Black Caucus Getting to Work on Summer Jobs Funding

By Edward Epstein, 05/13/10, Congressional Quarterly

The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) usually pushes its legislative goals quietly. But it is insisting quite publicly that Democratic leaders not allow Congress to start the one-week Memorial Day recess before spending $1.5 billion on a youth summer jobs program.

In lobbying for the money, caucus members say they are trying to emulate the tactics of another Democratic faction in the House, the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition.

The Blue Dogs are a tenacious lot who have scored repeated successes, lobbying Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other House leaders for concessions on the health care overhaul (PL 111-148, PL 111-152) and insisting that the House and Senate pass pay-as-you-go budgeting rules (PL 111-139).

“It has been instructive to watch the Blue Dogs,” said CBC member Chaka Fattah of Pennsylvania. “The Blue Dogs are aggressive. We have discovered that you need to be aggressive, even when your party is in the White House and even when your party controls both houses.”

The caucus has been pushing hard for the summer jobs program, noting that the unemployment rate for African-American teens is around 40 percent. The need to help them get work is so urgent, these lawmakers say, that the money should be exempt from pay-as-you-go requirements, which mandate that new spending be offset with spending cuts or revenue increases elsewhere.

Members say the program should be allowed to hitch a ride on a package (HR 4213) that would revive and extend through 2010 dozens of tax breaks. House and Senate negotiators are currently working on a final version of that bill, which could reach the floor as early as next week.

A separate supplemental spending bill (HR 4899) for the war in Afghanistan and disaster spending already includes $600 million for summer jobs, an amount caucus members view as insufficient. The Senate Appropriations Committee plans to mark up the supplemental Thursday, and it remains unclear whether the jobs funding will be preserved.

Barbara Lee of California, who chairs the Black Caucus, said the CBC has lined up support from Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., and Majority Whip James E. Clyburn, D-S.C., who is also a CBC member.

In the Senate, caucus members are working with senior Democratic appropriator Patty Murray of Washington, the chairwoman of the Transportation-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee. Murray was unable in March to add to the tax package $1.3 billion for workforce development programs that include summer jobs for youth.

Fattah said the CBC is having to fight for the money even though President Obama, the first African-American to occupy the White House, is firmly behind money for summer jobs. “We have learned you still have to go out and create the conditions for action,” Fattah said.

So far, one Blue Dog tactic the Black Caucus has not employed is threatening to block passage of a vital bill if their demand is not met. “We haven’t talked about withholding votes or anything yet,” Lee said.