Burgess Owens: “this is an amendment on the Summer Youth Employment Program. The committee's work has been repeatedly congratulated. I…”

“this is an amendment on the Summer Youth Employment Program. The committee's work has been repeatedly congratulated. I hope that it is as good as we think it is because, in this closing of this century, jobs and employment will become a No. 1 issue. With workfare and downsizing and various other activities under way, jobs are going to be critical for those who now have jobs. They will not have them, a lot of them in the future. And for those who are being driven from the welfare rolls, all of it is going to come together. The way we handle our jobs will be critical. The fact that we are handing over this power primarily to the Governors of the States is applauded by many but I find it a bit alarming. I wanted to talk about one aspect of the jobs program, that is the part that deals with disadvantaged youth. I have a chart in front of me which shows that programs for disadvantaged youth have been treated with great hostility over the last 4 or 5 years, certainly the last 3 years. Among the programs for youth, disadvantaged youth, the Summer Youth Employment Program has been zeroed out of the budget a couple of times, and we have had to fight like mad to get it back into the budget. We have to appeal to the voters out there, public opinion to come to our aid, because we seem to have no aid here on Capitol Hill anywhere.…”