Hilda L. Solis: “when I travel home to Los Angeles County, the people ask me, where are the jobs? Where are the extended unemployment…”

“when I travel home to Los Angeles County, the people ask me, where are the jobs? Where are the extended unemployment insurance benefits? When we look at this chart, we can see that since January of 2001 we have not made any progress. In fact, in the San Gabriel Valley the unemployment rate is still above 10 percent, and it is double digit in areas that are unincorporated in East Los Angeles where we have high minority populations. These are working people that are looking for relief. They are waiting for unemployment insurance. And they are also asking why is the Republican Party not doing more to strengthen our economy. The Democrats want to provide pay increases for our Reservists and our military families. I am ashamed to say these are the same families we represent that are in waiting lines to get food, these Reservist families in my district; and I think that is abominable. We need to provide a tax incentive to encourage companies to keep jobs at home, not abroad, like Halliburton and Bechtel. We need to raise the minimum wage. We need to pass a highway infrastructure bill that will keep good-paying jobs, not minimum-wage jobs, but jobs that pay above minimum wage. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to consider proposing those incentives that we are talking about today to restore the economy for Americans.”