Washington, DC - Ways and Means Ranking Member Sandy Levin (D-MI) today issued the following statement on the House GOP "jobs" agenda:
"After 237 days in the majority, House Republicans have yet to pass a single piece of legislation that will create jobs. Their main effort has been to prevent action on Democratic proposals that would indeed create jobs. We need to get moving on solutions to our nation’s job crisis instead of offering a deduction that has no guarantee of creating any jobs.
"In March Ways and Means Democrats introduced the Building American Jobs Act of 2011, which would extend eight provisions to help state and local governments finance vital infrastructure investments. The bill is anchored by the wildly successful Build America Bonds program, which expired due to Republican opposition at the end of last year after helping to finance $181 billion in infrastructure projects since 2009.
"In June, I introduced legislation that has received overwhelming bipartisan support that would reign in China's currency manipulation and bring 500,000 to 1.5 million jobs back to the United States. So far, Republicans have also blocked action on this bill, which has led to the circulation of a discharge petition that would bring it to the House Floor.
“The only concrete proposal in this mislabeled jobs agenda is to repeal the 3% withholding provision that would go into effect in 2013. This is a provision that was passed in 2006 by a Republican controlled Congress and signed by President Bush and which Democrats in the last Congress proposed to repeal.
“Today’s memo from House Republican leadership purporting to be an upcoming jobs agenda is thin gruel for an economy that is hungry for action to support growth and job creation."
