Major New Jobs Bill Gains 105 Co-Sponsors

The following was originally published at Working America's "Main Street" blog. [1]

In less than three weeks the Local Jobs for America Act [2], introduced by House Education and Labor Committee chairman Rep. George Miller (D-CA), has obtained 105 co-sponsors [3] and more are expected as a national coalition effort reaches out to House members during the current two-week Congressional recess.

The bill, hailed as the most significant new piece of a Congressional jobs agenda, would provide direct funding to local governments to create, restore or save up to one million public and private jobs for the next two years. It has already received the strong support [4] of many national organizations and policy advocates.

Following the historic passage of health care reform, the Congress will next need to turn its attention to jobs and the economy. With the Senate likely to focus first on financial regulatory reform, the House should be free to turn its attention to jobs legislation.

With the economy still weakened by persistent high rates of unemployment, and with state and local governments facing increasingly severe revenue shortfalls, endangering both public jobs and services, and many private sector jobs as well, the Local Jobs for America Act [5] would:

Specifically, the Local Jobs for America Act invests:

* $75 billion over two years to local communities to hire vital staff
* Funding for 50,000 on-the-job private-sector training positions

The bill also includes provisions already approved by the House:

* $23 billion this year to help states support 250,000 education jobs
* $1.18 billion to put 5,500 law enforcement officers on the beat
* $500 million to retain, rehire, and hire firefighters

More specifics on the bill are detailed here [6] by the House Education and Labor Committee.

The complete, current list of co-sponsors is available here [3].

If you don’t see your U.S. Representative listed as a co-sponsor yet, and you want to help support this legislation while Congress is in recess until April 12, go to this state-by-state House Member web page [7] and follow the links to find your Representative and his or her home district office contact information. Ask them to join the growing list of co-sponsors of H.R. 4812, Congressman Miller’s Local Jobs for America Act.