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Jobs for Main Street Act Will Create, Save Millions of Jobs Nationwide ST. LOUIS (SLFP.com), December 20, 2009 - The Jobs for Main Street Act, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives December 16, 217-212, includes targeted investments in transportation, school renovation, hiring teachers, police and firefighters, small business incentives, job training and affordable housing. Congressman Russ Carnahan (MO-3) stated, "We've seen several positive economic indicators, but there's typically a one-year-plus lag between economic growth and the creation of jobs. We can shorten that lag time by making strategic investments in things that we know are strong job creators, like transportation, infrastructure, and small businesses." Last Saturday, Carnahan hosted a Regional Jobs Summit at Washington University in St. Louis, meeting with community and business leaders. Carnahan is incorporating the ideas and suggestions from that summit - along with ongoing meetings and discussions with workers, business owners and community leaders from throughout the 3rd Congressional District - into a strategic jobs action plan for the St. Louis region. Summary Jobs for Main Street Act Highways, Transit and Other Infrastructure ($48 Billion) The bill invests $48 billion to help put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing public buildings, and cleaning our air and water, including: Highways & Transit - Invests more than $35 billion in highways and mass transit. Every $1 billion of federal investments in highways creates an estimated 27,800 jobs without the state match. School Renovation - Spurs billions in immediate investment in school construction, rehabilitation and repair. Clean Water and Housing - Provides $2 billion to help communities build facilities for clean and safe water and $2 billion to help communities build, preserve, and rehabilitate affordable rental homes for very low-income households and for repairs and rehabilitation of public housing. Hiring of Teachers, Police, Firefighters & Job Training ($27 Billion) Education-Includes $23 billion to help States save or create an estimated 250,000 education jobs over the next two years with an Education Jobs Fund solely focused on paying salaries. Police & Firefighters - Puts over 5,000 law enforcement officers on the beat and invests in hiring and retaining firefighters. Training - Invests about $2 billion for other hiring and training programs, that will support 25,000 more AmeriCorps volunteers and 250,000 youth summer jobs; expand college work study jobs for 250,000 students; and support job training for 150,000 people in high growth industries, such as health care and clean-energy jobs, at community colleges. Small Business The package extends several Recovery Act initiatives to help America's small businesses create jobs: eliminating fees on Small Business Administration (SBA) loans to make them more affordable for small businesses, and encouraging banks to lend to small businesses by raising to 90 percent (from 85 percent) the portion of a loan that the Small Business Administration will guarantee. Small business provisions in the Recovery Act have already supported tens of thousands of loans, helping to save or create thousands of jobs - totaling $9 billion in new small business lending since the Recovery Act's passage. Emergency Relief to Families Hit by the Recession For those hardest hit by the Recession, the bill includes emergency relief ($79 billion) -- extending unemployment benefits and help with health benefits for those out of work. Not only does this help those families in need, but these provisions generate demand for goods and services in the economy as a whole. Unemployment Benefits -- Extends emergency unemployment benefits through June of 2010. The program expires at the end of the year and without an extension, roughly one million Americans will lose their emergency benefits in January 2010. Help with Health Insurance for Unemployed Workers (COBRA) -- Extends through June 30, 2010 a key provision to strengthen COBRA to help maintain health coverage during this downturn. (It makes these benefits available for people who were involuntarily separated from their jobs through June 30, 2010 and extends the months of help from 9 months to 15 months.) About 7 million people benefited from this provision in the Recovery Act and hundreds of thousands who got this subsidy when it was first made available in March are currently slated to roll off the program. Protecting Health Care Coverage for Millions through Medicaid (FMAP) -- Extends the provisions in the Recovery Act that provide the states with additional federal matching funds for Medicaid for six months - from December 31, 2010 to June 30, 2011. Child Tax Credit - Cuts taxes for 16 million families, by making the Child Tax Credit available to all low-income working families with children in 2010. (Under the Recovery Act, families must earn