By Authority: Cummings for Congress, Ron Thompson, Treasurer

PROTECTING OUR JOBS & OUR HOMES

REBUILDING OUR ECONOMY

Since the last year of the Bush Administration, Americans have been fighting the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.  Millions of our countrymen and women have lost their jobs, their homes, and their life savings.

We cannot allow so many working families to lose their dreams.

These are extraordinary times - a national crisis that calls for extraordinary action by our national government to create jobs and help Americans preserve their homes.

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The “Stimulus”

To his credit, President Obama made economic recovery his top priority upon taking office last January - and the Democratically-led Congress agreed.

On February 17, 2009, I cast my vote for the most sweeping job creation legislation since the 1930s.

Last December, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office was able to report that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA - also called the “Stimulus”) that we enacted in February, 2009, had preserved or created between 600,000 and 1.6 million American jobs.

Today, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is still on track create or save 3.5 million jobs.

-It immediately cut taxes for 95 percent of American workers.

-It is making unprecedented investments in our nation’s infrastructure.

-Through investments in unemployment benefits and food stamp benefits, it provided immediate relief to the Americans suffering the most while also infusing money directly back into our economy.

Today, despite what the skeptics may assert, public and private forecasters ranging from the Council of Economic Advisors to Moody’s Economy and IHS Global now say the Recovery Act is responsible for about 2 million jobs nationwide.  And the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has concluded that the number of jobs saved or created could be as high as 2.4 million.

We still have major economic challenges to face and overcome.  However, our economy grew 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 - the largest gain in six years - and continues to grow today.  Many economists believe that this growth is largely due to the Recovery Act.

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The Critical Need for “Jobs Now!”

Despite the positive impact of the Stimulus, unemployment numbers in Maryland have exceeded 7 percent.  Unemployment and under-employment are far worse in some communities.

While some have noted that our local challenge is less devastating than the national unemployment rate, that observation is small solace to the working families who now are looking for work.  Hardest hit have been African American communities, where the jobless rate has consistently been 50 percent worse than the overall national average.

Throughout our nation and our state, hard-working families are out of work.  There is no higher priority for me in Washington than helping these neighbors succeed.

Some economic analysts see hopeful signs that the jobless crisis has begun to bottom out. Yet, our experience during past recessions suggests that job recovery will be far too slow in coming for millions of Americans - unless, that is, federal and state governments continue to be proactive.

We still have more jobs to create and save.  However, without the “Stimulus,” the CBO concluded, the recession would have deepened this past summer rather than beginning to slowly turn around.

The federal government (through the Stimulus) has been applying a tourniquet to our nation's economic hemorrhaging. Now, we must expand that emergency care - while we also move forward toward healing our underlying economic injuries.

In this struggle, we all need to be clear on two fundamental considerations.

-The question is not whether this nation will survive the economic storm that we have been experiencing. I am confident that we will.

-What we should be asking, rather, is this: Where will our families be, economically, after America’s recovery is completed?

Will we have good jobs that pay a living wage and provide the foundation for a secure retirement?

Will we be able to afford healthcare for sickness and injury?

Will we be able to own our own homes? Will our children attend adequately funded schools with good teachers who are fairly paid?

These are the core, long-term issues upon which the President and Congress must now act with both wisdom and a heightened sense of urgency.

The Stimulus was a good beginning. Now, we must push even harder for additional federal initiatives that are targeted at creating jobs in the communities that have been hardest hit by the economic downturn - the Baltimore Region among them.

This is why I have joined more than 100 of my congressional colleagues in a new, bipartisan working group pledged to keep the issue of jobs at the forefront of our nation's economic priorities. Our congressional partnership (called "Jobs Now!") reflects the urgent necessity of addressing the job losses in our communities.

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Protecting our Homes: Foreclosure Prevention

When Maryland’s working families lose their jobs - even when their hours of work are cut back - their ability to afford their homes is weakened, and they become more vulnerable to foreclosure.  Without a job, they have few options to have their mortgage payments modified, and, if they owe more than the current value of their homes, they may be unable to sell or refinance.

President Obama and the Democratically-led Congress have taken the lead in helping struggling families survive the housing crisis.  New legislation is helping a growing number of job-seeking homeowners have a chance to hang on to their homes and their dreams.

In addition to supporting these efforts, in June of last year I introduced the Temporary Mortgage Assistance Act of 2009 (H.R. 3066).  My proposed legislation would utilize unobligated TARP funds to provide short-term, low-interest government loans to individuals who have lost their jobs and are in danger of foreclosure.

For months, we gave hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to help stabilize the big banks on Wall Street.  Now, we must return some of that money to our neighbors on Main Street.

