Groups Announce Broad New Coalition, National Push for Jobs Legislation

Washington, D.C. –Jobs for America Now, a broad coalition of 60 national organizations, today announced specific policy points and a grassroots, coordinated campaign to pass legislation in Congress that will put America back to work.

Jobs for America Now pledged a massive mobilization effort which will include national and state-based action in all 50 states. The coalition officially begins campaigning today and is expected to continue at least through the first half of 2010. 

Jobs for America Now, www.jobs4americanow.org, supports a five-point jobs plan that would:

• Provide relief through continued and expanded unemployment benefits, COBRA and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).  This relief aids those without jobs while at the same time creating jobs by boosting consumer spending.
• Extend substantial fiscal relief to state and local governments.  Without this aid, state and local governments will have to cut their budgets, budget cuts that would lead to substantial job losses in both the public and private sector.
• Create jobs that put people to work helping communities meet pressing needs, including in distressed communities that face severe unemployment.
• Invest in infrastructure improvements in schools, transportation and energy efficiency, thus providing jobs in the short run and productivity enhancements in the longer run.
• Spur private-sector job growth through innovative incentives and providing credit to small and medium-sized businesses.

Participants in a press conference announcing the campaign included Alan Charney, US Action, Deepak Bhargava, Center for Community Change, Anna Burger, Change to Win, Nancy Duff Campbell, National Women’s Law Center, Ben Jealous, NAACP, Thea Lee, AFL-CIO, Larry Mishel, Economic Policy Institute, Janet Murguia, National Council of La Raza.

Sample quotes from participating organizations (Note to reporters, bloggers and producers: A full list of organizations is at the bottom of this release):

Deepak Bhargava, executive director, Center for Community Change:
“No silver bullet will combat the extreme levels of unemployment we’re seeing. We need a holistic approach that prioritizes a federally funded community jobs program that would work to identify critical projects and connect workers to jobs in the public and nonprofit sectors immediately.  A community jobs program would reduce unemployment faster than any other mechanism available to the government.”

Robert L. Borosage, co-director, Campaign for America’s Future:
“Joblessness is a scourge. It destroys families, demeans its victims.  A jobless recovery is an oxymoron – there can be no recovery without people going back to work. This must be the first priority of the administration and the Congress.  There is work to be done and people in need of work.  It is time to act – with a program large enough to deal with the scope of the problem. Budget deficits should not stand in the way.  In fact, there is no way to get to a balanced budget without putting people back to work.  It is time for the Congress to step up.”

Anna Burger, chair, Change to Win:
“The American people demand swift, bold action to put our country back to work. In order to build long-term sustainable economic growth, we need a comprehensive jobs agenda that deals with our immediate jobs crisis, helps our states and cities cope with staggering budget shortfalls, and makes strategic investments to create jobs that Americans will need in the future.”  

Alan Charney, program director, USAction and interim campaign manager, Jobs for America Now:
“Jobs is the number one economic issue our country faces,” said Alan Charney, USAction program director and Jobs for America Now interim campaign manager. “The progressive community is uniting behind a broad jobs program. Together the groups in Jobs for America Now are combining our grassroots, lobbying and communications capacities to create a strong campaign for 2010.”

Nancy Duff Campbell, co-president, National Women’s Law Center:
“One group of jobless workers is especially vulnerable:  single mothers. Since the recession began in December 2007, unemployment among women who head families has consistently been higher than the unemployment rate for men and women generally. More than one of every three female-headed families with children was living in poverty last year. It is the highest number in a decade. A similar number struggled to get enough to eat. Legislators mustn’t drop the ball on the unemployment issue: leaving single mothers and hundreds of thousands of other jobless workers out in the cold this January is not the path toward economic recovery.” 

Benjamin Todd Jealous, NAACP President and CEO:
“When America gets a cold, African Americans get pneumonia. Our communities are disproportionately suffering from this recession. Job creation has got to be the number one job of Congress right now. The NAACP is proud to be a part of the Jobs for America Now coalition--The only way out of this recession is jobs.”

Joan Kuriansky, executive director, Wider Opportunities for Women:
“The unemployment rate in October for unmarried female heads of households, most of them single mothers, was a startling 12.6 percent. To create good, well-paying jobs so they can support their families, policy makers should consider A Women’s Agenda for Job Creation.”

Thea Lee, deputy chief of staff, AFL-CIO:
"Across the country, working Americans are calling for urgent action on the jobs crisis, and this action must be on a scale to match the crisis.  We must also focus on fundamentally transforming our economy so we never face this type of crisis again -- reforming our labor laws, our trade policy, and our financial system to restore needed balance."

Janet Murguia, president and CEO, National Council of La Raza:
"Like all Americans, Latinos are ready to work hard to climb out of this recession. But, without a specific plan to address the jobs crisis in communities of color, the Administration’s response will be insufficient to bring about true economic recovery,  The President and Congress must put equity and fairness at the center of any new jobs initiative."

Lawrence Mishel, president, Economic Policy Institute:
“With a double-digit unemployment rate and nearly 16 million Americans looking for work, we should take decisive action as quickly as possible to create jobs. High rates of unemployment damage our economy in ways that can take years, if not generations, to fix, by casting millions of families and children into poverty and making it difficult for our nation to invest for the future.”

Miles Rapoport, president, Demos:
"This broad-based coalition will work to ensure that our leaders in Washington have both the policy ideas and the political will to restore the fundamental promise of the American economy: more widely shared prosperity and opportunity for all."

John Taylor, president, National Community Reinvestment Coalition:
“The key to economic recovery is to create jobs, particularly in the communities hardest hit by the recession. Government initiatives must leverage private capital to jump start market solutions to the current unemployment crisis. To ensure that the jobs created are sustainable and pay a decent wage, adequate training and workforce development measures must be paired with efforts to stimulate the economy in the short term.”

Andy Van Kleunen, executive director, The Workforce Alliance:
“Now is the time to invest in jobs and the best way to do that is by investing in people, We look forward to working with Jobs for America Now and the Administration on solutions that could be incorporated into the jobs bill and other legislation to address the fact that so many unemployed Americans don’t have the specific basic or technical skills needed by local employers in this rapidly changing labor market."

Michael J. Wilson,national director, Americans for Democratic Action:
“There are over 15 million out-of-work Americans vying for 3 million available jobs and that’s not enough. Passage of comprehensive jobs legislation with help for the unemployed and investment in new jobs cannot wait.”