Link to Hearing

A Living Wage, Jobs For All Act (Introduced in House)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. PREGLER for himself, submits the following:


SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.

(a) SHORT TITLE- This Act may be cited as the `A Living Wage , Jobs For All Act'.

(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS- The table of contents is as follows:

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.

Sec. 2. Findings and declaration of policy.

Sec. 3. Basic rights and responsibilities.

Sec. 4. Overall planning for full employment.

Sec. 5. Joint Economic Committee.

Sec. 6. Authorization of appropriations.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND DECLARATION OF POLICY.

(a) FINDINGS- The Congress finds the following:

(1) UNEVEN PROGRESS- (A) In recent years the income and wealth gaps among individuals in the United States have expanded.

(B) Many individuals have become rich or richer, poor individuals have become more numerous, and many individuals depend on two jobs.

� Localized mass depression appears in the midst of elite opulence, unmet basic needs exist in the midst of unused labor, and there is massive insecurity in the United States despite large-scale military spending.

(D) Although unused labor exists in the United States, unmet basic needs exist in repairing and improving the infrastructure of the Nation, including private industry, farming, agriculture, public facilities, public utilities, and human services, with special emphasis on the availability of good and affordable education, quality child care, health promotion services, housing, artistic cultural activities, and basic as well as applied research and development.

(E) While some individuals enjoy the best health services in the world, many other individuals are without health care or have inadequate or overly expensive health services.

(F) While many individuals enjoy higher life and activity expectancy, poor individuals suffer lower levels of life expectancy and higher levels of infant mortality and infectious disease, factors that are aggravated by race.

(G) Some individuals live in safe neighborhoods with good housing and public facilities while many others live in bad or over-crowded housing in dangerous neighborhoods without adequate recreational, educational, library, energy, or public transportation facilities.

(H) Uncounted individuals, including children, are homeless.

(I) The entire country benefits from the education provided by many of the best universities in the world, while suffering from some of the worst high school education in the industrial world.

(J) Despite the existence of efficient technologies for improving the environment, all individuals suffer directly or indirectly from dangerous levels of air, water, and soil pollution, especially agricultural workers.

(K) Despite discrimination against immigrants and their children, the United States is still the preferred haven of refuge for victims of oppression in other countries.

(2) INSECURE PEOPLE- (A) Although about 10,000,000 new jobs have been created in the United States economy between 1993 and 1996, there are nearly 17,000,000 individuals who want jobs and do not have them or are forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment.

(B) Millions of individuals face the threat of downsizing as the result of mergers, plant closings, or higher labor productivity.

� New jobs increasingly come at lower wage levels or with few, eroding, or no benefits.

(D) So-called welfare reform is increasing the number of job-seekers but not the number of living wage job opportunities.

(3) JOB-BASED MILITARY SPENDING- (A) Billions of dollars are being spent annually on military programs that have been and are justified less by strategic and tactical military needs than by--

(i) the jobs they create; and

(ii) the economic health of communities that have become dependent upon the maintenance or expansion of such programs.

(B) Careful termination of such contracts, with appropriate protection for workers, contractors, subcontractors, and communities could release resources for activities to meet unmet human needs while advancing the civilian economy.

(4) ENTITLEMENT CONFUSIONS- (A)(i) Among the recipients of corporate welfare, some individuals have been enlarging their collective entitlements.

(ii) This has been done through tax deductions, Government guaranteed loans, price supports, military contracts and other forms of direct or indirect subsidy.

(B)(i) Other individuals have swelled personal entitlements at the expense of taxpayers, shareholders, employees and local communities.

(ii) This has been done through unprecedented increases in salaries, stock options, deferred compensation, and other luxurious benefits.

� Some beneficiaries of elite entitlements have been supporting attacks on the rights and entitlements of working people, the elderly, racial or ethnic minorities, the jobless, the homeless, poor people, the disabled, welfare parents, and immigrants.

(D) Others have been undermining collective bargaining rights through anti-union propaganda, trade promotion authority, subcontracting to non-unionized companies, and plant closings.

(E) Funds now deposited into the Social Security Trust Fund are enormously attractive to those who would like to divert the people's savings from secure Government bonds into the risk-laden stock and bond markets.

(5) DEFECTIVE GROWTH- (A) Recent economic growth has been below the levels needed to provide decent employment for a larger and more productive population.

(B) As a result, many individuals have been forced into jobs that are underpaid, part-time, temporary, irregular, or lacking in health insurance or other social benefits.

� Many face the disappearance of career ladders and an ever-present specter of lay-offs.

(D) Consumer debt and business bankruptcy have been reaching historic levels.

(E) These trends have created deeper and longer term poverty or insecurity, with the consequent loss of personal dignity and self-respect.

