This resolution expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that it is the duty of the federal government to create a federal job guarantee.
[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 145 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
117th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 145
Recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to create a Federal job
guarantee.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 22, 2021
Ms. Pressley submitted the following resolution; which was referred to
the Committee on Education and Labor
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to create a Federal job
guarantee.
Whereas Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes that
``everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just
and favorable conditions of work and to protection against
unemployment'';
Whereas a job guarantee was a central demand and unfinished legacy of the civil
rights movement, such that--
(1) at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Martin Luther
King, Jr., joined A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin in demanding a job
guarantee;
(2) in the subsequent decade, Coretta Scott King led a grassroots
movement to enact a job guarantee;
(3) these leaders all built on and advanced the work of earlier
pioneers like Sadie T.M. Alexander, the Nation's first Black economist, who
advocated a job guarantee to address racial discrimination against Black
workers, while improving labor market conditions for all workers in the
1940s; and
(4) throughout the past 100 years, activists and intellectuals like
Ella Baker and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party have all seen a
Federal job guarantee as a key element of racial justice;
Whereas the right to a ``useful and remunerative'' job was the first and most
fundamental right in President Franklin D. Roosevelt's proposed Economic
Bill of Rights and is a core plank of the Green New Deal movement and
the People's Justice Guarantee;
Whereas a job guarantee is essential to any effort to close the racial and
gender income and wealth gap;
Whereas the United States has, on multiple occasions, including from 1945 to
1946, 1977 to 1978, and more recently, introduced legislation in an
attempt to establish a full employment economy;
Whereas the commitment to full employment has been embraced by Congress and is
part of the statutory mandate of the Federal Reserve System;
Whereas the United States has experienced decades of increasing inequality,
racial economic exclusion and inequity, stagnant wages, declining union
membership, and deteriorating workplace protections and conditions;
Whereas the United States has experienced decades of chronic underinvestment in
its communities, workforce, infrastructure, public services,
agricultural and industrial heartland, and natural environment;
Whereas the United States has, for decades, perpetuated a punitive, racist,
ineffective criminal legal system that has systematically excluded
millions of individuals from the workforce, failed to effectively
promote reentry for previously incarcerated individuals, and forced
incarcerated individuals to work in oppressive and exploitative
conditions for effectively no pay;
Whereas the United States is experiencing a long-term economic crisis in which
many workers are overworked, underpaid, and experience job and economic
insecurity, with at least 100 million Americans living in or near
poverty, and 28 percent of full-time workers earning less than $15 an
hour according to the National Equity Atlas;
Whereas the United States is facing a weak economy and sluggishly facing a
grossly unequal recovery in the aftermath of the global financial crisis
that has benefited few at the expense of many;
Whereas the United States presently fails to recognize, support, or adequately
remunerate the household and care work of millions of women, parents,
and familial caregivers;
Whereas economic prosperity in the United States has been highly unequal since
its founding, largely falling on racial lines, with Black and indigenous
Americans consistently earning less, owning less, and experiencing
greater rates of economic precarity and poverty than White Americans;
Whereas the United States has not increased the minimum wage for years, and
maintains subminimum wage carveouts for incarcerated people, people with
disabilities, and tipped workers;
Whereas the United States presently exploits millions of undocumented workers,
by forcing them to work in substandard conditions and below prevailing
wages;
Whereas the United States is presently experiencing a generational crisis, as
millions of younger and older workers face structural barriers to
meaningful participation in the workforce;
Whereas the United States is underinvesting in creative, cultural, scientific,
and knowledge industries, including higher education, libraries, public
art, and journalism;
Whereas the United States is facing four overlapping and compounding crises,
namely the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, systemic racism, and
extreme economic inequality, that together require a large-scale
mobilization on the scale of World War II to address;
Whereas the United States is experiencing a sustained economic depression, in
which low-wage workers, and Black, Latinx, Native American, and other
communities of color, as well as women and people with disabilities,
have suffered disproportionate employment and income losses and face
mounting debts;
Whereas the United States is facing growing demand for care work and social
services as the baby boomer generation retires from the workforce, and
the senior population is expected to nearly double between 2018 and
2060;
Whereas the United States is facing new workforce challenges relating to
privacy, worker autonomy, data gathering and surveillance, and
automation, as a result of new technologies and the rapidly changing
nature of industry, and these challenges have been accelerated by the
COVID-19 pandemic;
Whereas the United States currently suffers from high levels of underemployment,
persistent joblessness among marginalized populations, and the growth of
primarily low-quality jobs, resulting in--
(1) the loss of millions of hours of potential output, as well as
deterioration of skills and productive capacity;
