>> that is right. exactly right. or twice a week. hi, everyone. i'm executive director of the human services agency, the agency that administers the jobs now program, which we are here to talk about today. a month from now, the lesson a month from now, if congress does not enact -- does not act, this jobs program is going to go away. it will go way across the country as well. we jumped early into this program on the heels of the federal stimulus act in february. the act allowed for 100% federal reimbursement of wages to employers who hire individuals through this program. the idea in san francisco was threefold. first would be to get people back to work, which this program

has done with a wild success. the second is to help businesses small and large to either maintain or grow during this time of economic recession, and last is to stimulate the local economy, which we have done through the wages. $55 million in wages are projected to be reimbursed through the end of september of this year, and that is money going right back into the local economy. arguably one of the biggest successes of the federal stimulus act is this program nationally. today, what we want to announce, and the mayor will take the lead on this, is a new campaign or a final push to get the federal government to act to extend this program. $2.5 million will extend it for another year. we will keep the 3000 people who have been employed in san francisco through this program on the job. the last day of august, we had to suspend our program. we are no longer enrolling new

employees. we are no longer enrolling new employers. for us, we are at the status quo. we have a month left. we're working hard to get our folks ready for the transition. we hope to not have to do that, but we are preparing for pretty bad news. today, final push. the mayor will talk a little bit about the program as well. >> thanks, and thank you all very much for taking the time to be here. i actually just left senator feinstein, who has been a champion of this program. the reference that not to impress but to impress upon you that we need all the friends we can get all the champions we can get to extend this program. 3820 families are being served by this program. these are families, many of which -- close to, in fact, 1000 of these families were on welfare, and now pulled out of welfare and have the dignity of

a paycheck and the dignity that comes with a paycheck. when they come back home to feed their family. that is not a rhetorical line. that is not a line just to place some politics. that is quite literal. this program, arguably, is the most successful stimulus program in the united states of america, and i can back that up. this is a program that hires from the private sector does proportionally and benefits if the private sector does proportionally. this is a program that helps small businesses. for all of the rhetoric coming from washington, d.c., and sacramento and up and down the local municipal calls up and down this state and around the nation, here is a program that works. this is an interesting fact that underscores it -- congress, wisely and appropriately extended unemployment insurance. what is unemployment insurance to a family in california?

it means you receive $450 a week. not to work. you are looking for work, but you receive a $450 check a week to work. congress, wisely, extended that. a lot of republicans opposed it because they said we needed to find a way to fund it, but in principle, they understand the importance of unemployment benefits. here's a program where people in the trenches receive $447 a week to work. let me repeat that -- we can hand out $450 a week not to work, or 470 -- $447 a week to work. we can hand out $447 a week to work for those that needed the most -- people with kids -- that benefit those that need those employees the most -- small business -- to go out and create wealth and opportunity and stimulate our economy.

it does not get much better than that. it is beyond mesmerizing, and it goes to my frustration with the extraordinary lack of leadership in this country right now on this issue of jobs, the rhetoric aside, the lack of leadership that the fundamental fact has been ignored by elected officials. this should, more than anything else, drive people through the roof. you could pay people to work, or you could pay people not to work. if you pay people to work, and by the way, none of the folks you see right here want unemployment benefits. they all spoke eloquently when they were here, and that is just a small sampling of thousand- plus families represented right there are people who want to keep their jobs that do not want an unemployment check. they want to go home and feel good about themselves because they worked and have the dignity of a day where they feel

like their life is moving in the right direction, not stuck in neutral. but congress is not acting. the house has twice passed this. nancy pelosi hast was processed this. twice it has passed. the president and his staff -- and trust me when i say we have talked to all of them directly -- say they will sign this absolutely. only thing that is stopping small businesses from getting the benefit, families from getting the benefit, and individuals the benefit of the dignity of work is the citizens -- is the senators and politics in washington. you should jump up and now when you find out about a program like this that creates a direct jobs, that directly helps not just governments, but the private sector. 800 employers are part of this

program in san francisco alone. 20-thousand-foot -- 20,000-plus people are about to lose their jobs in the next few weeks if we do not act. this is a big deal. look at the faces. who is represented there? 70% minority. african-american community, the latino community, and the asian community where unemployment rate is exponentially higher than the state and federal average and even our local average. again, if it is all about rhetoric and politics and positioning, then support the status quo. if you believe in jobs and the private sector and the dignity of work than you want to create real opportunity and real wealth and real economic outlook that stimulates the community, then extend this job program. i hate to be so aggressive. that said, here is a study that came out that basically said exactly what i have just said and what we have been saying.

it is from the center of budget and policy priorities. it's a walking away from a win- win-win -- it says walking away from a win-win-win. reduce the cost of government, increases economic growth, and private sector development, and creates opportunity by reducing the burden on the federal government with unemployment benefits. nothing is, to me, more obvious than this, but obvious does not always make the best case for progress in a political environment where there is elections at stake. i want to thank everyone you see behind me for their leadership. millie activating the small business community because this was a program was started that was "too good to be true." we started with a goal of 1000 people, and they said it could not be done. we got to 1500, and they said we

