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Congress Must Respond to the Needs of the Long-Term Unemployed

Floor Speech

Date: Dec. 6, 2007
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Unemployed and Low-Income

SPEECH OF
HON. JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY
OF ILLINOIS
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2007

* Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Madam Speaker, I rise today to address a problem of growing importance: the problem of long-term unemployment.

* I recently received a letter from a constituent, who urged me to speak out on behalf of workers unable to find appropriate jobs at living wages, who are being excluded from productive participation in the workforce. She called for Congressional action.

* Jean Smiling Coyote of Chicago wrote, ``When unemployed Americans run out of unemployment compensation, they are counted neither as unemployed nor as part of the labor force....... We need to take pro-active steps to end long-term unemployment of Americans. The first step is to have these people identify themselves and what they can contribute economically. We have to persuade employers to hire them for appropriate jobs at living wages, starting with people who've gotten a good education and stayed out of trouble.''

* We need to adopt measurements that accurately count the number of unemployed and policies that help create good jobs in the private and public sectors. I hope that we will make this a priority in the 110th Congress.


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