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.
MESSAGE FROM THE DEMOCRATIC WHIP
This week, House Democrats continued our call to extend tax cuts for middle class families. Extending tax cuts on income below $250,000 is a policy both parties agree on, so I hope we can work together and take action quickly to give American families confidence that their tax rates will not increase at the beginning of next year.
“I was disappointed that Senate Republicans blocked legislation today that would have ended tax breaks for companies shipping jobs overseas. The Bring Jobs Home Act, one of the bills House Democrats added to our Make It In America jobs plan last week, would eliminate deductions for moving expenses when companies outsource and would provide a tax credit to those businesses that bring jobs back home. This type of reform is necessary to stop encouraging the export of jobs and instead help manufacturers hire workers here to produce goods we can export across the world.
The sequestration cuts scheduled to take effect were designed as a worse-case scenario to encourage a bipartisan agreement to address our fiscal challenges. If these cuts are carried out on January 2, 2013, they will have a devastating impact on our national security, critical domestic programs, and our economy writ large. The best solution to sequester is a big, bold and balanced plan – an idea supported by a bipartisan range of experts and officials.
We write to request that the Ways and Means Committee schedule a mark-up of the Republicans’ proposed tax legislation before it is considered by the full House. The looming expiration of current tax policy deserves a full and fair consideration of alternative approaches, with members of both parties allowed to offer amendments.
“The final recommendations of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership Steering Committee, released this afternoon by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, represent another step forward in the Obama Administration’s drive to boost our manufacturing competitiveness. While Republicans in Congress continue to delay and obstruct Democratic proposals to invest in manufacturing growth and job creation, the President has continued to pursue other avenues aimed at making it easier for manufacturers to relocate here, innovate, expand, and create well paying, middle-class jobs.
House Democrats this week upped their pressure on GOP leaders to lend a boost to U.S. manufacturing.
WASHINGTON, DC - House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) discussed House Democrats' Make It In America jobs plan and the Republican vote to take away health care protections for millions of Americans on CNN, MSNBC and FOX. See below for excerpts of the interviews and links to the videos.
Democrats introduced a comprehensive jobs plan two years ago to get more Americans back to work by creating the right conditions for manufacturing businesses to invest, expand and hire. Our plan, called “Make It in America,” aims to revitalize our manufacturing sector in order to increase economic competitiveness and create jobs that won’t be shipped overseas.
“‘Repeal it and replace it.’ For the 31st time we have a repeal with no replacement. No alternative. No protection offered by my Republican colleagues. Not one. You could of course introduce legislation that said, ‘we're going to repeal and replace with this.’ You haven't done it. You haven't done it. So the American people have no idea.
“Millions of people are going to lose protections they now have and insurance companies are going to be put back in charge if this were to become law. But Republicans know this isn’t going to become law – it’s not going to pass the Senate and the President’s not going to sign it. So once again we are spending time… doing things for political purposes, not for policy purposes, and not addressing the creation of jobs which is our number one priority.”