Introduction of the Promoting National Service and Reducing Youth Unemployment Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Promoting National Service and Reducing Youth Unemployment Act to address one of the greatest workforce tragedies--our unemployed young people--while filling the employment gap the public sector is facing as more workers choose the private sector. Youth unemployment is harming our young people and costing our country billions of dollars each year in lost productivity and tax revenue, among other costs. Although the total unemployment rate has reached a relative low (3.7 percent), the youth unemployment rate is nearly 7.9 percent. These young people have not had a fair chance to use the high school or college education we strongly urged them to obtain.

What is particularly disappointing, especially in today's low unemployment economy, is the high unemployment rate for young people who heeded our advice to graduate from high school and college. The unemployment rate is currently 7.9 percent for people 16 to 24 years old, which is 4.2 percentage points higher than the total unemployment rate, and hundreds of thousands of them now compete for unpaid internships wherever they can find them.

By significantly adding 500,000 new members to AmeriCorps, my bill would need no new administrative structure or bureaucracy but would allow unemployed youth to earn a stipend, obtain work experience and develop a good work history to help secure future employment. The bill would significantly expand job opportunities for young people who have done what they could to get a job, but, despite their best efforts, remain unemployed. AmeriCorps participants receive a living allowance and are also eligible for an education award equal to the value of a Pell grant, school-loan forbearance, health care benefits and childcare assistance. By expanding AmeriCorps, we would reduce the number of unemployed young people, provide them work skills and experience and help understaffed state and local governments provide services.

My bill would also establish that the minimum wage for any AmeriCorps State & National member would be 200 percent of the federal poverty line, and would not allow for a decrease in that amount, as is allowed under current law. AmeriCorps members serve their country and gain skills, but we should increase the minimum wage for everybody, including national service members.

For some time, it has been clear that policies to address the most stubborn forms of unemployment need to be targeted in order to be effective. Without significant targeting, many young people will continue to face their first years as adults without jobs and with no way to acquire necessary work experience. They deserve a better start in life as adults.

I ask my colleagues to support this urgently needed, targeted assistance for our unemployed youth.

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