(2) lower community living standards, increased levels of working
poverty and homelessness, and higher rates of individual and family
suffering, including physical and mental health problems;
(3) higher rates of workplace discrimination, harassment, and a ``last
hired, first fired'' approach that disproportionately affects vulnerable
populations, including Black workers, women, LGTBQIA workers, workers with
disabilities, formerly incarcerated workers, and young and elderly workers;
(4) an effective minimum wage of zero for those who cannot obtain
employment; and
(5) an increasing fraction of the workforce forced to undertake
multiple jobs, or engage in dangerous work with insufficient labor
protections;
Whereas reliance on private investment alone has never historically succeeded in
establishing a true full employment economy, in which every individual
wishing to undertake paid work can do so;
Whereas reliance on education, skill development, job training, and other
``indirect'' policies alone have never historically succeeded in
establishing a true full employment economy, in which every individual
wishing to undertake paid work can do so;
Whereas untargeted, demand-increasing stimulus alone has never historically
succeeded in establishing a true full employment economy, in which every
individual wishing to undertake paid work can do so;
Whereas the Federal Government has the unique legal and financial capacity,
relative to the local and State governments and the private sector, to
credibly commit to funding the programs and institutions necessary to
establish a true full employment economy, in which every individual
wishing to undertake paid work can do so;
Whereas the Federal Reserve, on its own, has never historically succeeded in
establishing a true full employment economy, in which every individual
wishing to undertake paid work can do so, and by its own admission,
lacks the necessary tools and capacity to do so;
Whereas Congress and the Department of the Treasury have a demonstrated track
record of successfully funding and administering direct job creation
programs, including the Works Progress Administration and Civilian
Conservation Corps during the New Deal, which created over six million
jobs in less than a year;
Whereas Congress and the Treasury have a demonstrated track record of mass-scale
mobilization of the economy, including during World War II, when the
United States maintained an average unemployment rate of under 2
percent, and successfully doubled real output of the entire economy in
under 6 years in the face of an unprecedented existential threat; and
Whereas President Biden has taken Executive action on the creation of a Civilian
Climate Corps Initiative, in need of dedicated, permanent funding on a
nondiscretionary basis, to mobilize the next generation of conservation
and resilience workers and maximize the creation of accessible training
opportunities and good jobs: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives
that--
(1) it is the duty of the Federal Government to create a
Federal job guarantee--
(A) to finally eliminate the moral and economic
scourge of involuntary unemployment;
(B) to establish a true full employment society, in
which anyone who wants to undertake paid work in the
service of the community and the environment has ample
opportunities to do so;
(C) to collectively achieve the greatest possible
level of socially and ecologically sustainable
prosperity, and share the fruits of that prosperity
equitably among all people;
(D) to empower the working class by offering every
worker, regardless of his or her background, capacity,
or status, the opportunity to earn a fair, living wage,
and to organize with fellow workers to advocate for
common interests;
(E) to ensure every person in America has genuine
and meaningful opportunities for education, training,
career advancement, and choice with respect to
workforce participation;
(F) to update and expand our understanding of
socially necessary or useful work to include
historically underrecognized and uncompensated labor,
including domestic and social care, ecological
preservation, and cultural, scientific, and creative
work;
(G) to promote justice and equity by stopping
current, preventing future, and repairing historic
oppression and discrimination of indigenous peoples,
communities of color, migrant communities,
deindustrialized communities, depopulated rural
communities, the poor, low-income workers, women, the
elderly, the unhoused, people with disabilities, and
youth (referred to in this resolution as ``frontline
and vulnerable communities'');
(H) to complete the unfinished legacy of the civil
rights movement and the New Deal, and meet the
contemporary challenges posed by the climate crisis
identified in the Green New Deal resolution; and
(I) to meet the broader social and economic
challenges of the 21st century through appropriate
public investment, socially coordinated planning, and
industrial cooperation;
(2) the goals described in subparagraphs (A) through (I) of
paragraph (1) (the ``job guarantee goals'') should be
accomplished through an immediate national mobilization--
(A) to establish and honor a legally enforceable
right to fair, dignified, and decently remunerated
employment for all eligible individuals living in the
United States (hereafter the ``right to employment'');
(B) to establish and honor a Bill of Workers'
Rights, as a complement to the right to employment,
that addresses issues related to worker exploitation,
discrimination, harassment, compensation, privacy,
autonomy, choice of employment, working conditions, the
right to organize and collectively bargain, suitable
accommodation for people with disabilities, protection
and expansion of existing safety net programs, and
other related concerns (hereafter the ``Workers' Bill
of Rights'');
(C) to establish, implement, and administer a
comprehensive and diverse range of socially necessary
and useful public projects, reflective of community and
regional needs, including direct public job creation
programs, and to support related education, training,
credentialing, and career development programs, to
ensure workers enjoy meaningful choice and appropriate
opportunities for growth and advancement in their
chosen area of employment (hereafter the ``enabling
programs'');
(D) to design and implement the right to
