Washington, D.C. – Congressman Rick Berg today issued the following statement in response to the December jobs report released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.   Today’s report shows that national unemployment rate has dropped from 8.6 percent to 8.5 percent.

“It’s encouraging that more jobs are being added to our economy, but with unemployment still remaining unacceptably high at 8.5 percent, it’s clear that more must be done to lift the barriers preventing Americans from getting back to work,” Berg stated. “Today marks the 35th straight month of unemployment remaining above 8 percent, with 1.4 million less Americans holding jobs since President Obama took office three years ago.  Today’s jobs report also fails to address the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have given up hope of finding a job and dropped out of the job market completely.  The American people deserve common sense solutions to the economic challenges facing our nation, but persistent inaction by President Obama and Senate Democrats continues to stand as a roadblock to job creation and economic recovery.

“The House has passed 28 bipartisan, job-creating bills that would provide America’s small businesses the certainty and regulatory relief they need to create jobs and help grow our economy.  Yet Senate Democrats continue to sidetrack these job-creating proposals, instead pursuing a big-government, big-spending agenda that burdens our job creators with more uncertainty and our nation with more unsustainable debt. In North Dakota, we know that jobs come from small business—not big government.  The President and Senate Democrats should learn from North Dakota’s example and join the House in working toward common sense, long-term solutions to help Americans get back to work.”  

On January 9, 2009, the Obama administration released projections that unemployment would not break 8 percent if Congress passed the stimulus.  Projections also showed the passage of the stimulus would result in unemployment rates no higher than 6.4 percent during the first quarter of 2012—2 percent less than unemployment sits today, three years after the passage of Obama’s failed stimulus.

A member of the House Ways and Means Committee, Berg has worked to limit government regulation on American small businesses by co-sponsoring the REINS Act and the TRAIN Act, which requires all new regulations to receive approval from Congress and would ensure that the costs of all new regulations are assessed before implementation. Berg also serves as a member of the Congressional Job Creators Caucus.
Berg also recently launched the REGS Agenda, which serves as a path forward to reduce regulatory red tape, empower states, growth the economy, and stop President Obama’s regulatory overreach.  The product of Berg’s conversations with North Dakotans this past year about the impact of senseless regulations, the REGS Agenda will work to help America’s small businesses create jobs by reining in the overbearing regulations that stand as road blocks to economic growth and job creation and reducing the regulatory uncertainty hanging over America’s small businesses.  More information about Berg’s REGS Agenda may be found here.

Track House-passed jobs bills here.