New Journal - Coons: Washington Must Put Focus Back on Jobs

Op-Ed

By Sen. Chris Coons

Visiting with businesses large and small, meeting with workers, and listening to folks at our job fairs these last few months, I've heard one message loudly and clearly: Delawareans are frustrated with Washington and want to know when Congress is going to refocus its attention on jobs and our economy.

I share their frustration.

With our nation pausing to celebrate Labor Day, and with 12 million Americans -- including 32,000 Delawareans -- still looking for work, Congress has seemed startlingly unmoved. When Congress reconvenes next week, it should make helping businesses create jobs its top priority.

Although we're adding an average of nearly 200,000 jobs a month, our nation is still only on pace to reach full employment by 2017.

Worse, the job growth numbers mask an even deeper and more concerning structural problem in our economy -- long-term unemployment. Almost 40 percent of those currently unemployed have been out of a job for six months or longer. Although short-term unemployment has dropped, the ranks of the long-term unemployed remain stubbornly swollen.

The problem is especially difficult because the longer someone is out of a job, the harder it becomes for him or her to find a new one. As weeks and months pass, skills become rusty or unaligned with the needs of would-be employers. At the same time, the confidence one needs to thrive in the job hunt wanes just as the stigma of unemployment increases.

Congress' lack of attention to these challenges is striking.

Washington has been paralyzed by a partisan battle over a fundamental disagreement about whether the government can and should play a positive role in our nation's economy, and support the businesses and workers that drive it. Tea Party Republicans in the House of Representatives believe they can make more of a difference by repealing the Affordable Care Act or imposing reckless across-the-board spending cuts on the economy we're trying to revive.

To help our businesses grow and create jobs, we need to be making smarter investments in their success and focusing on skills training and the continued growth of the American manufacturing sector.

A few weeks ago, I visited the production facility of Beracah Homes in Greenwood, whose leaders told me that if not for the Delaware Manufacturing Extension Partnership, the modular homebuilder might not have survived the recession. The advice and support of the federally funded network of manufacturing experts helped the company streamline its work processes, better manage its inventories, and improve the administration of every aspect of modern manufacturing. I've heard similar success stories from the leaders of PATS Aviation in Georgetown, Miller Metal Fabrication in Bridgeville, ILC Dover, Masley Enterprises in Wilmington, and other Delaware manufacturers.

The Manufacturing Extension Partnership is one of the best examples of a federal program that is having a direct and positive impact on jobs here in Delaware, but the budget passed by House Republicans this year zeroed-out the funding the program needs to keep helping manufacturing businesses thrive and create jobs.

How is hurting manufacturers a smart investment in our country?

This Congress has had fewer than 20 bills signed into law so far this year -- during a time of enormous challenges at home and abroad -- and although Democrats and many Republicans view this inaction as an utter embarrassment, the Tea Party and its conservative ideologues see it as an accomplishment to be celebrated. Americans have good reason to be frustrated.

Unemployed Delawareans have already waited too long for help, which is why Sen. Carper, Congressman Carney, and I have tried to get around the Washington gridlock by hosting job fairs throughout Delaware. We've convened 15 job fairs over the last three years to put more than 12,000 Delawareans in the room with hundreds of local employers. Nothing makes me happier as a senator than hearing from Delawareans who got a job that they applied for at one of our fairs.

Washington needs to take decisive action on jobs, and it needs to take it now. Too many Delawareans have been forced to wait too long to get back into the workforce.

It is my sincere hope that when Congress goes back into session next month, it will get past the politics and get back to doing what our country needs us to do -- to focus again on jobs.

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