There has been no more frustrating part of my first year in the Senate than watching job-creating bill after job-creating bill get blocked by a gridlocked Congress. We’ve had so many opportunities to make a difference, but partisan gridlock has made it impossible to make real progress against America’s jobs crisis.
Finding jobs for our neighbors and helping our economy recover remains my top priority, which is why this week I cosponsored and worked aggressively for the Rebuild America Jobs Act — the second component of President Obama’s American Jobs Act to be brought before the Senate on its own.
Like its predecessors, this job-creating measure was blocked.
The Rebuild America Jobs Act would have gotten hundreds of thousands of construction workers back on the job addressing one of our nation’s most serious long-term problems — its crumbling infrastructure. That’s why I went to the floor twice this week to voice my support for this bill. Click here to watch to my first speech
The traffic we see on our crumbling roads is nothing compared to the partisan gridlock that has prevented us from making real progress in fighting our jobs crisis. Investments in America’s infrastructure are investments in America’s future, making the Rebuild America Jobs Act smart policy that would have made a real difference.
The highlights of my first year of service in the Senate may well be the three job fairs I hosted around the state, which connected nearly 5,000 of our neighbors with more than 100 employers. Washington can learn a lot from Delaware about what it means to get the job done.
I’ll keep trying to pass legislation in Washington to punch back against this recession that has taken so much from so many American families, and I’ll keep doing all I can in Delaware to help our business grow and our connect out-of-work neighbors with employers ready to hire.