Reps. Miller, Barnett, Byrnes, Constan, Cushingberry, Geiss, Gonzales, Gregory, Haugh, Huckleberry, Robert Jones, Kandrevas, LeBlanc, Leland, Lemmons, Liss, Mayes, Meadows, Neumann, Polidori, Rogers, Bettie Scott, Scripps, Slavens, Smith, Stanley and Switalski offered the following resolution:

            House Resolution No. 213.  

            A resolution to memorialize the Congress of the United States to enact legislation creating a comprehensive jobs program.

            Whereas, Michigan continues to experience an unemployment crisis causing severe financial hardship for families and small businesses, while creating unprecedented demand on public and private organizations that provide essential services; and

            Whereas, The past decade has proven to be devastating for the state. Michigan lost more than 279,242 jobs in 2009, making the total number of jobs lost in the state over the last decade a staggering 796,942. Michigan has experienced double-digit unemployment rates since December 2008 and has led the nation with the highest percent of unemployment since 2006. Michigan's per capita income has declined 12 percent in eight years. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis data indicates Michigan, which ranked as high as twelfth among the 50 states and D.C. in per capita income in 1977, plummeted to thirty-eighth in 2008; and

            Whereas, We applaud the federal government for extending unemployment benefits and for funding retraining programs for residents to improve and diversify their skill sets. However, considering that Michigan economic conditions remain severe, the majority of individuals who have been retrained still cannot find work; and

            Whereas, The University of Michigan projects further net job losses of 84,900 in 2010 and indications are that Michigan will be among the 10 poorest states in the county in 2010; and

            Whereas, As a result, Michigan will continue to experience the negative effects of the nation's highest unemployment rate, which include, but are not limited to, high rates of foreclosure, loss of business investment, and continued decline in revenue for the levels of government that provide essential services; and

            Whereas, While the banking industry has received record amounts of financial assistance from the federal government, we believe families have suffered the greatest from this economic downturn and should be extended the same help in coping with this severe and sustained national and regional recession; and

            Whereas, During the 1930s, public job programs employed millions of people and left a legacy of improvements in the national parks and forests, more than 100,000 miles of new road, 35,000 public buildings, urban art and murals, soil conservation, and many other valuable contributions to national life and prosperity. A smaller program in the 1970s employed 750,000 people at its peak, gave on-the-job training that boosted the long-term income of hundreds of thousands of young people and urban residents, and performed valuable services in thousands of communities. We know from those experiences that a large-scale jobs program can be geared up quickly and help put a million of our citizens back to work in jobs that will improve their communities and contribute to shared prosperity; now, therefore, be it

            Resolved by the House of Representatives, That we memorialize the Congress of the United

States to enact legislation to create a comprehensive jobs program that will hire unemployed individuals for a period of at least one year in positions providing public service and benefit to the community; and be it further

            Resolved, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and the members of the Michigan congressional delegation.