According to the Department of Labor, private businesses hired 126,000 new workers in September. In the last 43 consecutive months, the private sector has created 7.6 million jobs:

 

Congressman Becerra is committed to addressing the most important deficit affecting middle class Americans – the jobs deficit. 

When President Obama was sworn into office, America was facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. In January 2009, the American economy lost 839,000 jobs in one month and the economy shrank by 6.4 percent in the first quarter of 2009. That was the worst quarterly economic contraction experienced by the United States in the past 50 years.

To put our economy back on track, President Obama and the Democratic Congress took swift action to pass the Recovery Act, which put Americans back to work and set the course for sustained economic growth into the future.  The Recovery Act’s investments in infrastructure, small businesses, job training, and education created and saved over 3.5 million jobs.

However, with 11 million Americans still out of work, Congressman Becerra believes Congress must make job creation its top priority.  Making smart and targeted investments in education, research, entrepreneurship, and infrastructure will help create jobs now and build the foundation for future competitiveness in the industries of tomorrow.  And the fastest and most effective way to reduce federal budget deficits is to get Americans back to work. 

Congressman Becerra has called on Republicans to stop promoting harmful spending cuts that undermine our economic recovery, and to work with House Democrats to enact jobs legislation that will set us on a path of economic growth and prosperity.

 

Middle Class Tax Relief & Job Creation Act of 2012

On February 17, 2012 Rep. Becerra voted for the bi-partisan Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 (H.R. 3630) to extend President Obama's middle class tax cuts for 160 million working Americans, to ensure that Americans who lost their jobs through no fault of their own receive their unemployment insurance benefits, and to guarantee our seniors on Medicare have access to the doctors of their choice and the care they need. Before voting for the legislation, Representative Xavier Becerra (CA-31), Vice Chair of the House Democratic Caucus and Ranking Member of the Social Security Subcommittee, delivered the following remarks on the floor of the House:

Click here to learn more about the Middle Class Tax Relief & Job Creation Act of 2012.

American Recovery & Reinvestment Act

In a swift response to the economic crisis, Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) on February 13, 2009.

The Recovery Act is responsible for about 3 million jobs, tax cuts for 95 percent of working Americans and turning the economy around by building a foundation for long term growth and stability.

Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act

On March 18, 2010 President Obama signed the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act into law, a bipartisan bill to create 300,000 jobs with tax incentives for businesses that hire Americans who have lost their jobs, unleash tens of billions of dollars to rebuild America, and strengthen small businesses with tax credits and accelerated write-offs so they can expand and hire.

The law includes several new tax incentives for businesses to hire unemployed workers, including:

• An exemption for businesses from Social Security payroll taxes for every worker hired in 2010 who has been unemployed for at least 60 days. The longer that a business has a new qualified worker on its payroll, the greater the tax benefit.
• An additional $1,000 income tax credit for every new employee retained for 52 weeks.

Small Business Jobs Act

"Small business owners are ready to hire and our community banks want to responsibly lend them the money to do so. This new law will inject up to $300 billion into the small business credit market while cutting taxes, making it easier for small businesses to expand and hire out-of-work Americans.” - Rep. Xavier Becerra, September 28, 2010

The Small Business Jobs Act was signed into law by President Obama on September 28, 2010. This measure creates a new $30 billion small business lending fund for small and medium sized community banks that could be leveraged to create up to $300 billion in total lending. Community banks, which provide the credit that small businesses need to grow and create jobs, were hit hard by the Great Recession and their ability to lend has been greatly diminished.

This lending program could ultimately save taxpayers $1 billion over the next decade, as banks pay interest on these government loans. The bill includes performance-based incentives to make sure that banks use the money to significantly increase lending to small businesses, and face penalties and higher interest rates if they fail to do so.  It also incentivizes investment in small businesses this year, promotes entrepreneurship and makes other improvements to ease tax compliance and promote small businesses’ access to opportunities provided through the federal government.

This landmark program is expected to create about 500,000 jobs in America while providing 8 tax cuts to small businesses totalling $12 billion to spur investment, expansion and hiring.