CBC Members Say Jobs Bill Doesn’t Go Far Enough
The news that February’s unemployment rate held steady at 9.7% and that the jobless rate for African Americans fell to 15.8% from16.5% brings little comfort to Congressional Black Caucus members, many of whom represent districts with unemployment rates as high as 17%. Twenty-one black lawmakers expressed their frustration on Thursday by voting against the jobs bill that the House passed with a vote of 217 to 201.
The centerpiece of the legislation is a 6.2% payroll tax exemption for businesses that hire new workers and a $1,000 tax credit if the workers stay on for at least a year. The bill also extends the Highway Trust Fund and the Build America Bonds program. Because it was modified to comply with the pay-as-you-go budgetary rule to mollify Blue Dog Democrats, the bill must go back to the Senate for another vote.
According to Democratic leadership, the bill is the first step in an overall job creation strategy. But Rep. William Lacy Clay and several other caucus members dismissed the piecemeal effort.
“I don’t know how you go back [home] and explain that you gave $15 billion mostly to businesses in the hope that they would create jobs while you’re robbing the Social Security trust fund,†said Clay. “I have no desire to participate in that game.â€
The CBC had lobbied for the inclusion a large summer youth program; federal dollars for living wage jobs at government and nonprofit agencies; and a concentration of spending in areas where unemployment is the highest.
What they got was a provision that 10% minority contracting goal for transportation projects, which one Democratic aide said is merely a restatement of current law that isn’t even enforced now.
“We continue to have our issues deferred and we end up seeing the Blue Dogs get their way over and over again,†said a visibly disappointed Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver, who co-chairs a CBC jobs taskforce. “It’s almost as if people, the Senate in particular, are saying ‘CBC members will go along with us–they always do’.â€
SBA Proposes Rule to Expand Contracting Opportunities for Women
The Small Business Administration announced this week a 60-day comment period on a proposed rule to expand federal contracting opportunities for women-owned small businesses. The agency has identified 83 industries in which women-owned small businesses are “underrepresented or substantially underrepresented.†The proposed rule would allow federal procurement officers to set aside contracts in those industries that do not exceed $3 million, or in the case of manufacturing, $5 million.“Across the country, women are leading strong, innovative companies, and we know that securing federal contracts can be the opportunity that helps them take their businesses to the next level,†said SBA chief Karen Mills in a release announcing the proposed rule.
The federal government currently has 5% women-owned small bus
iness contracting goal. To be eligible for set asides under the proposed rule, a business must be 51% owned and controlled by one or more women who are U.S. citizens and be deemed “economically disadvantaged.†The rule also eliminates a requirement that each federal agency certify that it had discriminated against women-owned small businesses in order to participate in the set-aside program.“For too long, women-owned businesses, in particular minority women-owned businesses, have faced challenges in attempting to do business with the federal government. This proposed rule demonstrates that the Small Business Administration recognizes this,†said Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-New York), a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and the House Small Business Committee . “Democracy is not a spectator sport. That is why I encourage all American citizens, especially women business owners, to take full advantage of the 60 day public comment period to weigh in on the proposed rule.â€
Comments may be submitted online at www.regulations.gov up until the close of business on May 3.Black Groups Join to Increase African American Census Responses
Over the next 30 days, Unity Diaspora Coalition, whose partners include the NAACP, the Black Leadership Forum, the Leadership Conference on Human and Civil Rights, and other major black groups, will work with grassroots organizations across the nation to organize Census Sundays, town hall meetings, and other events to remind people to return their 2010 census forms.
People in hard to
reach communities often neglect doing so for a variety of reasons, from distrust of government to downright laziness. But it comes at a cost because when they are not counted much-needed resources are diverted elsewhere.“The effect of the undercount is particularly bad on the African American population because it really does effect how [legislative] districts are drawn and can be used to shrink African American districts and power,†said Barbara Arnwine, executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. By contrast, she added, when there is an accurate count, black communities can maintain or even make political gains.
Paraphrasing the late Rep. Shirley Chisholm, National Council of Negro Women chair and president emerita Dorothy Height said, “If you’re not in the count, you’ve counted yourself out.â€
“It’s time to hold our own community accountable,” said Melanie Campbell, who heads the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. “People keep looking for change, but we’re the change.”
The census events also will be used to get out the vote for the November mid-term elections.