(F) Among the more obvious symptoms are the fostering of mental depression, family breakdown, child or spousal abuse, and illegal forms of income.

(G) Lesser known symptoms have been the increase in the prison population, the exploitation of prison labor, the spread of new hate groups, church bombings, homophobia, and unregulated armed militias.

(H) As a result, an insecurity plague unravels the social fabric of United States society.

(6) MISLEADING INFORMATION- (A) While most individuals are flooded by information overloads, much of the information they receive consists of oversimplifications, misinformation or disinformation.

(B) By themselves, aggregate measures of national output or income neglect their disaggregated components, overemphasize monetary data, ignore the entire world of unpaid volunteer and household elderly and healthcare services and care for children.

� Their use tends to nurture the misleading idea that human progress or regress can be represented by a single overall measurement.

(D) Statistical data on employment, unemployment, prices, education, crime, and health are often based on outmoded concepts that have not been adapted to changing conditions or new capabilities for information collection, processing, and distribution.

(E) Many people misuse averages and other measures of central tendency without attention to frequency distributions and other measures of dispersion. The use of a single measure of consumer prices and inflation ignores the long-established fact that poor individuals pay more.

(7) LOST LEGACIES- (A) Few people now remember, and many young people never learned, how President Franklin D. Roosevelt started planning for conversion from war to peace by proclaiming a `second Bill of Rights'.

(B) The first principle in this long-forgotten document was `the right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the Nation'.

� This right was backed up with seven other human rights: adequate income, adequate medical care, family farming, freedom from monopolies, decent housing, Social Security, and a good education.

(D) These ideals led to law-based entitlements that nurtured high wages, a successful Social Security system, unemployment insurance, other social benefits, collective bargaining, higher productivity and the rising purchasing power needed for private enterprises to earn profits without Government subsidy.

(8) LIMITATIONS IN MAINSTREAM DISCOURSE- (A) During World War II and the subsequent conversion from war to peace, the idea of full employment was widely held.

(B) The United States made a commitment to promote full employment when it ratified the United Nations Charter, including a commitment to adhere to articles 55(a) and 56 of that treaty.

� More recently, the full employment ideal has been mistakenly defined as a high level of unused labor or regarded as impossible without excessive deficits, inflation or regulations.

(D) Discussion of full employment has thus become taboo in mainstream discourse.

(E) Something similar has happened with the ideal of decent job opportunities as a human right.

(F) In earlier decades this ideal was supported by most religious leaders and articulated, under United States leadership, in the United Nations Charter and in other United Nations treaties and declarations.

(G) More recently, the idea of full employment has also become taboo in mainstream economic discourse.

(9) GLOBALIZATION- (A) Transnational corporations have evolved into giant global institutions that control much of the world's information, assets and money, while often undermining, if not entirely escaping, national and international defenses against the violation of the right to dignity and all basic human rights and responsibilities.

(B) One-third of world trade is transactions among the various units or sub-units of the same organization.

� An excessive amount of global financial transactions consists of speculative operations that create no new wealth and thereby divert resources from productive use.

(b) DECLARATION OF POLICY- To help promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, the Congress hereby declares the following to be the policy of the Federal Government:

(1) REAFFIRMING BASIC RIGHTS- To reaffirm to public discourse the human rights proclaimed by President Roosevelt more than half a century earlier, express them in terms that have been developed in more recent years and, as part of the bridges to the twenty-first century, affirm basic rights regarding dignity, personal security, collective bargaining, the environment, information, and voting.

(2) MORE EMPHASIS ON BASIC RESPONSIBILITIES- (A) To help root these ideals of living wage jobs for all individuals in explicit recognition of personal, corporate, and Federal responsibilities.

(B) These include the continuing responsibility of government of the following:

(i) To protect the rights of individuals.

(ii) To nurture healthy partnerships among Federal, State, county, and local government agencies, and between government agencies and such private sectors as nonprofit enterprises, labor unions, trade or fraternal associations, religious groups, and cooperatives.

(iii) To update and continuously improve such fundamental laws and procedures as are required for the protection of private property, the functioning of public utilities, competitive markets, and such limitations on market activities as are necessary to promote the common good by protecting employees, consumers, and the environment.

(3) OVERALL DEMOCRATIC PLANNING- To mandate under law an overall planning process of legislative and executive action to help provide the essential remedies and resources needed to attain and maintain conditions under which all Americans may freely fulfill basic human rights and responsibilities, including the right to dignity and to help reduce poverty, inequality, and the concentrations of economic and political power.

(4) CONGRESSIONAL MONITORING AND INITIATIVES- To strengthen the constitutional checks and balances by providing continual congressional monitoring of the overall planning process through the activities of the Joint Economic Committee and the requirement of open debate and voting on the Annual Economic Policy Resolution.

