Obama to send jobs bill to Congress

Joint session jobs speech AFP image

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama will ratchet up pressure on Republicans on Monday by sending his $447 billion American Jobs Act to Congress and calling on lawmakers to pass it, a White House official said.

Obama will hold an event in the Rose Garden of the White House including people who would benefit from the legislation, which takes aim at 9.1 percent unemployment and the stagnant economy.

“He will announce that he will be sending the bill to Congress on Monday evening when Congress comes back into session,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

“He will call on Congress to pass the bill, which contains the kinds of proposals to grow the economy and create jobs that have been supported by both parties in the past.”

Obama will be joined at the event by teachers, police officers, firefighters construction workers, small business owners and military veterans, to highlight aspects of the job creating bill.

On Tuesday, in line with his vow to travel to each corner of the United States to promote the bill, possibly his last chance to revive the economy before election year 2012, Obama will travel to the swing state of Ohio.

And on Wednesday, he will keep up the pace of his campaign with a trip to another state which could be crucial to his reelection bid, North Carolina.

The president unveiled the bill, which includes payroll tax cuts, aid to struggling states and an investment in creaking US transportation infrastructure, in a speech to a joint session of Congress last Thursday.

Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner and his top lieutenants wrote to Obama on Friday to ask him to submit legislation to enact the American Jobs Act.

But they warned that some aspects of the bill could be pulled out and passed separately, not in a single bill, and some of the president’s proposals could face stiff Republican opposition.

Obama has already told Congress he will submit another plan on September 19 to explain how he will pay for the legislation, with adding to the US budget deficit.