President Obama Speaks to State, Local, Tribal Officials on American Jobs Act

President Barack Obama has a conference call with local, state and tribal officials in the Oval Office, Sept. 9, 2011 (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

On Friday, after traveling to the University of Richmond to discuss the American Jobs Act, President Obama hosted a conference call for over 1,100 state, local and tribal officials to explain how the plan would put people back to work in communities across the country.   

The President thanked the officials on the call for their ongoing support, as well as their input and ideas that helped shape the American Jobs Act through listening sessions, calls and meetings over the past month.  The President then laid out his policy ideas to help create more jobs immediately, including proposals to:

• Provide $50 billion in immediate investments for highways, transit, rail and aviation;
• Provide $10 billion to create a National Infrastructure Bank;
• Invest $35 billion to prevent layoffs of up to 280,000 teachers while also keeping tens of thousands of police officers and firefighters on the job;
• Modernize at least 35,000 public schools with $25 billion in infrastructure investments and $5 billion to improve community colleges; and
• Put construction workers back on the job with $15 billion to rehabilitate and refurbish hundreds of thousands of vacant homes in communities across America.

The President then asked the elected officials on the phone to make their voices heard in this debate by issuing statements, using social media, or having press conferences to highlight the urgency of passing the American Jobs Act.

After the President spoke, Director of the National Economic Council Gene Sperling and I took questions from officials ranging from a mayor in Wisconsin to an Alaskan tribal chairman on how the American Jobs Act would directly impact their communities.

We look forward to hearing from more state, local and tribal officials in the days and weeks to come as the President introduces the American Jobs Act to Congress and more officials speak out on ways we can strengthen the economy.  Please continue to send your statements on the American Jobs Act to iga@who.eop.gov.

Cecilia Muñoz is Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs

Find out more about the American Jobs Act