Earl Blumenauer: “numbers that were released today show that Oregon continues to record the highest jobless rate in the Nation at 7.6…”

“numbers that were released today show that Oregon continues to record the highest jobless rate in the Nation at 7.6 percent. Since this administration took office, my State has lost 28,600 jobs, and over 2.5 million private sector jobs have been lost nationwide. Rather than addressing directly this grave problem by focusing on investments and programs that could put people back to work today; for example, simply repairing bridges that are falling apart all across America, the proposal is to tamper with valuable worker retraining programs that are actually making a positive difference. I agree with the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner) that there was some outstanding work that was done in 1998 under the leadership of the gentleman from California and the gentleman from Michigan. I think there were important changes, but this legislation is an unfortunate attempt to not just rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic, but pull them out from underneath some victims. The most optimistic outcome is that it will cause a disruption in some services that people need. It fails to address the pressing needs of disadvantaged and unemployed workers around the Nation, fails to provide enhanced funding, and fails to strengthen the State and local publicly provided unemployment services. The changes in this bill do little to improve the situation for hard-hit working families in the current economic downturn in my community.”