Tierney to President Bush: Jobless Workers Deserve Better

Tierney to President Bush: Jobless Workers Deserve Better
New Report Shows Negative Impact to Boston Metro Area Unless Unemployment Benefits are Extended

Washington, DC- With the number of jobless workers in Massachusetts rising to the national unemployment level for the first time in nine years, U.S. Congressman John F. Tierney (D-Salem) today released a new report that shows 30,400 unemployed workers in the Boston Metro Area, including the sixth Congressional District of Massachusetts, will lose their unemployment benefits in the next six months unless the President approves an extension of this important benefit. The House Government Reform Committee, at the behest of Congressman Tierney, conducted the report.

"The stakes are high in communities in the sixth district like Lynn, Gloucester, and Salem where the unemployment rate is even higher than the state and national average of 5.7 percent," said Tierney. "Workers who have paid into the unemployment insurance system should be able to draw upon this safety net during harsh economic times. The Bush Administration should act in the best interest of those people who are out of work," said Tierney. "Jobless workers in communities across the country rely on these benefits to provide the most basic needs to their families. Each dollar they receive in unemployment benefits is injected directly into the economy, providing a boost of $1.73 for every dollar spent. If the President would just work with Congress to extend unemployment benefits, the economy of the North Shore and the Boston Metro Area would stand to gain $246 million in economic stimulus. There is no doubt that unemployment benefits must be extended."

"Besides the extension of benefits to workers between jobs, there is much more that can be done to help Americans who are out of work," said Tierney. "A year ago I and my Democratic colleagues introduced a fair, fast-acting, fiscally responsible jobs bill that over 400 economists agreed would have created over a million jobs in 2003 alone. The Republican majority in Congress refused to allow a vote on our plan, the President ignored our advice, and the economy lost hundreds of thousands of jobs. This year, we are again calling for a national jobs and growth agenda because our economy does not have a person to spare.

"We must work to stem the outflow of manufacturing jobs by changing the structure from one that rewards companies for outsourcing jobs overseas, to one that provides incentives for companies to create jobs here at home. We must support the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) as well as Small Business Administration's (SBA) 7(a) loans to assist small businesses in upgrading operations, and work with them to expand and upgrade their workforce so it can compete globally."

"We must support basic research in industries that could be hiring workers at all levels-like the robotics, alternative energy and bio-tech sectors-so capital will flow to expand these industries and companies will build on that basic research to conduct more extensive applied research and market new products and services," added Tierney.

"In addition, we must accelerate and intensify our efforts to re-educate and re-train the workforce to keep or recapture the competitive advantage based on the quality of work done in the United States. While the President's job-training proposal, introduced last week, may provide modest help, it is not nearly enough to make up for the cuts he has made in job training and vocational education over the last three years," said Tierney.

"With three solid years of pressing by Democrats in Congress, the Bush Administration seems to be considering some amount of 'backfill' on some of these concepts, but they have yet to recognize the extent of the problems with the economy and their proposals are not forceful enough to re-invigorate the job market. The bottom line is this: there are no jobs to spare. The President must work with his friends in Congress to reverse their policies that are having an adverse effect on those seeking to find jobs," concluded Tierney.