WASHINGTON, DC-Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources Ranking Member Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), issued the following statement as prepared for delivery at a Subcommittee hearing today on improving efforts to help unemployed Americans find jobs:
“Mr. Chairman, you have appropriately raised the right question in this first hearing-how do we improve efforts to help unemployed Americans find jobs. In that endeavor, I pledge my sincere interest in seeking meaningful answers and in working together to help unemployed Americans prepare for and find new work. After reviewing the written testimony submitted for our hearing, I can see we have very different perspectives on the nature of the problem we face and the best ways to resolve it.
“I believe the problem is unemployment, not the unemployed. Too many Americans remain unemployed because of lack of work, not for their lack of wanting to work. With average unemployment benefits nationally (about $300 a week) barely reaching 70 percent of the poverty line for a family of four, there is little incentive to sit home rather than to seek meaningful work at a living wage.
“I don’t believe in the “blame the victim" approach-after all, it is not the unemployed who gambled away our economic security on Wall Street, or took huge pay packages as their companies crumbled, or who failed to adequately oversee our financial system. And yet, they are the ones whose struggling families are paying the price.
“As this chart shows, we have about 14 million unemployed workers, but fewer than 4 million job openings. That is why we hear one report after another about employers who post jobs being flooded with applicants such as when Delta Airlines announced 1,000 flight attendant openings and received 85,000 job applicants. If every job opening in America were filled today, about 11 million Americans would still be without work.
“While today’s unemployment claims report provides a hopeful sign with first-time claims dropping to the lowest level in two and half years, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that unemployment will remain above 9 percent this year and above 8 percent at the end of next year. CBO also projects that only 2.5 million new jobs will be created this year, leaving millions of Americans in need of a strong unemployment insurance system.
“While our first priority must be pursuing policies that encourage job creation, this Subcommittee’s responsibilities focus more on what to do in the meantime for the many Americans, who through no fault of their own, lose a job and have not been able to secure new employment. In this endeavor, our states are laboratories of democracy-we look to them for new ways to resolve this challenge. Unfortunately, not all of their experiments are successful. While my home state of Texas has had some successes, it is also a good example of what happens when ideological constraints and political imperatives produce decisions that harm both employees and employers.
“Texas employers are paying more because Governor Perry insisted that some of the unemployed receive less. Because the Governor rejected $555 million in federal support for the unemployed in 2009, Texas is now raising additional taxes on employers and incurring more public debt.
“I believe our state leadership has been Number One, unexcelled in the country, in damning the Economic Recovery Act, but without the billions that they accepted from it, Texas would have an even more gargantuan than the approximately $27 billion budget hole in which it is now enveloped. Nor would the Texas “Back to Work" program, which Commissioner Pauken highlights today, have been more than a shadow of itself without federal funding from the Recovery Act.
“During the last two years, over $6 billion in federally-funded unemployment benefits were provided to laid-off workers in Texas. These dollars were spent in local stores and provided a significant boost to our economy. Texas has been receiving over $4 in federal unemployment funds for every $1 in federal unemployment taxes paid in the State. Last year, House Democrats twice passed legislation to extend funds for the Texas “Back to Work" program, and made several efforts to extend unemployment benefits to unemployed workers in Texas and throughout the country. Of course, Governor Perry was silent when Senate Republicans blocked action because he couldn’t concede how helpful these federal dollars have been to Texans.
“As we work to strengthen the efficiency and effectiveness of our unemployment insurance system in this Subcommittee, I hope the House gets about the business of encouraging job creation and economic growth. After two years of repeatedly asking Democrats “Where are the jobs" (that were lost by the policies of the Bush-Cheney Administration), I expected an immediate roll-out of a comprehensive job-creation agenda. Instead, the focus has been elsewhere-how to increase the debt and to protect insurance monopolies by repealing health insurance reform, criticizing the United Nations, and encouraging more special interest financing of Presidential elections.
“In the coming months, I hope we can pursue real and meaningful solutions that will grow jobs here in America and help the unemployed find and fill those jobs.
“Thank you."
