Mayors Intensify Lobbying Efforts for Summer Jobs While Members Are Home on Recess

By Josie Hathway
April 17, 2000

As Congress went home for recess last week, at least 500,000 young people across the country, their parents, families, community-based worksites, teachers and college student mentors are preparing for the summer jobs program that has been in their communities since 1964.  Thousands of youth will be turned away, unless Congress acts soon.  Mayors are contacting their Senators while they are home for recess and urging them to move forward with the FY 2000 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill with funding for summer jobs.

Mayors’ are building support on the Hill for adding $500 million in the FY 2000 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill to help address the shortage of summer jobs facing cities in Summer 2000.  Mayors’ phone calls, letters, and meetings with their Senators and Representatives are getting results.  But to date Congress has failed to take the necessary action to address this crisis:

• The Senate has yet to take action on the FY 2000 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill.  The supplemental is on hold because of the size of the funding request.  An emergency supplemental may be passed in the Senate in the next few weeks, according to Senate sources.

• Though the supplemental is on hold in the Senate, Senator Arlen Specter (PA), Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education, reportedly has added $40 million for summer jobs to his list of funding items for the emergency supplemental bill in response to an intense lobbying effort by The U.S. Conference of Mayors.  This $40 million reflects the Administration’s proposal which only funds the largest 50 cities and projects to provide summer jobs opportunities to more than 24,000 low-income youth in those cities.

• The House Appropriations committee did not include emergency youth funding in their version of the supplemental bill.  In House action on March 29, Representative Rod R. Blagojevich (IL) offered an amendment to the supplemental for $500 million for youth activities under the Workforce Investment Act. The amendment was withdrawn with a commitment from Appropriations Committee Chairman C. W. Young (FL) and Ranking Minority Member Representative David R. Obey (WI) to bring the issue up in Conference.

• In response to mayors efforts, on March 27 the Administration sent a second emergency supplemental request to Congress that included $40 million for the largest 50 cities.

Mayors’ intensive efforts have not gone unnoticed by the Administration.  President Clinton wrote a personal letter to mayors describing how his Administration is addressing the crisis of drastic reductions in summer jobs for youth this summer.  See letter on page 22.  Department of Labor Secretary Alexis M. Herman sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (MS) describing the urgency of the situation and urging him to support the Administration’s  $40 million FY 2000 supplemental request for summer jobs.

The Administration’s request for $40 million will not address the reductions in those cities that are not in the top 50, where reductions range from 30 to 80 percent or greater, according to an informal survey of mayors.  And, the $40 million may not fully address the needs of the top 50 cities.  The New York State Legislature and the Governor have agreed to provide $35 million of TANF surplus funds for summer jobs for the state.  The budget must pass first before this agreement turns into real dollars. Where the money goes and how it will be used is yet to be decided.  Projections at this point indicate that New York City might get around $21 million - which would still fall short by several million dollars of the funds needed to provide the same number of summer jobs provided in 1999 – approximately 40,000 summer jobs.

These severe reductions are an unintended consequence of the transition to the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) which is effective nationwide on July 1, 2000. WIA requires more comprehensive services for youth on a year-round basis, which significantly raises the cost of serving each young person.  And under WIA, for the first time, governors take 15 percent off the top of the youth block grant funds and 30 percent of these funds must be dedicated to serving out-of-school youth. The majority of young people in summer jobs are in-school.

Mayors are also aware that the private sector cannot absorb the shortfall.  The majority of young people in summer jobs are ages 14 & 15 who are primarily only eligible for employment through a government sponsored work experience and cannot usually be hired for summer work by the private sector.

Mayors want to continue to serve the same number of youth as served last summer – which was 500,000 nationwide.  Even last summer some mayors had to turn young people away because the demand was so high.

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