White House Economist Warns Of Volatile Employment Numbers

Alan Krueger went right to work Friday as the official Chairman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, reminding Americans not to read to much into the latest employment figures. 

Krueger, whose nomination was unanimously confirmed by the Senate late Thursday night, said in a statement that, although new government data shows that the economy continues to grow, he remains wary the slow pace of recovery is keeping Americans out of work. 

“Despite adverse shocks that have created headwinds for economic growth, the economy has added private sector jobs for 20 straight months,” the statement read. “We need faster economic growth to put more Americans back to work.”

The 80,000 jobs added to the market in October is significantly lower than economists previously predicted. Most notably, the construction sector lost 20,000 jobs, a market Krueger said could have been remedied with the infrastructure bill that was rejected in the Senate earlier this week.

“The report underscores that one area that remains notably weak is the construction sector,” Krueger said. “That’s why it is disappointing that the Senate was not abele to proceed to the infrastructure part of the American Jobs Act.”

Though the nation’s jobless rate fell by a slim margin from 9.1 to 9 percent and the economy added 80,000 jobs, Krueger was adamant in reminding people that monthly figures can be subject to change. Initially, August’s report indicated that the economy added zero jobs. According to Krueger, the number of jobs added in August skyrocketed to 104,000 following a series of revisions. 

“The monthly employment and unemployment numbers are volatile and employment estimates are subject to substantial revision,” Krueger said. “This illustrates why the Administration always stresses it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.”

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.”

Small Business Owners Endorse Piece Of Obama's Jobs Act

By Adrianna McGinley

The House Subcommittee on TARP, Financial Services, and Bailouts of Public and Private Programs questioned a small group of entrepreneurs on the financial burdens they are faced with and gathered their opinions on four pieces of legislation scheduled to be voted on in the House this week.

The Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act is one of the pieces that make up President Obama’s unified American Jobs Act. The legislation focuses on “crowd funding”, which allows small businesses to use the internet and social media to collect capital.

Subcommittee Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) said securities reform is long overdue, saying that the Securities Act and the Securities Exchange Act of the ’30s “have not been substantially updated since a gallon of gasoline cost 10 cents.”

“The ramifications of not modernizing our securities regulations have lead to registration and reporting requirements so onerous and costly that small companies have great difficulty raising capital,” McHenry said.

Eric Koester, CMO and Co-founder of Zaarly, an online marketplace for local buyers and sellers, said it is cheaper today to start a business than ever before, but entrepreneurs still struggle to gain access to capital. Koester said that Zaarly hired 30 new employees this year and “if I had the opportunity to hire ten more qualified engineers, I certainly would.”

“Our goal is to grow into those large mature businesses that can create thousands and thousands of jobs, so I think across the board any provisions that allow an increase of access to capital, an increased ability to attract and retain employees, and an ability to basically grow our business free of restrictions and limitations are helpful,” Koester said.

Koester asknowledged that immigration reform is also a necessary step to small business success, prompting Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) to announce her commitment to introduce legislation facilitating the visa process for foreign entrepreneurs.

“Improvements to immigration will be an important thing for us to be able to attract talent from around the world,” Koester said. “That’s one of the things that the United States has an incredible advantage at doing.”

Lonna Williams, CEO of Ridge Diagnostics, and Dr. Tsvi Goldenberg, CEO of eemRa, also testified before the committee, representing small businesses in the medical field.

Williams said a slow United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)has become another obstacle for entrepreneurs to overcome, saying a two and half year delay for first action from the USPTO prevented her business from publishing studies and technological findings that could have seriously impacted the medical field.

Rep. Frank Guinta (R-N.H.) emphasized the importance for the U.S. to facilitate capital access for small business in order to create jobs, especially in the medical field.

“There is a lot here that is shrinking in terms of access,” Guinta said. “Some of that is actually going overseas and those companies are being created overseas, and those jobs are being created overseas, and in [the medical field]…these are high paying, high quality jobs that we could be creating right here in America if the access to capital issue was addressed.”

UN Panel Wants Iraq to Address Military Contractor Immunity

With the role of security contractors set to increase in Iraq, UN experts want the Iraqi government to settle their legal status once and for all.

Contractor numbers are expected to grow once American troops leave the country at the end of the year. Faiza Patel, head of the UN working group on the use of mercenaries, was at the UN today to present the group’s latest report. 

Patel says the 2007 killing of 17 Iraqi civilians in Nisoor Square allegedly carried out by Blackwater security guards, highlighted the legal challenges in holding private security companies accountable for crimes and rights abuses.

“Due to the coalition’s provisional authority grant of immunity to contractors, the alleged Blackwater perpetrators could not be prosecuted in Iraqi courts. “ she told reporters “Prosecution in the United States, the home country of Blackwater, now known as Xe, has also not yet produced satisfactory results. Four years after the incident, the criminal case against the Blackwater guards is still pending in US courts.”

In 2009,  the Iraq-US Status of Force Agreement (SOFA) ended the legal immunity for certain types of contractors. Patel says that while SOFA was an improvement, it was also unclear about which “category” of military contractors were exempt from prosecution in Iraq. 

But with US troops scheduled to withdraw from the country before the end of the year and SOFA no longer expected to be enforced, Patel says the immunity question needs to be addressed.

 “The status of foreign contractors in Iraq is quite unclear and this is a matter to which the working group believes the Iraqi government should pay urgent attention.”

The Obama administration decided to withdraw all US troops when it could not get an agreement on legal immunity from the Iraq government. But that decision will probably push the State department to rely on private security companies, so immunity will continue to be an issue.

Boehner Challenges Obama To 'Take Yes For An Answer'

By Andrea Salazar

Following the Senate’s rejection of President Obama’s American Jobs Act and the recent approval of three key trade agreements, the Speaker of the House is asking the president to find common ground with congressional Republicans.

“It’s time for the White House to stop the campaigning and start listening and working with bipartisan members of Congress to do what the American people expect of us - find common ground and move ahead,” said House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) at a Thursday press conference.

The House Speaker also argued that passing the free-trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, coupled with the House’s work to repeal the 3 percent withholding tax on federal contracts are testament to the amount of collaboration going on in Congress. Boehner called on Obama to work with Congress get Americans back to work. 

“I would tell… and challenge the president to take ‘yes’ for an answer,” Boehner said.