Strengthening America's Workforce

Statement

On Labor Day, we renew our commitment to strengthening America's workforce and expanding economic opportunity. As we commemorate this important day, we face the stark reality that millions of Americans are struggling to make ends meet and put food on the table.

After more than 240 days in the majority, House Republicans have yet to pass a single piece of legislation to create jobs and put Americans back to work. Instead, they have passed legislation that would destroy nearly 2 million jobs and have voted against 10 Democratic initiatives to revitalize our economy and create jobs.

House Democrats are committed to the number-one priority of America's working families -- job creation. Through our "Make it in America" initiative, we have put forth several measures that could create jobs now and strengthen the economy:

* A Highway bill that will create jobs by rebuilding American roads and transit -- rejecting the House GOP approach that would slash investments and would destroy more than 600,000 jobs.
* A bipartisan Infrastructure Bank proposal that can create millions of new jobs by creating a private-public partnership to finance needed projects to rebuild and modernize our roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, airports, railways, ports, broadband, and power grids.
* A robust FAA Reauthorization bill that will create 150,000 jobs and strengthen the economy.
* A China Currency bill that could help create about one million manufacturing jobs by providing our government with effective tools to address unfair currency manipulation by countries like China and level the playing field for America's manufacturers, small and large.
* Legislation to create clean energy jobs, including renewing the clean energy manufacturing tax credit that expired in 2010.

Congress must focus squarely on getting our economy back on track and strengthening our middle class. Working together, it's time to place Americans' top priority -- job creation -- at the top of our agenda.

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