Reps. Davis, Clarke, Fudge, Lee, Watt and Jackson-Lee
Gone are the days when a journalist puts in a card for Barbara Lee in the Speaker’s Lobby only to wait forever. Gone are the noncommittal press releases and the fear of saying something negative about the first black President. CBC Chair Lee is comfortably surrounded by reporters all the time now. On the issue of jobs the Black Caucus is more up front and on the record.
Back on December 7, CBC Chair Barbara Lee and Rep. Emanuel Cleaver sent a letter to President Obama regarding jobs. The six page letter outlined what exactly members of the Congressional Black Caucus wanted to see in a jobs bill. None of what was in the letter was new and surprising: jobs training, a summer jobs program money for state and local governments. All the provisions were ignored in the latest jobs bill. The next bill will focus on helping small businesses. Let’s see if the Black Caucus will fight for their provisions in the same tough manner and they fought for them in the last piece of legislation.
