It appeared we had received a bit of good news last week when the Department of Labor (DOL) released employment data for November. The employment rate had fallen to 8.6 percent, the lowest it has been since March 2009. Unfortunately, the decline in the unemployment rate resulted in part from the DOL’s identification of 315,000 Americans who did not find jobs but gave up looking for work as leaving the ranks of the “unemployed.”
Genuine concern for the unemployed is best expressed by creating jobs. The objective of government policy must be to put Americans back to work, which is why I have been focused on job creation since day one. The House has passed 25 jobs bills, most of which have become stuck in the Democratic-run Senate, a body that refuses to consider the bulk of the House’s legislation or pass its own jobs initiatives.
In the absence of real job creation, another question concerns the need to address the difficult circumstances faced by those who are currently unemployed. At a time when we are still suffering from double-digit unemployment rates in the Sacramento region, it is my desire to once again support an extension of unemployment benefits so long as it is paid for with offsets of other government spending. We must pay for any extension of this program because it is wrong to bill our children and grandchildren for our choices.
Before the close of the year, the House and Senate are also working on a way to pay for an extension of the payroll tax holiday so that Americans do not see their paychecks shrink next year.
You can track the House-passed jobs bills online at http://majorityleader.gov/JobsTracker and stay tuned for updates on pending business before the end of the year.
Sincerely,
Daniel E. Lungren
Member of Congress
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