Labor & Employment Law

Jobs Bill Vote Nears, Call Now!

By Mike Hall

Word from Capitol Hill is that tomorrow is the day lawmakers will get a chance to prove they are for creating jobs by voting for the Promoting American Jobs, Closing Tax Loopholes and Preventing Outsourcing Act of 2010 (H.R. 4213).

We still have time to build support for the bill. Call 877-442-6801 and urge your representative to vote for H.R. 4213 to create and save jobs and make Wall Street pay. Tell your representative a vote against the bill is a vote against jobs.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says congressional candidates can “back up their rhetoric with action,” by pledging their support for the bill. For both members of Congress and those who hope to be elected:

If you’re not for this bill, you’re not for jobs. Period.

Trumka says the bill will put Americans back to work by

repairing crumbling infrastructure; stemming public-sector layoffs in states; encouraging more bank loans to small business; extending unemployment benefits and health benefits for the unemployed through the end of this year; and providing over 300,000 summer jobs for unemployed youth.

To help pay for the cost of the legislation, the jobs bill starts the process of making Wall Street finally pay to restore the millions of jobs Big Banks and financial institutions destroyed with their reckless and risky practices. It closes a tax loophole that allows rich Wall Street hedge fund managers to pay lower tax rates on their income than the rest of us. It also closes a similar loophole on corporations that ship jobs overseas.

According to the latest analysis by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), the bill could create and save more than 1 million jobs. Failure to enact it, EPI warns: “could have serious consequences for an economy that is just now turning the corner from job loss to job creation.”

Without the added demand that the Act will generate, the economy risks sliding back into a weakened state and repeating the cycle of consumer retrenchment, lost business, layoffs and further erosion of consumer confidence that has characterized most of the last two-and-a-half years.

If the bill wins House approval tomorrow, it will immediately go to the Senate where Senate leaders will attempt to bring it to a vote before Congress adjourns for the Memorial Day recess. Republican leaders are likely to filibuster the jobs bill, meaning it will take 60 votes for passage.

But if it isn’t passed and signed into law before the recess, millions of jobless workers will lose their unemployment insurance (UI) and COBRA health insurance benefits beginning June 2, when the extended programs for both expires.

In a separate analysis, EPI estimates the legislation, which extends UI payments through the end of 2010, will provide an estimated 5 million unemployed workers with support, while ensuring access to affordable health care. But

without this extension, over 8 million Americans will run out of unemployment insurance benefits by the end of this year. The extension will ensure that 5 million of these workers continue receiving support until the end of 2010.

Take a minute and call 877-442-6801 and urge your representative to vote for H.R. 4213 to create and save jobs and make Wall Street pay.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on May 25, 2010 (boomark / email).