Higher Ed Utah

In December, the House of Representatives passed the “Jobs for Main Street Act of 2010,” a $154 billion piece of legislation designed to create jobs and assist the unemployed. The bill would redirect $75 billion in existing funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to offset costs. The Jobs for Main Street Act contains several education and CTE-related allocations, including  $4.1 billion for school renovation grants, $500 million for summer youth employment in the Workforce Investment Act, $750 million for job training in “high growth fields”(specifically green and health care industries), $23 billion for an education jobs fund to be funneled through the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund to help states save and create 250,000 new education jobs over two years.

Earlier this month Senate Democrats released their own jobs agenda that they plan to move through the Senate in a series of smaller bills, rather than a multi-billion bill like the one passed by the House.  The first of these smaller bills, the $15 billion “Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act,” which proposes tax incentives to spur job growth, passed the Senate on February 24.  Next on the jobs agenda, Senate Democrats intend to introduce a travel and tourism promotion bill that would create 40,000 new jobs in the service sector and 240,000 other jobs, a Federal Aviation Administration bill that would create “thousands” of jobs, a package of short-term extensions of expiring tax credits, increased federal Medicaid assistance to states and a small-business assistance bill.