Washington Report: Updates from Capitol Hill

African American Unemployment Rate Climbed in March

The March jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics today shows that the economy is in a slow, but certain recovery. But while 162,000 jobs were added to the nation’s payrolls, the report didn’t bring any good news for African Americans. The unemployment rate for blacks rose from 15.8% to 16.2%. Overall, unemployment held steady at 9.7%.

Thomas Boston, a Georgia Tech economics professor who sits on the BE Board of Economists, attributes the increase to blacks being stuck in the old “first fired, last hired” syndrome, “that we historically haven’t been able to overcome.” In addition, a large percentage of firms are hiring or rehiring people to work only part-time and also becoming more efficient.

Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Rep. Barbara Lee (D-California) said that black unemployment figures are unacceptably high and “undergird the continued importance for legislation to directly create more jobs for unemployed Americans, particularly the chronically unemployed.”

Boston explained that the jobless number remained the same because almost 400,000 people returned to the labor market and either got a job or are actively seeking one. According to him, that’s good news.

The White House cheered the numbers, pointing out that their policies to boost the economy are working.

“Even after adjusting for the 48,000 temporary Census workers hired and a rebound effect from the February snowstorms, this number suggests an increase in underlying payroll employment,” said Christina Romer, who chairs the Council of Economic Advisors.

Before the report came out, critics — including Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele — were lining up to predict that any gains would be due to temporary workers hired to help conduct the 2010 Census. After the numbers were released Steele said “it is unacceptable for President [Barack] Obama to declare economic success when unemployment remains at 9.7% and a large portion of the job growth came from temporary boost in government employment.”

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) increased by 414,000 over the month to 6.5 million. In March, 44.1% of unemployed persons were jobless for 27 weeks or more. Temporary help services added 40,000 jobs in March. Since September 2009, temporary help services employment has risen by 313,000.

Employment in healthcare continued to increase in March, with the largest gains occurring in ambulatory healthcare services and in nursing and residential care facilities.

Healthcare Bill Makes College More Affordable

Until this week, when President Barack Obama for a second time signed into law a healthcare reform bill, little notice had been given to a significant education reform tucked into the bill that will expand Pell Grant funding and help make loan repayment more manageable.

In addition to overhauling heathcare in the U.S., the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act

will also invest $2.255 billion in HBCUs and other predominately black and minority-serving institutions.

“The success of these institutions is not only vital to the success of African Americans, but it is also vital to the success of all Americans,” said John Wilson, executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. He added that the administration wants to ensure that these institutions can contribute to Obama’s goal that the United States lead the world in producing college graduates by 2020.

Each year, more than 8 million people use Pell Grants to help pay for college. The bill invests more than $40 billion in the program to ensure that all eligible students will receive an award and that the amount awarded keeps pace with both inflation and the rising cost of college. It is estimated that by the 2020-2021 academic year, more than 820,000 additional grants will be awarded. Of that number approximately 200,000 will go to African Americans.

The bill also ensures that borrowers can afford their student loan payments by expanding the existing income-based student loan repayment program. New borrowers who assume loans after July 1, 2014, will be able to cap their student loan repayments at 10 percent of their discretionary income and, if they keep up with their payments, will have the balance forgiven after 20 years.

“All of these reforms are paid for with savings that were gained by reforming our nation’s student lending program,” said Melody Barnes, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. “By removing the banks as middlemen and eliminating millions of dollars in annual subsidies, we’re ale to ensure that students have a more competitive and robust program for entering colleges, completing them and going onto jobs not burdened so heavily by additional loans.”

TSA Nominee No. 2 Withdraws

The Obama administration has lost yet another nominee to head the Transportation Security Administration. Army Maj. Gen. Robert Harding withdrew from consideration earlier last week after questions arose about a contract his company had with the government to provide interrogators in Iraq.

When the contract ended in 2004, Harding Security Associates sought more money from the early termination of the contract than the Defense Department said it was entitled to get. The firm evenutally refunded $1.8 million of that money in a 2008 settlement with the Defense Intelligence Agency, according to the Associated Press.

The agency continues to move forward, however. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced today that the TSA will revamp security measures for international airlines that fly into the U.S., including its ability to detect vulnerabilities.