would never get to 2000, so we said we would get to 3000. we went to congress because we realized we had to extend this thing because it was not going to go much further. l.a. county has a huge number of people about to lose their jobs. all the other counties would have hired many times more than we did, but they never believed it. if this gets extended, we can hire. if we got this extended, we would get 10,000 people employed through this program. he says that is not possible, and he will come back and says he wants to give the statistic that only 7400 people or so have been vetted through this. all right, how about 7000? we have 40,000 people under work, and here we are in this one program we could subsidize from the private sector that once folks for the holidays to promote and market their business? here is the insidious nature -- guess when these folks have no

work. when they need that work more than ever, during the holidays. happy holidays. good luck. what does this do? it puts further pressure on those that are looking for jobs because thousands of people are going to start looking for that same worked -- same work. these are families, women, minorities, and i cannot impress more how important this is. so let's get rid of me and the politics of any politician, rather, that is speaking, and let's bring up -- trend will do this in a moment -- bring up some other folks. by the way, not everyone gets paid $447 a week. i'm just saying that is the average for the transition. folks with a permit are getting paid $19.49 on average. even if you pay at that higher increment, how much more than $450 a week is that? not much, to actually have

people employed. we have put together a list. quickly, i will get to this. a list of mayors across the country. we just launched an advocacy effort. these are my friends. they all understand the importance of this, so we just put together an organization around mayors being advocates for this. that is something else we wanted to announce. third, we will hear from a business leader that has gone out of his way because of what is at stake for his business to do an online petition to get like-minded business leaders across the country to say, open a " you have got to be kidding me. you claim to be pro-small- business, and you're going to let this program expire and but everybody else on the dime of welfare rolls, which we will have to pay.

what possibly would you do that, and how could you argue for that?" i get excited about this. >> thank you, mr. mayor. a couple of points about this report -- 250,000 people nationwide hired through this money. close to half are used -- youth, in fact. we started in may. we were one of the first on board. mayor newsom would go to the u.s. conference of mayors, and he would tell the we had this great program. my office kept getting calls. we have been talking to states and localities all over the country and really, due to the mayor's leadership, this 250,000 no. i think is largely attributed to that.

robert miller, who is here, one of our early partners with jobs now, well over 150 employees -- 145 employees through jobs now. he will talk about that, but he will talk about this innovative online campaign he has got going to get this thing extended. robert miller. >> i'm director of veterinary archives, and i want to thank mayor newsom for having the fortitude, the foresight, and the temerity to stay with a program for the very beginning -- since the very beginning. he took a chance on main street. we want to take that chance on government. our first higher was in june 2009, and our last was yesterday, the last day before the door closed. we believe the program benefits both sides of main street. the employee, giving them a real job doing real work. 145 people that are working for me are building a free, online digital library of 1 million books which will go to every

school in america. it gives them pride. it gives them professional confidence, and gives them a job they can go back to their families with and make a difference in their community in terms of funding, financing, and confidence, and if america does not have the confidence to go forward on one side of wall street, how can we make the decisions that we need to? this is not a handout. this is a hand up, as far as i'm concerned. this program is fantastic. as an employer in an uncertain environment, we did not know what 2009 or 2010 would unfold. we did not know whether the economy was going to improve, stay flat, or continue to go down, but based on this particular program, it gave us the confidence to look at our payroll and make a bet on america, on san francisco, and our employees. we are thrilled at the program. it is the best lending i have ever seen of one side of main

street with the other side. we do not want the program to continue forever. we do not want a handout, but we want to ask for one more year to give us the chance to put our risk into reality and jobs into the future of america and san francisco. i want to announce that we have been working very hard with the last week and with business leaders across america targeting 10 key states that have used this program to great success. mississippi, pennsylvania, florida, texas, michigan, and five other states, and we are starting an online campaign to petition signatures in each state, not only from the employee side, but from a business side. let us create more jobs. let us add to our payroll, payroll taxes, to help us at more to the government, but we need another leg up for another year. help us in his advocacy effort

in 2010 and 2011. so, mayor newsom, thank you one more time so much. and i would like to introduce one of the faces of the people who works for me. there is a real sight to this, and it gives me great pleasure to introduce ginger, who works in archives and just celebrated her one-year anniversary with the archives. >> thanks, robert. thanks, mayor newsom. thanks, everyone, for having me here. i am a single mother, and 15 months ago, i was having to make the choice between putting food on our table and putting -- paying our electricity bill. we are one of those families that mayor newsom spoke up. this job has meant so much to me. i have added skills and accomplishments to my resume over the last year. i'm hoping to build a digital public library that is available to all schools across the nation.

i am worried that what am i going to do after these funds run out -- am i going to lose my job? will i go back to where i was 15 months ago? i am also worried about the jobs at risk across the nation. unbacked thank you for having me here. i hope congress listens to us. have a great day. >> keep america working. keep main street working. >> when this program was announced at the federal level in early 2009, the first meeting we had outside the government walls was with the chamber of commerce, and with us now is the director of public policy both locally and across the state and nation in terms of helping is get this extended period >>

thanks, and thank you, mayor, for your leadership on this. i do not have to reiterate how nationally and locally businesses are struggling, the economy is still struggling. we do see that improvements are coming. we see light at the end of the tunnel. part of that light, and i think we all know, is driven by small business, and that is where san francisco's economy is based, backbone of our economy, and nationally. we really depend on those jobs hired by small business. what this program has done for small businesses across the country has but a direct subsidy in to those small businesses that have kept them afloat in this last year, and some, as we just heard, even allowed them to grow. this is the win-win that we have been looking for through the stimulus. we think it is essential that we continue. we have been working with other chambers across the country come