same for African Americans. The Congressional Black Caucus, in its continued role as the conscience of the Congress, has a moral obligation to address inequality and injustice as never before in our history.
And I have been joined by my colleague and my dear friend from Minnesota (Mr. Ellison). How are you, sir?
I thank you so much.
I just want to say that in addition to some of the things that you said is that I see our job as making sure that we protect all Americans. That includes us. I see our job as a Congress, as a governmental body, to protect the people who sent us here. I believe the job of government is to serve its people; and until we do that, we've not done an effective job. So that is why it is so important that we continue on this path to make sure that all Americans who want a job, who need a job, have the opportunity to find a job.
I mean, certainly we're not going to ever create the kinds of jobs that many of us had as we were growing up. I mean, our parents had jobs they kept for 30 years. They've got good retirements. They still can afford to pay their bills. Those days may be gone for many people in this country, but I think it is our responsibility to make sure that people can provide for their families, that people can live in a decent home. I think the bare necessities are something that we should guarantee that all Americans can receive.
The one thing that you said that is just so very true--if at some point we don't start to make things in this Nation again, we are never going to dig ourselves out of this hole. I mean, you talk about the middle class. I'm from Ohio that has been hit especially hard, one of the biggest manufacturing States in the United States. We made our living making cars, clothes, widgets, whatever they were; we made a living manufacturing.
But what has happened over the last few years? I mean, we've lost more than 60 percent of our manufacturing. And a lot of it did go overseas--there's absolutely no doubt about that. And then the other thing is it became more high tech, and so people were not then retrained to maintain those positions. A lot of it became automated, and so they downsized. But we have taken significant losses. In our State alone we lost more than 200,000 manufacturing jobs over the last 2 years. So we have to find a way to get those people back into the work force.
I yield.
Will the gentleman yield?
I think you just really hit the nail on the head. We have to, at some point, prepare our young people for a job once they leave high school. All children are not going to college. We have to prepare young people to be able to do something when they leave high school because really all college does is prepare you to work anyway. So we need to prepare all young people to work as soon as they leave high school. And the only way to do that is to start to train them in the new green technologies, in the weatherization programs that we've put out there, to put them in positions where they can sit at a computer and do manufacturing jobs, where they can assist people who need help, maybe if it's just training them to do other things.
We can put in windows. We can build homes. We can do so many things. But young people have never been geared in a direction to think about work after high school. We just keep talking about college.
And I think college is important. I am a very, very strong proponent of education, and I am passionate about education. But the reality of our lives is that less--that fewer young people, especially young people of color, are going to college. And if this trend continues with their parents unemployed, with them not being able to find jobs themselves, then that number is going to continue to decrease. So we do have to address that in a very, very, serious way and in a very timely manner.
I thank the gentleman for yielding. Let me just take that WPA one step further. I happen to have given a speech in Memphis, Tennessee, on Saturday, and had found out that over the 8 years WPA was in existence in the State of Tennessee, more than 240,000 people were hired. Those people built the stadium, the zoo, the juvenile center. I mean, there is so much that still exists.
And I also want to take the training part one step further. We're going to have to do more targeted training. I come from an area that, in my opinion, has the best health care in the world. But there is a shortage of nurses; there is a shortage of primary care physicians; there is a shortage of technicians. There is a shortage of people to just--orderlies, cooks, I mean, everything that you can think of that goes into a hospital or a community center, there is a shortage.
We have community colleges. We have some of the best educational institutions. Why are we not focusing more on filling in for the shortages that we need? Because the jobs are there for them to take.
That's what we need to be focusing on as opposed to some of the things that, in my opinion, are not going to be especially helpful. I certainly believe any skill you have can help. But if we know jobs are available in the health professions, then we need to be focusing on health professions. If we know the jobs are available in steel, which we don't have a lot of anymore, but we still do have some of those things, let's train in those areas because I think we've got the training money.
We put all this training money into the Recovery Act. Let's make sure that once we spend it, the outcome is going to be what we want it to be.
I yield.
Will the gentleman yield?
You've talked about infrastructure twice, and I think it's so significant, because one of the things that we know we need across this Nation is to shore up our infrastructure. We know we need to do it.
We need more apprenticeship programs for young people to learn how to build roads and bridges. We need more apprenticeship programs to teach people how to paint bridges, to repair bridges, or to lay asphalt and concrete and steel and rebar, whatever it is that we need to do. That is happening all across this country. And we need to make sure that there are programs in place for young people to learn how to do those jobs because they are well-paying jobs. They are jobs that they will have for a lifetime because there's always, as you say, from our communities, we're always going to be fixing roads, and we're always going to be fixing bridges.
