[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E623]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

KEEP THE SUMMER JOBS PROGRAM

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HON. LOUISE McINTOSH SLAUGHTER

of new york

in the house of representatives

Thursday, March 16, 1995
Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, today the House approved over $17 billion
dollars in rescissions, the largest package that has ever come to the
floor which unfairly targets senior citizens, low-income families and
our children. Many of my colleagues have risen today to argue against
the bill and the arbitrary, across-the-board cuts it makes to some of
our most vital programs. I would like to draw our attention
specifically to the Labor Department's Summer Youth Program, because
under the package, Summer Youth would be totally eliminated. Mr.
Speaker, many of us on both sides of the aisle would have fought
against the rescission affecting our Nation's youth, but we never had
the chance during consideration of amendments. Make no mistake--
enactment of H.R. 1158 would mean the elimination of summer jobs for
over 500,000 youths and fewer job opportunities in the future as our
children enter the job market.
Many mayors and local officials throughout the country have voiced
their strong support for maintaining the Summer Youth Program. Mayor
William Johnson of Rochester, New York, the heart of my Congressional
district, offered an eloquent defense of the Summer Youth Program in a
recent testimony before the Economic and Educational Subcommittee on
Post-Secondary Education, Training and Life-Long Learning. At this
point, I would like to insert Mayor Johnson's statement into the
Record. I invite my colleagues to read it carefully to see what a wise
investment we once made for young Americans across the country.
Statement of Mayor William A. Johnson, Jr., Mayor, City of Rochester,
New York

Chairman McKeon and other members of the subcommittee, on
behalf of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and my counterparts
from hundreds of cities across the country, I want to express
my sincere appreciation for the opportunity to testify at
these subcommittee hearings on youth training programs.
This is a subject that I feel especially competent to
address, given my long years of professional involvement in
this area. Before being elected Mayor of Rochester, I spent
21 years as the CEO of a large human services organization
that provided job training programs to youths and adults.
I understand that the primary purpose of the hearings is to
review which programs are most effective and determine
whether these programs can and should be consolidated.
If you will permit me, I will address the latter question
first. I fully support the consolidation of the various grant
programs, to reduce the administrative costs of local
governments and to provide them with the flexibility to
design local programs based not upon what type of funds are
available from Washington but upon what types of needs exist
in the community.
As a group, the Conference of Mayors also supports
consolidation. Indeed, for the past three years, it has
formally adopted a policy statement endorsing it.
However, if consolidation takes the form of block grants to
states, to permit the benefits of efficiency and flexibility
to be achieved, there must be some mechanism to ensure that
the funds are directed towards local governments. There must
be a mandate within the legislation for the funds to be
passed through the states to municipalities, the actual
providers of training services.
Municipalities have convincingly demonstrated their ability
to prudently utilize block grants. The success of the
Community Development Block Grant program, with its extensive
level of citizen participation, and the Job Training
Partnership Act program with its committees of business,
labor and educational representatives, illustrate the
responsiveness of municipalities to community needs.
The future form of the grant programs should not be the
foremost concern, though. The continue existence of the these
programs should be our primary objective.
In a period in which Americans are confronted with
increasing economic competition from other nations, it would
seem shortsighted to reduce, through major decreases in job
training programs, the ability of American workers to
successfully meet this competition. In a period in which
Americans are being asked to become less dependent on
government, it would seem counterproductive to reduce their
ability to become independent.
To be effective an efficient job training must begin at an
early age. Youth must be exposed to the opportunities,
expectations and realities of the job marketplace.
For most youth, their initial training and experience
begins with summer jobs. While, at one time, businesses may
have been able to provide an adequate number of such jobs, in
more recent times, the private sector has been unable to meet
the increasing demand and need.
This is most particularly due to the restructuring and
transformation that many businesses have experienced in the
past decade. Job opportunities that many private sector
employees reserved for youth during after-school and summer
periods have been ``downsized'' out of existence.
For example, in Rochester, over the last four years nearly
4,000 youths had to rely upon the summer jobs provided
through federally funded programs, as each summer the number
of non-federal jobs dramatically declined. This year, an
additional 900 youth are--hopefully--expected to participate
in such programs.
I say hopefully, because I urge you and the other members
of the House to reject the the appropriation recision for the
summer youth program that was recently approved by the
Appropriations Subcommittee. Nationwide, this recision would
result in the elimination of summer job opportunities for
615,000 youth, a move that was totally unexpected.
As Seattle Mayor Norm Rice recently said, ``these cuts are
reversals of commitments the federal government has already
made to communities across the country. It is difficult
enough to adapt to future cuts, and absolutely devastating to
absorb retroactive ones.''
The reduction would mean that 615,000 youth will be not be
given a chance to contribute constructively to their
communities this summer. The reduction would mean that
615,000 youth will be less prepared to successfully enter the
job market in the future.
For New York State youth, the proposed reduction in federal
funding comes at a particularly inopportune time. Governor
George Pataki has proposed a similar reduction in state
funding for youth training programs.
The need to maintain government funding for summer jobs is
readily recognized by the private sector, which realizes that
the need for such jobs continues to exist and that
businesses, by themselves, will continue to be unable to
adequately address this need. Both the Greater Rochester
Metro Chamber of Commerce and the Industrial Management
Council, as association of large manufacturing and serve
companies, have expressed their serious concern over the
proposed elimination of federal funding.
They realistically know that the private sector will be
unable to fill the ``job gap'' that would ensue if funding is
not maintained. They realistically know that there will be a
``tax switch'' if this gap has to be filled through funding
by local governments. In cities across this country, our
financial base--largely derived form the property tax--will
not support the level of demand that is being pushed down
upon us by federal, state and county governments.
It is imperative that the summer youth job program be
preserved. At the annual convention of the Conference of
Mayors in Portland, Oregon last year, the program received
overwhelming support.
The assumption was that funding for the program would be
maintained at least at the current level of appropriations.
The hope was that funding would be increased.
Because of the obvious need for the program and because of
its demonstrated effectiveness, no one expected that there
soon would be a proposal to totally eliminate funding for the
program. Certainly, I personally did not anticipate the need
to testify today before you to oppose such elimination.
All Americans understand the need to reduce the federal
budget deficit. They understand the need to limit the burden
that we impose upon future generations.
They support your efforts to reduce the deficit, to
eliminate waste and inefficiencies and to eradicate fraud.
These goals can be achieved in my opinion, without crippling
or destroying programs that lead to skills training and self-
sufficiency.
However, the concern over the future of our youth must be
balanced by a concern over this present needs. Unless we
address these needs today, unless we prepare youth for
meaningful employment tomorrow in an increasingly demanding
marketplace, our youth will have no future at all. And with a
poorly trained workforce--and an increasing underclass
population--our country will have no future at all.

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