WASHINGTON, DC – A group of senators yesterday urged the Co-Chairs of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to take steps to ensure that Congress and the public get an independent estimate of their proposal’s impact on jobs – and do no harm to employment in America.

Eleven senators wrote to the co-chairs of the committee, Senator Patty Murray and Representative Jeb Hensarling and asked them to send the Committee’s proposal to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) for an analysis of jobs impact. CBO will already be tasked with looking at the impact on the deficit.

Senators signing are: Jeff Merkley (OR), Richard Blumenthal (CT), Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), Barbara Boxer (CA), Bernie Sanders (VT), Daniel Akaka (HA), Bob Menendez (NJ), Sherrod Brown (OH), Al Franken (MN), Mark Begich (AK), and Frank Lautenberg (NJ).

“We must do more to focus our national agenda on job creation and restoring our middle class. With that goal in mind, we ask you to take steps to ensure that your deliberations about deficit reduction do not worsen, and hopefully improve the jobs picture,” wrote the senators.

The letter specifically asks the Select Committee to adopt two principles:

• That the proposals be analyzed by CBO for impact on employment; and

• That the overall package not result in any net decrease in employment.

“Over the August work period, we heard again and again how Americans want to get back to work, families want to regain lost ground, and folks just want the opportunity to succeed as their parents did and their parents before them. It is our duty to work to expand, rather than diminish, that opportunity. It should be the priority of the Select Committee,” concludes the letter.

Source: Office of Senator Begich