my name is jennifer pierce. for five years i've been a police officer in connecticut and a member of council 15. i'm here today because connecticut needs jobs. and i want congress to pass president obama's proposal to teachers and first responders back to work act. it's clear that we are in a jobs crisis and everyone knows that the only way out is to start creating jobs. good jobs have put people back to work and made our communities safer and stronger at the same time. in the last two years, nearly 600,000 jobs have been lost through state and local government. some of these were in my home state. just this month 56 state troopers in connecticut received layoff notices. their fellow officers offered to retire to prevent the layoffs. fewer officers on the job hurts the entire community. it means response times might get longer, it means the streets might get patroled less. when a cop calls for back-up there might not be anyone close by. the loss of jobs hurting our communities and putting public safety at risk.