Del. Norton’s Job Fair: “Record Breaking” and “Heart Breaking”

Photo courtesy of the Washington Post

LISTEN TO DEL. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON:

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Yesterday, more than 4,000 District residents came to the Convention Center hoping to find a job. “Normally you are pleased to have a record breaking event. This is a heart breaking event. It’s a picture of unemployment in the District of Columbia,” said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, who hosted her 14th annual job fair.

“I think every member [of Congress] ought to have a job fair so they can touch people who are unemployed,” Norton said. And if they did? Well, said Norton, “there might be a difference in priorities, if they have a heart or a soul or even a brain.”

“It’s pretty easy to stand in the well of the House and talk only about deficit reduction, even though polls shout back at you that people want jobs,” said Norton. “I wouldn’t open my mouth about deficit reduction here, even though I’m working on deficit reduction in the Congress. They want to know what I’m doing about jobs. Fair question to ask a member of Congress.”

(And check out this report from NBC4’s Tom Sherwood, who may have a future colleague in Kevin Woods!)

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