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Congressman
Elijah E. Cummings |
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Congressman
Elijah E. Cummings |
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(4/27/02 Baltimore AFRO-American Newspaper)
by Congressman Elijah E. Cummings
Most of the job-seekers who attended our 7th Congressional District Job Fair this week arrived early. When we opened the doors on Monday morning, they were already standing patiently in line.
More than 1500 people would visit the job fair that day. As I spoke with many of them, their message to President Bush and the Congress was clear.
When we open doors to real economic opportunity, people will do whatever they can to walk through them.
Unemployed Americans want to work. What they need is the practical help that will allow them to obtain good jobs that pay enough to lift their families out of poverty.
Washington should take this lesson to heart during the next few weeks as the Congress debates reauthorization of the 1996 federal "welfare reform" program – Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF).
I voted against welfare reform in 1996 because the legislation did not include a realistic federal commitment to the job training, child care and other supports that working parents need. I believe that those same practical considerations must remain at the center of our debate about encouraging employment in today’s high-technology economy.
I wish that my Republican colleagues could have attended our job fair this week. They would have learned some important lessons about working in America from people like the young woman whom I will call "Sarah."
Sarah is a mother in her mid-twenties who brought her three little children with her to our job fair. She told me that no other trusted adult was available to look after them while she searched for a job.
Sarah desperately wants to give her children a better life, but the demands of motherhood constantly interfere with her efforts to obtain her G.E.D. and the other job skills that would qualify her for a job that pays a living wage.
Barely able to pay her rent and her rapidly increasing utilities bills, she cannot afford the child care and transportation costs that would allow her to go to work every day.
"I am trying to work and support my children," she explained, "but it seems as if the system is working against me."
Sarah was encouraged that representatives of Baltimore City Community College were on hand at our job fair to help her develop a job-preparation plan. Like other low-income Americans, Sarah wants to create a career for herself – and not simply to move from one low-paying job to another.
To accomplish that goal, Sarah and other unemployed parents need additional education and job training, affordable and safe child care, transportation and job-search assistance like our job fair was designed to provide.
They also need a Congress that understands the economic realities that working parents face.
During the good economic years under former President Clinton, additional federal funding for job training, child care costs and transportation assistance allowed states like Maryland to help most of their former welfare recipients find jobs. As a result, the number of children with an unemployed parent declined nationally from 4.3 million in 1995 to 2.9 million in 2000.
After one year of economic recession during the Bush Administration, however, nearly 4 million American children again have a parent who is unemployed. Many of these unemployed parents find it almost impossible to qualify for high-paying positions that require significant technical training – and they still cannot support their families on a minimum wage.
Democrats want to give parents like Sarah the opportunity to work. That is why I have co-sponsored legislation introduced by Congressman Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Congresswoman Patsy Mink (D-HI) that would offer unemployed parents the practical help that they need.
We are convinced that the central objective of welfare reform must be to eliminate poverty in America. To achieve that goal, we must expand federal support for proven employment strategies like job training and child care programs while we continue to give the states flexibility in using that increased federal aid.
The Democratic strategy would invest in the determination and abilities of our people, allow more Americans to earn a living wage. If we can convince our Republican colleagues to work with us on a bipartisan basis, we can help more Americans like Sarah empower their lives – and the lives of their children.
We can create the true "welfare reform" that America needs.
-The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings represents the 7th Congressional District of Maryland in the United States House of Representatives.
