Facing escalated jobless numbers, CBC chief promises fight for jobs bill

By Hazel Trice Edney

(TriceEdneyWire.com) — Con­gressional Black Caucus Chairman Emanuel Cleaver II (D-Mo.) is blaming Republicans for holding up job growth legislation and promises to continue fighting for a jobs bill.

“After five months of controlling the House, the Republican Lead­ership continues to prevent critical jobs legislation from being considered and passed. Instead, they have cut funding to critical programs that directly serve our country’s most vulnerable communities, cost­ing hundreds of thousands of jobs and further weakening our economy,” Cleaver said in a statement. “I am fearful that reckless spending cuts will severely undermine and prevent recovery for every American community.”

Obviously recognizing the pending election season and trying to show the best face of Democrats, Cleaver boasted that private sector jobs have grown for the 17th straight month.

He conceded, however, “the overall unemployment rate in­creas­­ed by .1 percent and unemployment in the African American community has increased again, this time by .1 percent to a painful 16.2 percent. Millions are still out of work and families are still struggling to make ends meet.”

Black unemployment percentages that have fluctuated in the mid- to high teens for the past three years and in the high 30s for Black teens, have caused some criticism of the Obama administration despite clear drops in unemployment overall. Cleaver promised that the CBC will wrestle with job growth for the rest of the summer.

“As our communities’ unemployment rates continue to hover at treacherous highs, it is clear now more than ever, that we are in need of a serious jobs bill that puts Americans back to work, and back in control of their families’ futures,” Cleave says. “It is even more evident that we cannot rely on the Republican Leader­ship to deliver. The Con­gres­sional Black Caucus is working with great haste from now through Labor Day on a vital jobs initiative program.”

This story originally published in the June 13, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.