As part of the immigration bill, the Senate has passed Bernie Sanders plan to create 400,000 new jobs for America’s unemployed young people.
In a statement after the vote Sen. Sanders said, “This program will help hundreds of thousands of young Americans find jobs and earn the skills they need to build strong careers. At a time when the unemployment rate for these young people is twice that of the rest of the country, it is absolutely imperative that Congress help them find jobs. The establishment of a youth employment program for 400,000 young people is a good step forward in addressing our unemployment crisis. Obviously more needs to be done in the months to come.”
The Youth Jobs plan would provide $1.5 billion over two years for states and local communities to help find jobs for more than 400,000 unemployed 16- to 24-year-olds. Sen. Sanders’ plan was originally stand alone legislation that was added to the immigration reform by the Senate Democratic leadership.
It was the Senate Democratic leadership who took a page out the Republican playbook by attaching job creation legislation to an immigration bill that a group of Republican senators desperately wanted to see passed. The Sanders Youth Jobs Plan was modeled after two pieces of legislation that Republicans claim to despise, The American Jobs Act and the stimulus.
In reality, there was little for Republicans to complain about in the Sanders plan. It is not a government mandate. Funding for the Youth Jobs Plan will come in the form of grants that will allow states and localities to create jobs or design their own job training programs. The irony is that a senator who the right mocks as communists/Marxist/socialist just got a jobs plan passed that puts states first.
The passage of immigration reform is a big deal, but the passage of a piece of legislation that could create 400,000 new jobs is also very important. Speaker Boehner has already promised that the House will not vote on the Senate bill, but when the House and Senate bills do get to conference, Sen. Sanders’ Youth Jobs Plan will part of the discussion.
And that’s what makes this vote today a very big deal
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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