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.
Today’s development on issues of worker rights and violence against workers is a positive and important step towards passage of the Colombia FTA. These issues needed to be addressed, and I am pleased the Administration and Colombian government have agreed to a concrete action plan. Colombia is a key ally in South America, and it is in our economic and national security interests to further strengthen that relationship. I look forward to working with the Administration to advance the Colombia FTA, which I continue to support. As we work to enact the three pending trade agreements, we must also extend expired provisions of the Trade Adjustment Assistance program that help American workers who have lost their jobs as a result of trade.
Budgets are not simply about dollars and cents: they are about values and priorities. And the debate over spending has revealed Republican priorities in the worst possible light.
There's so many Republicans taking the position that you either take what we passed, we'll not compromise, or we're going to shut down the government. That won't work. I think we're close and I think frankly if Mr. Boehner would put on the Floor a bill, which goes almost three quarters of the way toward where he wanted to go, three quarters of the way to where they wanted to go between their zero and 100, I think we could pass it.
Today, House Republicans are releasing their budget for fiscal year 2012. Budgets are about priorities and values, and the Republican budget makes all the wrong choices. Democrats believe we must reduce spending, while protecting investments that create jobs, grow the economy and strengthen American competitiveness. Just like the Republican Spending Bill, the Republican budget rejects America’s top priorities and fundamental values by cutting investments that allow us to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build our competitors.
Manufacturers continued adding jobs last month as the sector showed momentum largely unhindered—at least for now—by rising oil prices and the Japanese crisis
Manufacturing in the U.S. expanded in March at close to the fastest pace in almost seven years, reinforcing signs the industry will propel growth in the world’s largest economy.
April fool's, America. This is a joke, America. This is not real, America. As a matter of fact, Mr. Woodall of Georgia says it's not real; it's not going to pass the Senate. He made that very clear. The Majority Leader just said if the Senate won't take what we give them we're going to shut down the government. That's what he just said. And that's what I believe to be the case.
Today’s employment numbers are encouraging news for Americans. Our economy added 216,000 jobs in March, and our private sector grew for the 15th straight month. The unemployment rate dropped to 8.8%, its lowest level in two years. Nevertheless, that unemployment rate represents millions of Americans still feeling the effects of the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes. Americans need to be confident that their government is building on our economic recovery, not undermining it.
Tomorrow, the report on March's job creation numbers will be released. We don't yet know what the report will tell us--but we do know that if the report is positive, Republicans will claim credit for it. But those claims will have little basis in reality. In fact, Republicans have done nothing to spark job creation: after 13 weeks in the House majority, they have yet to even consider a single job-creating bill. Instead, House Republicans have passed a spending bill full of reckless cuts to investments in our growth--a bill that nonpartisan observers agree will cost hundreds of thousands of jobs. Republicans have been working to destroy jobs, not create them; any Republican attempts to ignore that record and claim credit for job growth should be met with deep skepticism.
Democrats agree that we must reduce spending, but we must do so without costing jobs and undermining our economic recovery. But Speaker Boehner said today that Republicans “are going to fight for H.R. 1,” a bill that non-partisan experts say threatens jobs and American competitiveness.