at least $3,000 in order to begin to take advantage of the $1,000 Child Tax Credit.) Continued Next Column    Advertisements Continued Corporate Executives are Concerned Their Companies are Breaking the Law ST. LOUIS (PRNewswire-USNewswire), December 20, 2009 - A poll commissioned and released today by a project initiated to serve the interests of high level corporate executives who are concerned about the ethical conduct of their corporation has exposed a concern among one out of every five corporate executives of publicly traded companies that their own companies "do not comply with federal, state, or local laws." Further, two out of every five executives reported a concern that corporate leaders "put narrow short-term goals ahead of the long-term benefit of the company." The poll, commissioned by Voices for Corporate Responsibility (Voices), was conducted by Harris Interactive. Voices is a project of Grant & Eisenhofer (G&E) and Mehri & Skalet (M&S). Both law firms have been at the forefront of addressing corporate malfeasance impacting shareholders, workers, and consumers. G&E has been counsel in some of the largest securities fraud class actions and recently served as counsel to one of the main whistleblowers in litigation that led to a $2.3 billion settlement with Pfizer with regard to its marketing activities. Attorneys from M&S have been counsel in some of the nation's most prominent employment discrimination cases including cases against Texaco and The Coca-Cola Company. According to poll results, 22% of those responding answered "yes" to the question: "Have you ever been concerned that the actions of a company that you have worked for either now or in the past do not comply with federal, state, or local laws?" "What we are seeing is a crack in the confidence level of corporate executives who at one time may have believed that their company could do no wrong, "said Reuben Guttman, G&E partner and co-founder of Voices. "Now as short-term corporate decision making has led to layoffs of even high level executives, these employees are perhaps beginning to look at things differently." "It is disturbing that 22% of the respondents believe that their own companies may be breaking the law," said Cyrus Mehri, partner at the law firm of Mehri & Skalet, PLLC and co-founder of Voices "Skirting the law may just be business as usual, but, sadly the impact can be devastating to consumers, employees and shareholders." According to the poll, 42% of those responding also answered "yes" to the question: "Have you ever been concerned that a company that you have worked for either now or in the past put narrow short-term goals ahead of the long-term benefit of the company?" "This finding provides some insight into a root cause of our nation's financial crisis," said Jay Eisenhofer, Managing Partner at Grant & Eisenhofer, and co-founder of Voices. "When corporate directors and officers are motivated by compensation plans that reward them based on the short-term performance of their company, the long-term health of a corporation and ultimately employee job stability is often sacrificed." Majorities of 68% or more also answered "yes" to the following questions: Do you believe that unethical practices regularly take place in corporations? (70%) With regard to the credit crisis, do you believe that senior executives in the financial services industry understood the potential consequences of their conduct? (68%) Do you believe that wrongdoing by senior executives led to the credit crisis? (74%) Poll Methodology: This survey was conducted via telephone by Harris Interactive on behalf of Voices for Corporate Responsibility between October 15 - 19, 2009 among 151 mid to senior-level managers working in publicly-traded companies throughout the United States. Archived Stories: Resistance to Change, Budget Constraints and Cost-Cutting Delay New Technologies Into the Workplace Congressman Carnahan to Host Regional Jobs Summit Job Seekers Can Apply for Free Technology E-Learning Program to Improve Job Prospects November Jobs Report Shows Employers Face Continued Challenges Nearly One-Third of Workers Plan to Holiday Shop Online While at the Office Holiday Job Hunting Can Reap Rewards Women-Owned Businesses Can Recharge the Global Economy St. Louis County Opens River City Casino Boulevard to New Jobs U.S. Travel Industry to Add 90,000 American Jobs in 2010 Employers May Be Generous with Thanksgiving Holiday Paid Time Off in 2009 Getting a Job is a Lot Easier, If You Don't Limit Yourself to One Industry Nearly One-in-Five Employers Plan to Hire Seasonal Workers This Year Potential for Green Jobs Grows with Economy Wellness Programs May See Boost Next Year Missouri Receives $2 Million for Jobs from Strengthening Communities Fund The Saint Louis Front Page is owned and maintained by the Moore Design Group for the sole purpose of disseminating news and information about the Metropolitan Saint Louis area. 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