(5) COOPERATIVE INTERNATIONAL LEADERSHIP- To work with individuals and governments of other nations and the United Nations and its organs and specialized agencies in providing leadership for supporting basic human rights and responsibilities through the provision of sufficient remedies and resources.

SEC. 3. BASIC RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES.

(a) UPDATING THE 1944 ECONOMIC BILL OF RIGHTS- The Congress reaffirms the responsibility of the Federal Government to implement and, in accordance with current and foreseeable trends, update the statement by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the State of the Union message of January 11, 1944. The Congress therefore proclaims the following rights as continuing goals of United States public policy:

(1) DECENT JOBS- (A) The right of every adult American to earn decent real wages, to a free choice among opportunities for useful and productive paid employment, or for self-employment. The right of every child not to have to work during school hours.

(B) With more full employment at living wages, the economy will be more productive, attain higher levels of responsible and sustainable growth and provide more Federal revenues even without desirable changes in existing tax laws.

(2) INCOME SECURITY FOR INDIVIDUALS UNABLE TO WORK FOR PAY- (A) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the right of every adult American truly unable to work for pay to an adequate standard of living that rises with increases in the wealth and productivity of the society.

(B) With more full employment at living wages, more individuals will be able to earn a decent living without the help of welfare benefits or other transfer payments.

(3) FAMILY FARMING- (A) The right of every farm family to raise and sell its products at a return which will give it a decent living through the production of useful food, with staged incentives for conversion from unhealthy to healthier food or other products, with special attention to production processes that conserve soil, water, and energy and reduce pollution.

(B) With more full employment at living wages, the market for farm output will be enlarged, with less need for controls over output, or Federal, State, or local support prices or subsidies.

(4) FREEDOM FROM MONOPOLIES- (A) The right of every business enterprise, large and small, to operate in freedom from domination by domestic and foreign monopolies and cartels, and from threats of undesirable mergers or leveraged buy-outs, and the right of consumers to obtain goods and services at prices that are not determined by monopolies, cartels, and price leadership.

(B) With more full employment at living wages, more business enterprises will be able to earn profits without monopolistic controls or government welfare and consumers will be able to enjoy lower prices.

(5) DECENT HOUSING- (A) The right of every American to decent, safe, and sanitary housing, public utilities, and community facilities, with adequate maintenance and weatherization, including large-scale rehabilitation of millions of existing buildings, thereby helping to reduce overcrowding and energy loss and the need to build new roads, power plants, storm sewers, sewage, and refuse disposal.

(B) With more full employment at living wages more people will be able afford adequate housing with less government subsidy.

(6) ADEQUATE HEALTH SERVICES- (A) The right of every American to such widely available health services as may be necessary to promote wellness, extend both life expectancy and activity expectancy, and reduce mortality and disability through such non-contagious afflictions as cancer, heart disease, stroke, infant mortality, high blood pressure and obesity, and reduce the incidence of contagious diseases.

(B) With more full employment at living wages, more tax revenues will be available to help finance expanded health services for a larger and older population.

(7) SOCIAL SECURITY- (A) The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, disability, sickness, accident, and unemployment.

(B) With more full employment at living wages and higher levels of responsible growth, more tax revenues will be available to help finance Social Security, medicare, medicaid, unemployment compensation, and welfare payments.

(8) EDUCATION AND WORK TRAINING- (A) Every individual has a right to opportunities for continuous learning through free public education, from pre-kindergarten and kindergarten through postsecondary levels.

(B) With more full employment at living wages, more local, State and Federal revenues will be available to help support education and continuous learning.

(b) EXTENDING THE 1944 ECONOMIC BILL OF RIGHTS- The Congress proclaims the following additional rights as continuing goals of United States public policy:

(1) PERSONAL SECURITY- The right of every American to personal security against any form of violence, whether in the home, in the workplace, on the streets and highways, in the community or the nation.

(2) EMPLOYEE ORGANIZING AND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the right of all employees to organize and bargain collectively, to withhold from any form of work or purchasing when necessary to protect such rights, and to receive full diplomatic, economic, and other support from the Federal Government in helping make this right effective in other countries and eliminating policies or activities that undermine such rights.

(3) SAFE ENVIRONMENTS- The right of every American to unpolluted breathable air, to potable water available through a reliable and safe water supply, to safety from hazardous materials and energy blackouts, and to such international protections as may be needed to facilitate living and working in a safe and sustainable physical environment.

Madame Chair,

Since there seemed to be a general consensus on what to do with the bill during the hearing, I therefore move to table the bill by UC.

I yield

The motion to table by UC has been noted and 24 hours will be allotted for objections.

The bil has been tabled by UC.