The federal loans that I have proposed would assist responsible families who did everything right but - through no fault of their own - now need some short-term help while they seek new jobs.

We cannot allow them to fall through the cracks.  The loans that my legislation would authorize would be paid directly to a homeowner’s mortgage company.  The amount of federal help would be based on the percentage of household income lost due to unemployment. The loans would accrue interest during the loan period, but repayment would not begin until 60 days after the loan ends.

I am hopeful that this proposed legislation will gain support.  However, new laws are not the only way to help.

The foreclosure crisis in Maryland is so acute that I have tasked my staff to do whatever we can to help 7th District homeowners.  We have held four Foreclosure Prevention Workshops, helping people who are delinquent on their mortgages or facing potential foreclosure to obtain the information and resources that they need.

These Foreclosure Prevention Workshops have been successful for most of the nearly 3,000 homeowners who participated, bringing them together with their lenders as well as housing and legal experts.

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Moving Forward - Jobs for Main Street

On December 16th of last year, the House of Representative voted favorably for passage of the Jobs for Main Street Act (H.R. 2847). I was heartened to cast my affirmative vote in support of that hard-fought 217-212 House victory.

Now, the American people must encourage Senate Republicans to join with Senate Democrats to send Jobs for Main Street to President Obama for his signature into law.

I gave this measure my strongest support because I understand a core economic reality. We must build upon the Stimulus, moving forward to create new 21st Century jobs, while also helping our neighbors hold on to the jobs that we have already saved.

We have a reasonably good idea where these new federal initiatives should be directed.

CBO analysis of the Stimulus confirmed that our most effective federal interventions on the jobs front have been (1) direct purchases by the federal government; (2) support for state governments (including extra federal Medicaid funding); and (3) direct payments to individuals (especially increased food stamp benefits and additional weeks of unemployment benefits).

That is why Jobs for Main Street would build upon the foundation that we created with the Stimulus by redirecting $75 billion in previously authorized TARP funds from Wall Street to Main Street.

Jobs for Main Street has been designed to stabilize employment through additional infrastructure investments - putting more Americans to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing public buildings, and cleaning our water and our air.  These job targets are in sectors of our economy where unemployment has been especially damaging.

In addition, Jobs for Main Street would provide nearly $27 billion in additional federal support for teachers, firefighters and police officers - with much of this initiative supporting an Education Jobs Fund to help states like Maryland pay for 250,000 education jobs during the next two years.

Finally, we all know that high unemployment and rising costs have far outpaced most Americans' paychecks. For far too many of our families, life is an ongoing state of emergency.

In response to this national emergency, Jobs for Main Street would provide an additional $79 billion in emergency funding to help working families make ends meet - including increased eligibility for refundable child care tax credits, extended unemployment and health insurance benefits, and necessary supplementary payments to Medicaid providers.

Strengthening Wall Street was an important first (and ongoing) step in preserving our economy.   Yet, the expanding health of Wall Street will have little meaning until our recovery also "hits the pavement" of Main Street.

I will continue to support more limited job creating legislation acceptable to the Senate, but I am convinced that the federal government must do more.  We must continue to encourage the Senate to overcome Republican opposition and pass “Jobs for Main Street.”

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Maritime Jobs for the 21st Century

Even while we do all that we can to preserve the jobs of today, we must work to create the new jobs of this 21st Century.  Energy, biotechnology and transportation will be especially important here in Maryland.

Maryland’s prosperity has always been directly linked to shipping and the success of our Port and rail leadership.  In the years to come, shipping will continue to provide thousands of Marylanders with exceptional job opportunities.

We must invest today in the education and training that will allow our neighbors to qualify for these jobs. 

That is why I introduced and was pleased that more than two-thirds of my colleagues voted to pass H.R. 2651, the Maritime Workforce Development Act.  We also included similar education and training provisions in the FY 2010 Coast Guard Appropriations Bill [H.R. 3619] that we passed in the House and sent to the Senate on October 23, 2009.

My vision for this proposed legislation is to create a recruitment, training, and student loan program that will attract the next generation of workers to jobs in the maritime industry and allow them to succeed.

Many of the men and women who comprise our maritime industry will soon be entering retirement. We must invest now in the skills of our next generation of Maryland mariners.

The Maritime Workforce Development Act seeks to improve the current system and ensure that individuals seeking to enter or advance in the maritime field are able to afford tuition for their training.

The Maritime Workforce Development Act would authorize $60 million over six years to create a maritime-focused student loan program - and an additional$60 million to fund Department of Transportation grants to schools for mariner recruitment, training, and retention.

The maritime industry is an essential component of the Baltimore Region’s economy.  Like the other federal investments that we are making in our people and our economy, these efforts will pay dividends for decades to come.

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