Black Leaders Urge a More Accurate Census Count
Several African American leaders met with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke on Wednesday to express their concern about minorities being undercounted in the 2010 Census. National Urban League President Marc Morial, who also chairs the 2010 Census Advisory Committee, said that the 2000 Census undercut minorities by 3%.
“That undercount is one part of the story. The other part of the story is that there was an overcount of the country’s white population,†Morial said. He and other leaders want to ensure that such mistakes won’t be repeated because census statistics are used to determine democratic representation in terms of political districting and to calculate the allocation of more than $400 billion in federal funds.
Other black leaders who attended the meeting include Rep. Lacy Clay (D-Missouri); Melanie Campbell, CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation; NAACP President Ben Jealous; the Rev. Al Sharpton; and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Morial said that both the Obama administration and the Commerce Department have pledged additional dollars and increased efforts to count hard-to-reach communities, but he and other leaders believe much more is needed. The group recommended that prisoners be included in the counts in their hometowns rather than where they are being held and also stressed the need to make significant media buys in the hard-to-reach urban communities.
The post-meeting press conference can be viewed here.
Small Business Owners Get a Lifeline
Small business owners received some holiday cheer from lawmakers when the Senate included $125 million to extend a provision in the Small Business Administration Recovery Act in the massive Defense Department appropriations package that was approved Wednesday.
Though Rep. Nydia Velazquez, who chairs the House Small Business Committee, cast one of the 34 nay votes, that didn’t stop her from issuing a statement approving the funding for the SBA funding.
“The passage of the Department of Defense appropriations bill and the latest jobs package will provide vital funding for SBA to continue offering affordable small business credit,†she said. “Since their enactment earlier this year, these reduced-cost loans have put nearly $14 billion of capital into the small business economy.”
Velazquez wasn’t the only Democrat to vote against the bill, which was approved 395-34. In fact, 23 others joined her, including Congressional Black Caucus members Keith Ellison of Minnesota; John Lewis of Georgia; Donald Payne of New Jersey; and New Yorkers Ed Towns and Yvette Clarke, who also sits on the small business committee.
They voted no because they disagreed with the war funding aspect of the bill. Interestingly enough, Velazquez and Clarke both voted for the Defense appropriations bill in July, which included lots of pork but no SBA funding. A Velazquez aide said that vote was to allow the legislative process to move forward, but when it came to a bill that would actually be signed by the president, she couldn’t say yes to war.House Passes Jobs Bill
The House voted 217-212 to pass a $154 billion jobs bill on Wednesday that will stimulate the labor market and extend the safety net. Every Republican and 38 Democrats voted against the Jobs for Main Street Act. The Senate, still deeply embroiled in a battle for healthcare reform, won’t tackle the jobs issue until next year, but House Democrats wanted to return to their districts for the holiday recess and reassure voters that they are on the job.
“I have no doubt that the [bill] will be an effective catalyst for job creation and a central component of our ongoing commitment to getting our economy back on track,†said House Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina.
The bill includes $48 billion for infrastructure
initiatives such as highway and mass transit projects and school construction and renovation and $23 billion to help save or create approximately 250,000 education jobs and recruit 5,000 law enforcement officers. It provides $79 billion for a six-month extension of unemployment benefits; $12.3 billion for COBRA, the subsidy for employer-sponsored health insurance available to laid-off workers; and $24.5 billion in federal matching funds for Medicaid.What it doesn’t do, says Rep. Artur Davis (D-Alabama), is take an aggressive enough approach to job protection and creation and small business lending.
“I don’t think the House should have the illusion as it leaves here that much more doesn’t have to be done and that the public won’t demand that much more be done next year,†said Davis. “We’ve got to do more to stimulate lending to small businesses. That’s an important problem and chokehold that exists in this economy.†He has introduced the Main Street Survival Act, which would use leftover TARP funds to establish a $1 billion revolving loan fund for small- and mid-sized businesses that are struggling to obtain credit.
Obama Pushes Home Energy Efficiency
Insulation is sexy — or so said President Barack Obama Tuesday during a visit to a Home Depot in suburban Virginia — because it saves money.
“I’m calling on Congress to provide new temporary incentives for Americans to make energy-efficiency retrofit investments in their homes. And we want them to do it soon,†he told a group of people representing manufacturers, small businesses, contractors, and laborers.
Homes and offices are responsible for close to 40% of the nation’s energy consumption and 40% of the carbon monoxide produced and that homes built in the first half of the 20th century can use about 50% more energy than homes built later.
“The simple act of retrofitting these buildings to make them more energy-efficient
— installing new windows and doors, insulation, roofing, sealing leaks, modernizing heating and cooling equipment — is one of the fastest, easiest, and cheapest things we can do to put Americans back to work while saving families money and reducing harmful emissions,†he said.SBI Energy projects that the U.S. home retrofit market will reach $35 billion between 2009 and 2013, increasing 50% faster than the overall renovations market.
“If you saw $20 bills just sort of floating through the window up into the atmosphere, you’d try to figure out how you were going to keep that. But that’s exactly what’s happening because of the lack of efficiency in our buildings,†said Obama, who called for tax breaks last week for home energy-efficiency projects.
Administration Expands Clean Energy Tax Credit
Vice President Joe Biden announced Wednesday a proposal for $5 billion in new tax credits to bolster both the American manufacturing and clean energy industries.
Speaking at a Middle Class Task Force meeting, Biden said that the energy tax credits that were included in the Recovery Act earlier this year was an “overwhelming success.†The $5 billion increase would more than triple the funding of the Recovery Act’s energy manufacturing tax credit. The money would come from $200 billion in savings from the bank bailout fund and must be approved by Congress.
In a conference call with reporters, a senior administration official said that the administration estimates that the increase will support at least $15 billion in total capital investment, which could create tens of thousands of new jobs. The 30% tax credit can be used for the building and equipping of new, expanded or retooled factories that manufacture a wide range of clean energy technologies, including wind, solar, and batteries.
Information on how to apply for the credit can be found here on the Department of Energy Website.
RNC Hosts Tea Party to Protest Healthcare Reform
The Tea Party movement is more popular among American voters than the Democratic and Republican parties, according to a recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. Maybe that’s what inspired Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele to host his own tea and pizza party Wednesday afternoon at RNC headquarters.
Steele said it was in honor of the 236th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, and as the Colonists did in 1773, voters today must demand that lawmakers listen to them.
“We have a Congress and a White House that have turned a deaf ear to the people of this country. They’ve turned a deaf ear on healthcare, on the economy, and have started to execute an agenda that quite frankly is not in the best interests of the American people,†Steele said to a group that appeared to consist primarily of young RNC and Capitol Hill staffers and a few Republican faithful elders. And so it’s time to fight, it’s time to push back, but most importantly it’s time to get this Congress to listen to us, to listen to you — the American people.â€
Steele conceded that tea partiers are justified in feeling that the Republican Party has abandoned its conservative principles, but the GOP is still a “natural home†for the movement. He’s holding a joint press conference call on Monday with former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) to discuss RNC and conservative grassroots efforts to stop healthcare reform.
Separately, Steele launched on Monday a “Listen to Me” campaign that includes radio and Web video ads aimed at preventing a “takeover†of the nation’s healthcare system. The RNC also is holding town hall meetings in the states of six moderate senators who are still on the fence over healthcare reform.