Back to Work Incentive Act of 2003

BACK TO WORK INCENTIVE ACT OF 2003 -- (House of Representatives - June 03, 2004)

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Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro).

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, this bill would establish a demonstration project that would ostensibly offer personal reemployment accounts to workers, providing up to $3,000 in assistance for the purpose of finding a job and paying for services that would help lead to employment.

Sounds good on the surface, but, as with every bill this administration puts forward that impacts workers, there is a catch. Employment services now offered through the One Stop Centers, at no cost to the unemployed worker, would have to be purchased, meaning that unemployed workers would now be charged for services that they can currently receive for free.

To give an idea of the difference, those who utilize One Stop job training programs right now receive an average of $5,000 to $6,000 in services, about double the maximum allowed under this bill. So we should not be fooled. The goal of this bill is not to provide additional reemployment services or job training funding for unemployed workers; rather, it is to pave the way for placing a Federal cap on these services.

In an economy with a million and a half workers who have already exhausted their unemployment benefits, reducing these services without providing any job creation program is not only bad economic policy it is outright dismissive of what these families are going through day after day, particularly women in transition, nearly half of whom are already finding Workforce Investment Act services, like local women's education and training programs, insufficient.

Mr. Speaker, the unemployed workers in this country do not need "an incentive" to look for work. Supporting a family without a job is incentive enough. What they need is a job. Congress should be expanding job training and job training access, not limiting them, as next year's budget does. We should be extending health and unemployment benefits to the unemployed, not letting them expire in the face of serious unemployment.

Historically, this country, Republican or Democrat administrations, have extended unemployment benefits in time of need. As a Nation, we have said we are going to help people on a temporary basis meet these unemployment challenges that they have. Not this administration. What do they say? They say, if we extend those benefits, people will not go out and look for a job. That is the opinion they have of working people in this Nation.

I say to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, walk in the shoes of the unemployed; understand what it means to live paycheck to paycheck. We do not have to worry about that in this body. There are folks in this country who worry about that every single day. The unemployed workers in this country deserve better.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill.

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