On the recordMay 7, 2013
I want to thank the gentleman from South Carolina, one of our leaders, and my good friend from California for his leadership, his almost weekly leadership on the issue of jobs. Both of my colleagues have discussed long-term declines in the middle class, much of it owing over the last decade to the policies of this Congress and the Federal Government. The last thing you would expect Congress would do in the face of a recovery that is still in the throes of recovery is anything to hurt it, so I wanted to come to the floor to discuss the early warning signs we are seeing of jobs loss because of the sequester so that we can do something about it now. First, let me indicate, quite unexpectedly, the best statistics I've seen in a long time, and how we are stepping on these statistics with each day of the sequester. {time} 1630 The April jobs report unexpectedly showed 165,000 workers added to nonfarm payroll. That was terrific news. What it tells us is that the private sector is making jobs, trying its best, because those jobs were not created in the public sector; those jobs were created in spite of the public sector, in spite of the fact that the Congress is furloughing people, cutting programs to the States and, thus, jobs. So the April jobs report, you might say, means maybe it's going to be all right after all. Early signs are absolutely not. April reported the first 2 months of the sequester.…
