WH Spotlight On Long-Term Unemployment
President hosts summit today to solve long-term unemployment crisis. W. Post: "More than 300 companies—including 20 of the nation’s 50 largest, such as Apple, Wal-Mart and General Motors—have agreed to reassess their hiring practices at the president’s request to make sure they are not biased against Americans who have been out of work for more than six months ... Obama will also announce Friday a $150 million grant competition through the Labor Department to support public-private partnerships geared toward helping prepare and place the long-term unemployed in jobs."
More from The Hill: "The callback rate for resumes showing eight months of unemployment are 45 percent lower compared to those unemployed for just one month, according to the White House ..."
And Bloomberg BusinessWeek: "Even at the height of the 1983 recession, the average duration of joblessness was just 21 weeks, nearly half as long as today ... the problem is worst in some of the most populous parts of the country. Based on the 2010 Census, in four of the five states with the biggest populations, more than 40 percent of unemployed people have been out of work for at least six months."
Dems eye minimum wage as a women's issue. National Journal: "The lawmakers pointed out that two-thirds of people earning the federal minimum wage or less are women ... It's something that House leadership has taken note of; No. 4-ranking House Republican Cathy McMorris Rodgers made the party's State of the Union response, touting her personal story as a working mother ... 'Telling American women that they don't deserve a living wage isn't about tone or about how [Republicans] talk about women's issues, it's about what they do,' [Dem Sen. Patty] Murray said. 'It's about policy.'"
Republicans resist Obama plan to expand tax credit for working poor. The Hill: "Obama had cast an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) – which helps working households to the tune of about $60 billion each year – as an area where the two parties could find common ground, even name-checking a similar proposal from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Tuesday night ... But key GOP lawmakers said they remain concerned about the large number of improper EITC payments that get circulated each year, even as conservative economists and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) have called for taking another look at the tax break."
President overall executive action strategy more "broad and bold" than many realize, says Politico: "When Congress wouldn’t support a climate change bill, the administration moved on its own to push the energy industry away from coal and toward green alternatives. The executive branch found a way to drive tremendous change in public schools, too — though education is typically under local control — by holding tight to billions in much-needed funding, and doling it out only to states that pledged to follow the administration’s prescriptions for reform. A tweak to atransportation grant formula even gave the administration influence over local urban planning; streetcars, all of a sudden, are popping up everywhere. And it’s not Congress, but the executive branch, that’s on the verge of making Hershey’s reformulate its Reese’s Pieces. (Out, out, trans fat!)"
Boehner Restarts Immigration Debate
Boehner releases immigration "principles," sparks intra-party battle. NYT: "A closed-door discussion on immigration at the retreat was described by a House member as 'very passionate,' with a 'sizable bloc' opposing the leadership’s position. Members took turns expressing their distrust of President Obama and Senate Democrats as negotiating partners, and many of the Republicans said they were torn over whether to turn the principles into an actual legislative effort ... The Republican blueprint issued Thursday specifies that 'there will be no special path to citizenship for individuals who broke our nation’s immigration laws,' and lays out the party’s belief that 'specific enforcement triggers,' as well as border security and interior enforcement measures, must be in place before any undocumented immigrant can gain legal status ... At least in its broad strokes, it does not guarantee a path to citizenship but does not necessarily preclude one — something that is likely to be a deal-breaker for Democrats and immigration activists."
Split also between immigration advocates and AFL-CIO. W. Post: "Pro-immigration reform groups generally said they were pleased but also expressed the need for action ... One group that is not impressed is the AFL-CIO. Here's its statement: 'Seven months after 68 Senators overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan immigration bill, House Republicans respond with a flimsy document that only serves to underscore the callous attitude Republicans have toward our nation’s immigrants.'"
President positive, says Politico: "The president remains optimistic about immigration reform and the “progress” with the Republican Party, but he would not confirm whether he would veto a bill that did not include a pathway to citizenship. 'I’m not going to prejudge what gets to my desk,' President Barack Obama told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview that aired Friday. The president also said he believes 'we have a good chance' of getting immigration reform."
House vote after primaries, suggests top GOPer. The Hill: "'When you lay out a major policy initiative like immigration, I don’t know when it’s going to appear on the schedule,' said Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. 'My hunch is it doesn’t come up, you know, tomorrow. It’s probably months out.' ... The House is likely to consider its annual budget proposal first, Walden said, meaning immigration reform would not come up until later in the spring. 'Most of the primaries will have ended by then, and by the time you get to June, most of them are behind you,' he noted."
Prof. Mae M. Ngai reminds Republicans of the history of immigration, in NYT oped: "The United States has a long track record not only of legalizing illegal immigrants, by legislative or administrative action, but also of pairing legalization with a grant of permanent residency, the prerequisite for naturalization ... In other words, we recognize their de facto inclusion and we adjust their status to align with that reality ... The alternative now envisioned by some House members — legal status without access to citizenship — would effectively create a new stratum of society, a permanent second class of Americans."
