Representative Fudge Joins CBC In Meeting with President Barack Obama

Press Release

Representative Marcia L. Fudge (OH-11) joined members of the Congressional Black Caucus in meeting with President Obama today. Rep. Fudge and her colleagues highlighted the critical importance of creating jobs, especially for the chronically unemployed who have been out of work for more than 6 months. This open and honest conversation with the President during a meeting at the White House this afternoon, comes in the midst of the CBC's call for a jobs package that truly addresses the Nation's rates of underemployment and chronic unemployment.

"I was proud to sit down with the President and reemphasize the needs of Northeast Ohio. Labor statistics place our unemployment rate at around 9%, but when you add the unemployed and the underemployed, the true figure is 28% - 30%," said Rep. Fudge. "These Ohioans are not counted by the labor statistics, but they count to me and they should count to Congress."

While acknowledging the President inherited an economy on the brink of collapse, Rep. Fudge says federal efforts to date have not made a significant dent in putting people back to work. Statistics paint a bleak picture. Since the recession began, Cleveland's unemployment rate has hovered at slightly more than 9% and with the chronically unemployed and underemployed that number rises to 30%. African Americans in Northeast Ohio have a jobless rate nearly twice that of whites. And in another disturbing trend, African Americans and Hispanics are not only unemployed in high numbers but also stay unemployed significantly longer.

Rep. Fudge stands with the CBC calling for a direct and targeted jobs creation package that gets Americans back to work. "Our spending priorities cannot leave behind high areas of poverty and unemployment where the lack of affordable health care and home foreclosures worsen the fallout of this recession."

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