Jobs & the Economy
Throughout the 117th Congress, House Democrats have partnered with President Biden to enact policies that expand economic opportunity for businesses, workers, and communities across America. Under President Biden and Congressional Democrats, the unemployment rate is at its lowest in more than 50 years with more than 10 million jobs created, helping more of our people get ahead in today’s economy and Make It In America.
Democrats pursue an economic agenda that helps American businesses create good-paying jobs and ensure that workers have the tools not only to get by but to get ahead in our global economy. From raising the minimum wage to providing skills training and apprenticeship opportunities to ensuring equal pay for equal work, from making childcare more affordable to making it easier to save for retirement, Democrats’ economic policies are aimed at helping workers and their families attain real economic security at every stage of life.
Democrats have also delivered historic legislation investing in infrastructure and greater access to high-speed internet, taking the lead in the clean-energy economy, and supporting innovation and entrepreneurship. The generational Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has already begun to expand economic opportunity for Americans in communities across the country and takes action to repair our nation’s roads, bridges, ports, and other infrastructure while creating nearly 1.5 million jobs annually over the next decade. It contains the first major American investment in climate resilience to help communities upgrade their critical infrastructure and mitigate the impact of climate change-driven extreme weather. Likewise, the Inflation Reduction Act also advances America’s clean energy goals, turbocharging clean energy research and transmission while promoting electric vehicle domestic manufacturing to reduce American dependence on gasoline while revitalizing our auto industry.
The CHIPS and Science Act includes bipartisan measures to revitalize the domestic semiconductor industry and spur research. By strengthening domestic supply chains, this law acts directly to accelerate American innovation in the long-term while acting immediately to address inflation and create good paying jobs. House Democrats will continue to champion skills training and education at every level – from early childhood learning through higher education – to prepare our people for success and advancement in a changing economy. In all of these efforts, Democrats will continue to look for ways to make access to opportunities more equitable and to combat the lingering effects of legalized discrimination that continue to make it harder for minorities to access credit for loans, seek investment capital for startups, and build wealth to pass on to the next generation.
With historic job creation under President Biden, House Democrats will continue to advance policies that expand economic opportunity for working families, support small businesses, and create better-paying jobs.
While Republicans have not put forward a comprehensive jobs agenda after eight months in the majority, Democrats are focused on supporting job creation through the Make It In America plan – a plan to promote job creation by providing an environment for businesses to innovate and make products here in the U.S., which will help more families Make It In America.
While there are clearly some legitimate concerns with S&P’s analysis, I share the President’s view that the greatest barrier to restoring our fiscal health is not economic—it is political. We can put our fiscal house in order when leaders in Washington are willing to put politics aside and take fiscally responsible action in the national interest. And Americans have long known that a fiscal solution must be balanced in order to be effective; in fact, just such a solution was proposed by the president’s bipartisan fiscal commission, led by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson. If partisan actors continue to reject a comprehensive solution and pursue their ideological agenda at all costs, then the world will continue to doubt America’s fiscal seriousness. But if the joint committee on the deficit and leaders in Washington agree to put all of the causes of our deficit on the table, including both spending and revenue, then we can return our nation to fiscal health and strengthen confidence in our economy.
Today, the Obama Administration announced that it is taking steps to reform No Child Left Behind – a flawed law that is long overdue for reauthorization. Education is critical to our nation’s economic success, which is why the Democrats’ Make It In America agenda prioritizes investments in key areas like education. This plan aims to ensure that our nation has a workforce prepared to succeed in the global economy and that our schools have the resources they need to help our children achieve those goals. This includes maintaining accountability measures to make sure students are truly ready for college and high-paying careers with opportunity for growth; attracting the best and the brightest to the teaching profession, and compensating them appropriately; and providing schools with the tools to help them succeed. Our future as a nation depends on it.
Last week Republicans returned to their districts and were “shocked” to hear that job creation was the dominant issue constituents wanted to discuss. Since taking the House majority, Republicans have said that job creation would be a top priority. Unfortunately they’ve taken little action on jobs.
After more than 200 days in the majority, House Republicans have taken little action on jobs and have still not put forward a comprehensive jobs agenda. Meanwhile, Democrats have been focused on our Make It In America plan – a plan to support job creation by providing an environment for businesses to innovate and make products here in the U.S., which will help more families Make It In America. The Make It In America plan is an agenda that both Democrats and Republicans can, and have, supported. But rather than work with us on our plan to revitalize American industry and create well-paying, middle-class jobs, Republicans have focused on passing bills that support their partisan agenda rather than actually helping create jobs and grow the economy.
This morning, we received news that our economy added 154,000 private-sector jobs in the month of July; with layoffs of public employees factored in, we added 117,000 net jobs. It is encouraging that our private sector has added jobs for 17 straight months, and that our economy has come a long way from the days, at the beginning of President Obama's term, when it was losing 700,000 jobs per month. But today's report is still unsatisfactory for the millions of Americans who remain unemployed and for the millions more waiting to feel the effects of economic recovery. Clearly, we must do more.
I am pleased that more than 74,000 workers will be back on the job and important airport construction projects will move forward. However, many important policy differences remain on a final FAA reauthorization. We owe it to these American workers to not only forge a long-term solution, but to avoid inserting further policy riders in any short-term extensions that may be necessary until final agreement is reached.
As Leader Reid has pointed out today, almost 4,000 federal employees, and some 70,000 workers for contractors around this country are being held captive. They are out on the street because Republicans have refused to work with us to find common ground. The FAA shutdown will jeopardize $11 billion in construction projects. It will cost more than $200 million per week. It has already cost us $360 million. This is from the party that is worried about fiscal responsibility. Furloughs of thousands of people of critical aviation engineers, safety analysts, and key personnel—we owe it to these workers to come together and reach a compromise. We owe it to every American taxpayer to come together and reach a compromise. We need to get this done, and we should get it done today.
Let me suggest at the outset that talking about jobs is talking about debt. The only way to successfully deal with our debt is to create jobs and economic growth in America. After seven months there has not been a single jobs bill--that is the negligent record of the Republicans.
Today, the Senate passed legislation ensuring that our nation will pay the bills it has incurred and avoid a default on its debt, which would have been an economic catastrophe. It also cuts spending by $1.2 trillion and establishes a bipartisan committee tasked with agreeing by year’s end on an additional $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction. Democrats worked hard to make sure that this agreement preserves Medicare and Social Security, protects Medicaid and other programs for the most vulnerable, and phases in cuts over the next decade to minimize harm to our economic recovery.