Sequestration Cuts to Employment Services to Hurt Over 6,104 Granite Staters Searching for Work

Republicans take economy hostage to protect tax loopholes for corporations and wealthy

(Hooksett, NH, February 25) A report from the Senate Appropriations Committee shows that Congressional Republicans’ ‘threats to harm the economy by letting automatic across-the-board budget cuts – called “sequestration” – go forward on March 1, 2013 would cause New Hampshire to lose enormous funding for job training services, education and home heating assistance.

The report further proves that Republicans’ insistence on cutting Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare benefits to pay for tax loopholes for corporations and the wealthiest 2 percent would directly harm working families.

These drastic cuts would slash $744,407 from critical job training and employment services, impacting 6,104 veterans, young workers and adults. Thanks to cuts in Workforce Investment Act adult and dislocated worker state grants, 963 fewer adult workers would have access to grants to help them retrain and find employment after layoffs. An additional 4,912 workers would be hurt by cuts to the DOL’s employment service.

Sequestration would also cut nearly $2.2 million in funds for New Hampshire from Title I, the largest federal-funded education program in the United States, meaning schools would be left struggling to pay for teachers and tutors. Critical grants for public safety would be cut back by $198,965, leaving local fire departments understaffed and working without necessary, critical equipment.

“Yet again, Republicans in Congress are threatening to throw the economy back into recession unless Democrats agree to benefit cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid,” said New Hampshire AFL-CIO President Mark MacKenzie. “They are willing to allow deep across the board cuts that hurt working families to go into effect rather than close wasteful tax loopholes and demand corporations and the richest 2% pay their fair share. We need to invest in our economy and our people by creating more jobs, not cutting them. Congress must stop protecting corporations and the richest 2% and cancel the sequester immediately.”