And so I think it's really important that we start to try to say to these people that it's important that this be an opening for young people to get into these trades.
I yield back to the gentleman.
Yes, I yield.
Will the gentleman yield?
Without question. There is no doubt in my mind that if the plan we have presented, not only to the President, but to other Members of this body, to other institutions and agencies that we have worked with and collaborated with, we have come up with something that I think is a can't-miss, and I do, in fact, believe that it is time for our plan to be reviewed and to be moved forward. I mean, we have a good plan. We can put people back to work. And I just hope that others, our colleagues, will join with us in making sure we do that
I yield to the gentleman.
Absolutely, you're right. And I thank you for yielding. The only thing that I would say about this plan is that this plan not only talks about how we get all Americans back to work, but it also says to us, how do we get those people who have been unemployed for so long or those people who are in such pockets of poverty that they don't have the same opportunities, how do we lift them to the same level as all the others?
I yield to the gentleman.
Will the gentleman yield?
In this global economy in which we live, we need every single American to bring that which they are good at, that which they have trained for, worked for, that which they know, because if we don't, then we are going to start to find ourselves not being the number one Nation in the world anymore. We're not going to be the Nation that brings forth all of the new technology, all of the new research, all of the new things that we know are going to move and drive this country. So I think it is imperative that every single individual, and we know every individual has worth, but we certainly need to say to them, whatever it is that you can do, we need it as a Nation. That is what's going to make us strong. That is what keeps the chain strong. I think that we are in a place where we just must continue to work with every single person in this Nation.
You are absolutely right. But the one thing we have to stress is that small business growth, that is where most of our people are employed. We know how important it is, but it has to be fair. We have to do it fairly.
For those people who might be watching us for the first time, do understand that we don't represent just African Americans. We don't represent just minorities. There are very few of us in this entire caucus that represent just African Americans. I don't know of any. So no one should feel that we are excluding any other group of people. We want all of our people in need to be served by what we do.
So it is important that we talk about small businesses, that we talk about contractors and how they are handled and treated in this country, minority and non-minority. We talk about women-owned businesses. We are advocating for all of them to be treated fairly and equally as we dole out the resources that we think are going to help bring this country back. So I thank you for mentioning that, because we do represent so many people. We represent all people.
Thank you. I am very proud to say that I probably represent one of the most diverse districts in this House, and I am very proud of that. What I know, though, is that the people who have the least are the people who need me the most. So I do focus more on the poor, I focus on children in need, I focus on the hungry. But so do all of the other people in my district, which makes me so proud. When you look at how we pull together to try to help the neediest people, all of us as a district, that is what has so impressed me about all of the people that I serve. So we all, I think, really understand the necessity of pulling up and helping our neighbor. And I am very proud that I represent people such as that.
I yield back.
Thank you for yielding. I am going to make this comment, and then I am going to yield to our colleague from Texas.
I do want to say that certainly there is some recovery going on in this country. We just don't want for people who need it the most to be left out of it.
And I thank you so much, Representative Ellison, for sharing this time with me. I am always impressed by your passion. I am always impressed by your ability to articulate your position. And I thank you so much.
Mr. Speaker, I would now yield to my colleague from Texas, the gentlelady from Texas, Ms. Sheila Jackson Lee.
I thank you so much again for joining me. It is always a pleasure to have your insight. You are just so very good at making the American people understand what the situation is and how we might correct it. And I thank you, as always, for helping me to formulate some of the ideas that I have as well.
And I do want to reinforce something, Mr. Speaker, that my colleague said, and that is, we have to really pay some particular interest and concern to ex-felons and unskilled workers, because they are the ones who are, right now, at the bottom of the barrel. And we have to find a way, indeed, to get them gainful employment and to just make them feel useful to society again as well as to provide for their families. I think it's so important. I thank you for raising that.
And it is one of the things we discussed with the President, how do we make sure that ex-felons in particular are included in programs that we are funding throughout our
States. So I think it is very, very important that we bring that to the attention of the American people.
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank you for, again, allowing me to anchor this hour. It has, as always, been an interesting discussion amongst my colleagues about how we do the work we do, how we continue to be the conscience of the Congresses. I thank you so much.
I yield back the balance of my time.