For the audio of this post go to CREW of 42 BLOG
Congressional Black Caucus UNHAPPY WITH JOBS BILL. Yesterday the Senate passed a $15 billion jobs bill. With black unemployment at 16%, the Congressional Black Caucus met yesterday with Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis at their weekly Wednesday gathering. In an interview after that meeting Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Barbara Lee explains her feelings on the "jobs" bill passed today by the U.S. Senate.
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CBC Barbara Lee:"The Senate passed what is not a jobs bill. So we have to be for real and be honest about this. The Senate passed a tax credit bill. And I am just shocked that they would even think about calling this a jobs bill. When you look at the unemployment rate in the country it is severe. More severe than others. When you look at communities of color. When you look at the African American and Latino communities."
"There is no direct job creation in this bill no workforce training provisions nothing in this bill to create jobs for the entire country and in communities of high unemployment. So we are going to have to look at "what next" and how we move for ward but believe you me I don't see this and many of my colleagues do not see this as a jobs bill. We've met with Sen. Reid. We've met with our leadership."
"We've communicated to the President and the leadership on both sides of the House what we think constitutes a jobs bill that would create jobs for everyone in the country. Our young people, summer youth jobs, green jobs, all of the programs that we know will provide sustainable good paying jobs. They totally for the most part ignored us. So we are going back to the drawing board and we're moving forward to look at how we're going to get a bigger and better jobs bill for our communities."
Stay tuned.
For the audio of this post go to CREW of 42 BLOG