employment, Workers' Bill of Rights, and enabling
programs through transparent and inclusive
consultation, collaboration, and partnership with
frontline and vulnerable communities, labor unions,
worker cooperatives, civil society groups, State and
local governments, academia, and businesses;
(E) to take ecological and equitable concerns into
consideration when designing and implementing the right
to employment, Workers' Bill of Rights, and enabling
programs, as well as any other related infrastructural
and administrative institutions and procedures;
(F) to take any and all necessary steps to ensure,
wherever possible, that all people benefit from the
collective prosperity resulting from the establishment
of the right to employment, Workers' Bill of Rights,
and enabling programs; and
(G) to adequately and appropriately fund these
efforts on a permanent, nondiscretionary basis, using
Congress power of the purse, through a combination of
Federal support to local and State governments, and
various direct Federal grant and investment programs;
(3) the national mobilization towards a Federal job
guarantee would include projects that--
(A) strengthen communities, retool our economy,
achieve inclusive prosperity, and leave no one behind;
(B) address national priorities as well as those
put forward by local governments and community
organizations, with the participation of communities
impacted by structural racism, oppression, and
disinvestment in the selection of projects;
(C) create net new jobs, without displacing
existing public sector workers; and
(D) prioritize racial equity and environmental
sustainability, including but not limited to ensuring a
just transition for workers and frontline communities
currently involved in unsustainable industries;
(4) job guarantee workers would be employed in a range of
ways, including but not limited to--
(A) ensuring the delivery of high-quality,
professional care to children, seniors, and others in
need of long-term support in family based, informal,
and formal settings;
(B) augmenting the staffing of public education and
early childhood learning, including Head Start and
preschool;
(C) strengthening public afterschool programs,
libraries, and recreational programs to provide
lifelong learning and enrichment for people of all
ages;
(D) implementing community infrastructure and
improvement projects that revitalize neighborhoods,
including vacant and abandoned property cleanup, street
and sidewalk repair, remodeling and modernization of
schools and other public community-serving facilities,
and maintenance and renovation of parks, playgrounds,
and public spaces;
(E) expanding emergency preparedness, and relief
and recovery from natural and community disasters,
including public health, natural disasters, and
environmental emergencies;
(F) producing works of public art and documentation
of United States history akin to the Works Project
Administration's Federal Art Project;
(G) implementing environmental conservation,
remediation, and sustainability initiatives, increasing
the energy efficiency of buildings and our housing
stock to address climate change, and building climate
resistance through programs such as the Civilian
Climate Corps;
(H) rehabilitating and retrofitting our existing
affordable housing stock to ensure safe, affordable,
quality, energy-efficient homes, and supporting the
development of new affordable housing and social
housing to address the Nation's housing crisis;
(I) producing creative, scientific, artistic, or
cultural works, which would then be made open and
available for public use; and
(J) supporting other projects that address public
needs and can be implemented quickly;
(5) job guarantee jobs would pay no less than $15 per hour,
adjusted on a regular basis to ensure a rising standard of
living, and would not replace any existing safety net programs
or benefits, including unemployment insurance;
(6) job guarantee jobs would also offer benefits,
including--
(A) health insurance consistent with that provided
to existing Federal Government employees;
(B) paid sick days and family leave;
(C) retirement benefits; and
(D) paid vacation;
(7) job guarantee workers would--
(A) be able to join public sector unions and
bargain collectively for better working conditions and
compensation;
(B) be protected against discrimination and
harassment by Federal labor laws;
(C) have their data protected and their privacy
respected; and
(D) be empowered to develop lasting skills through
on-the-job training, as well as paid apprenticeships,
credentialing, and other career-building opportunities;
(8) job guarantee work would--
(A) be made available--
(i) on a full-time and part-time basis for
adult residents age 18 and over, depending on
worker needs, including those with involvement
in the criminal legal system;
(ii) on a part-time basis for young people
ages 16 and 17;
(iii) for short- or long-term periods,
depending on worker needs; and
(iv) to all people on a nondiscriminatory
basis, including people with disabilities;
(B) include outreach and recruitment, conducted in
multiple languages;
(C) provide workers and aspiring workers with
support services, such as childcare and transportation
assistance, and specific accommodations, as needed to
access jobs and fulfill job responsibilities; and
(D) meaningfully expand our social safety net and
would not replace any existing safety net programs or
benefits, including unemployment insurance; and
(9) the job guarantee program would be administered by the
Department of Labor and overseen by the Secretary of Labor in
coordination with the Secretary of the Treasury, who would be
responsible for dispersing funding, and in particular--
(A) the Secretary of Labor would direct Treasury
funds to local employment offices to manage job
guarantee projects and match job seekers to projects,
as well as cover any related capital and administrative
costs, with funds targeted during the initial 3-year
startup period to areas of greatest employment need;
and
(B) State, county, and local governments, as well
as territories and Tribal Nations, would help
administer the program, engaging residents in community
assessments and participatory processes to identify job
guarantee projects to go into a Community Job Bank.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor.
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