Washington, DC -- Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY-17) urged House Republican Leadership to put aside partisan rhetoric and work with Democrats and President Barack Obama to pass a comprehensive jobs package as soon as possible.  The August jobs report indicated no new jobs were created by the U.S. economy, with the unemployment rate holding steady at 9.1%.

The private sector added 17,000 jobs, the fewest since February 2010, although the health care industry added 30,000 jobs last month.  A strike by 45,000 Verizon workers lowered the job totals. Those workers are now back on the job.  The combination of weak growth, the wild fluctuations on Wall Street and the unprecedented downgrade of the U.S. credit rating played a part in preventing businesses from hiring.

“While House Republicans brought us to the brink of default and led us to the first-ever downgrade of our credit rating, businesses put their payroll checks away.  Following this debt ceiling debacle, the House leadership called for a month-long recess, providing businesses no assurance that it wouldn’t be more of the same when we returned.  I look forward to hearing the President’s job plan next week, and I am hopeful he will place responsibility on Congress to pass major legislation designed to get Americans working.

“With almost 14 million Americans still out of work, the path to employment is long, and full of roadblocks.  Unfortunately, the federal government has been placing some of those obstacles up itself.  Many economists believe that deep budget cuts are bad for the economy, and that the federal government needs to spend to stimulate recovery.  A balanced budget is nice in concept, and important for families to achieve, but for the federal government it leads to situations where disaster victims were told they must find an offset before FEMA is able to help them recover. Right now Europe is facing a possible double dip recession because its austerity program has curtailed economic growth. 

“It also leads to the reality that in 2010, the Republicans campaigned on a ‘where are the jobs’ message, and since they won the Majority, they have done nothing to produce an increase in jobs.  If anything, their actions have stifled job growth.  They opposed every jobs bill in 2010, and have stood in the way of any chance for improvement in 2011.

“I call on the Majority to immediately pass a robust, long-term surface transportation funding extension which would not only improve our crumbling infrastructure, but would instantly create new jobs.  For example, the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities says that a $50 billion investment in school renovation could create half a million jobs in 1-2 years.  If we fail to reauthorize the transportation bill, we would lose 4,000 jobs instantly, $1 billion in revenue in the first 10 days, and approximately one million jobs in the first year.  Both the AFL-CIO and the Chamber of Commerce agree with President Obama’s plan.  According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, 42 jobs are created for every $1 million in transportation construction funding.

“I would like to believe that when Congress reconvenes next week, the atmosphere will be different.  The American people have made it perfectly clear that they want a government who will work for them and not against one another.  Only together can we make a dent in the amount of unemployed and get the economy back on track.  More brinksmanship and partisan games will just prolong the suffering of those out of work, and lead to more people joining the ranks of the unemployed.”

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