Reps. Bettie Scott, Johnson, Cushingberry, Durhal, Young, Miller, Lemmons, Tlaib, Womack, Kennedy, Stanley, Constan, Liss, Slavens, Robert Jones, Espinoza, Terry Brown, Polidori, Gonzales, Spade, Lipton, Gregory, LeBlanc, Lahti, McDowell, Lindberg, Dean, Leland, Meadows, Valentine, Ebli, Barnett, Geiss, Hammel, Bauer, Smith, Donigan, Switalski, Coulouris, Jackson, Warren, Melton, Haugh, Byrnes, Huckleberry and Nathan offered the following resolution:

            House Resolution No. 175.

            A resolution to urge the Congress of the United States to enact and put into immediate effect a Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act.

            Whereas, The Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978 was adopted to address the high unemployment and inflation that threatened the financial and social fabric of our nation in the late 1970s. This measure, which has since expired, was designed to utilize all of the tools of the federal government had in its power to promote full employment and check inflation; and

            Whereas, Indeed, amid a severe worldwide economic downturn, our nation and the state of Michigan in particular have been buffeted by an economic tsunami that in many respects is much worse than that of the recession of the 1970s. In fact, in the 18 months prior to the peak in Michigan unemployment in the early 1980s Michigan's unemployment rate increased 5 percent. In the last 18 months, however, our unemployment rate has increased by 8 percent to 15.3 percent. This amounts to 500,000 lost jobs, and amply demonstrates why our state has lost jobs for 25 consecutive months and has had the nation's highest unemployment rate for 27 of the past 28 months. Moreover, nearly half of these lost jobs have been in the manufacturing and construction industries that traditionally pay some of the state's highest wages. The situation is even worse in many of our metropolitan areas, such as the city of Detroit, where the unemployment rate is currently at 28.9 percent; and

            Whereas, Clearly, our economy is at a point where legislation such as the Humphrey- Hawkins Full Employment Act is desperately needed today. Federal assistance in retraining many of the highly skilled unemployed into careers of the future, and public works efforts designed to put more people back on a payroll  are essential components in righting our economic ship. The power of the federal government to promote economic growth, balance the budget, and bring justice to our trade policies is critical to the financial reinvigoration of the Great Lake State; now, therefore, be it

            Resolved by the House of Representatives, That we hereby urge the Congress of the United States to enact and put into effect a Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act; and be it further

            Resolved, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and the members of the Michigan congressional delegation.