GOP Makes Unified Push In Search Of Senate Action On Jobs Bills

By Andrea Salazar and Janie Amaya

House Republican Leaders Friday argued that their “Forgotten 15” jobs bills are piling up in the Senate as unemployment remains high.

“There is no reason for Senate Democrats to delay action on the bills any longer,” House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said at a news conference with fellow Republican leaders. “The House has been working all year on our plan for Americans job creators. It’s time for the Senate to do their work.”

The “Forgotten 15” are Republican-sponsored jobs bills that have already passed through the lower chamber. They include bills that prohibit regulation of the Internet and green house gas emissions to reduce costs to businesses.

Supercommittee member Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) argued that the bills prohibiting additional regulation is urgent, claiming that “the federal government is regulating small business out of business.”

Earlier this week the House passed four bills allowing access to financing for small businesses, something House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said is an important step in showing Americans that Washington is working for their interest.

“What small businesses want in this is less red tape in Washington so they can go about continuing to invest and create jobs,” Cantor said.

The movement pushing for action in the upper chamber continued on Capitol Hill with Republican Policy Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-Ga.) and a handful of Republican freshmen.

“We are distressed with what we see coming out of the White House and out of the Senate,” Price told reporters. 

The group criticized the Democratic-controlled Senate for holding up a number of bills they believe will combat the nation’s jobless rate. 

The newest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated that the unemployment rate fell to an even 9 percent, a slim improvement from the 9.1 percent recorded for September. The small group of House Republicans were harmonious in their message to President Obama, “We can’t wait either.”

“We can’t wait for you to get back to town to work with us and call on Harry Reid to pass the job creation bills already passed through House,” Price said. “The American people are sick and tired of this kind of craziness that doesn’t allow for the process to work.”

Benny Martinez contributed to this story…

GOP'ers Urge Senate To Bring 'Forgotten 15' To Floor

By Andrea Salazar

Six Republican members of Congress urged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) Thursday to bring 15 Republican jobs bills that passed the House with bipartisan support to the Senate floor for debate.

Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Reps. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) and Bill Flores (R-Texas) called for an end to overregulation, via measures included in the “Forgotten 15,” as a means to expand businesses.

“These are all things the House has done and the Senate ought to be working on, and done in a bipartisan way,” Thune said. “We need to be working on things for which there is bipartisan support, and I would argue that the 15 that passed in the House would have bipartisan support in the Senate as well.”

Some of the “Forgotten 15,” or “Ignored 20” as Portman called them, include bills that would prohibit the government from regulating the Internet and greenhouse gas emissions and that would allow for offshore oil drilling.

Asked about the stalemate between Democrats and Republicans on increased revenue, Sens. Thune and Hutchison rejected the idea that increasing taxes would solve, what Thune called, a spending problem.

“I am for revenue increases the old fashioned way - by growth in the private sector,” Hutchison said. “Create jobs and then we will have more revenue. That’s the way you get more revenue. The idea of raising taxes permanently for spending programs that are temporary is bad policy. That’s why we’re saying we don’t want tax increases, we want to encourage business.”

Echoing Hutchison, Flores, a businessman himself, dismissed the president’s jobs plan and called for less business regulation.

“The president’s American Jobs bill will not work because it’s a Washington solution,” Flores said. “The American people want Main Street solutions.”