i mentioned some of the other issues that i discussed with prime minister netanyahu. for example, increasing freedom of movement within the west bank. dealing with the humanitarian crisis in the gaza and allowing reconstruction to proceed more aggressively. what has been interesting is that less attention has been focused on the insistence on my part that the palestinians and arab states have to take a very concrete actions. when it comes to the palestinians, we know what they are supposed to be doing. they have to continue to make progress on security in the west bank. they have to deal with incitement issues. . .

to his credit, the president has made progress on this issue, but not enough. we still have not seen a firm commitment from the palestinian authority that they can control some of the border areas that israel is going to be very concerned about. if there were to be a to-state solution, there are still problems of corruption and image

minute -- corruption and mismanagement. . there'll be a whole set of things that have to do with the palestinian's authority to govern effectively. if they are not solved, israelis are going to have trouble moving forward. and the arab states, what i would like to see is indicators that dathey are willing to make some hard choices that will allow for an opening of commerce, diplomatic exchanges between israel and its neighbors. all of these things are going to take time. they're not going to happen

immediately. i am confident that if we stick with it, having started early, we can make some serious progress this year. on the issue of genocide, i think never again means that the international community has an obligation, even when it is inconvenient to act when genocide is occurring. on the issue of darfur, for example, i simply did not mention it in a speech yesterday. i talked about genocide taking place in a majority muslim country. i also raised in discussions with the president of egypt, who has strong diplomatic relations with the country of sedan -- sudan. i have assigned one of my

closest national security advisers as a special envoy who has been traveling throughout the region trying to not only solve the immediate humanitarian crisis that exists and that was made worse when president bush kicked out many of the organizations that had been providing humanitarian assistance. we had been working diligently to solve the immediate problem and get humanitarian assistance back on the ground. what we have also been doing is to try to reactivate the possibilities of a peaceful -- a peace settlement between them and the rebels and are for -- in darfur that would allow for the internally displaced people from darfur to start returning to

their homes. we have been very active on this issue. it may not have received the attention in the press that some of the other issues have, but we're spending a lot of time trying to make sure that we make progress and the people of darfur are able to return to their homes and live in peace. >> well, first experience part and parcel of our history of our past experience here in germany is obviously, the concentration camp. if you like, this has been the result of every german government, and it will always be that case. genocide all over the world, we have an international

responsibility that we need a shoulder here. we, all of us, have made the experience along the way that this quite often takes much longer to resolve then we would like it. military prevention alone, without a new framework, is also not always successful. this is why the european union -- during the year-african summit -- eu-african summit tried to shoulder the responsibility and help them and shoulder the responsibility by providing them with resources. i think that due to the experience we have made over the years as european union members, we were able, after the second world war to live together peacefully.

we have an obligation to not only create peace within europe, because we have been able to do that, but to shoot -- but to share with others how we were able to get that to happen. this is what is described in the german constitution. this goes for every human being all over the world. it means we can solve problems of this kind. we have made an experience that is certainly not a matter of coincidence. the allies extended a helping hand to us and to our neighbor, france. and also, the united states of america. we need to prevent further cases of tragedy occurring. we will always be at your side -- to the side of the americans. thank you very much. >> thank you. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009]

>> president obama's european trip continues saturday as he travels to paris and to normandy for a ceremony marking the sixty fifth anniversary of the d-day invasion. you can watch the ceremony beginning at 9:05 a.m. eastern time. coming up next, the joint economic committee examines the results of the latest unemployment report. new york times columnist david brooks talks about the administration -- the obama

administration. then, the health and human services secretary testifies. the you're watching public affairs programming on c-span. >> coming up on tomorrow morning's "washington journal." jarrett allen of the hill paper has written about detainee interrogations'. and for the sixty fifth anniversary of d-day, we will talk to john mcmanus, author of "the americans at normandy." >> today, the labor department reported in 9.4% unemployment rate for last month. that is half of a% higher than -- that is half a percentage higher than in april. it is an hour and 15 minutes.

>> i would like to welcome the chairman for holding this meeting. they will brief us on the most recent unemployment data. this morning's release reported may job losses totaling 345,000 . almost half the losses in recent months, but an unemployment rate of 9.4%, a jump of have of a percentage from the previous month. workers at part-time workers who cannot find full-time employment, the unemployment rate jumps to 16.4%, the highest rate since the government started collecting this information in 19 and -- in 1994. it was announced that the

initial jobless claims for the week ending may 30 foul. -- fell. c-span2. >> the consumer index experienced a small uptick and the european central bank held rates steady yesterday. signaling expectations that the global economy may just had bottomed out. i'm encouraged by the marginal improvements like consumer confidence but even this good sign is accompanied by a sobering counterpoint increased consumer spending that yet to translate by actual spending of consumers of businesses or businesses rather, families are saving and i don't blame them. they see that more than 1 in 4 unemployed workers has been unemployed for over six months. and that the median duration of unemployment is now 14.9 weeks, a record high since the series

started in 1967. the cumulative effects of the recession seven conservative months of loss totaling 6 million jobs have left these ordinary, very hard-working americans in on precarious footing. when the person is laid off the person experiences, quote, income shock. this is a vast understatement. now unemployed families must work through any savings they have accrued to pay bills and continue to feed their children. and then as home values fall and mortgages go unpaid, they're suddenly looking for foreclosure in the face. while the foreclosure crisis started with homes that fell victim to plunging values and then moved to the subprime sector, the borrowers interest rates now prime borrowers have been affected as well.

the "new york times" wrote on may 24 that -- and i quote, this third wave of foreclosures can be attributed in large part to the rising tide of unemployment. fortunately, many homeowners, some degree of help is available. we have strong mortgage modification programs in place that allow homeowners to decrease their payments and work out solutions to stay in their homes. but for the unemployed, however, when home values fall, a mortgage modification will take them only so far. what a modification cannot do is bring back an income or health insurance. so without new and creative ways to help the unemployed, these americans may still lose their homes. you also know a job loss doesn't

just affect the individual employee and his or her home. surrounding home values fall with each foreclosure and some cities have seen more than 100 foreclosures every day. further, our safety nets are stretched then and that is all some folks have. i just read in the "usa today" that 1 of every $6 of american's income is from unemployment, social security or public benefits. further, republica has reported that they have gone through their funds and the effects are being felt in so many places by all of us. president obama has taken decisive action against recession through the american recovery and investment act as well as legislation addressing

predatory mortgage lending and unfair credit card practices. we're also helping people at the local level. tomorrow when baltimore, we're putting over 500 borrowers together with 19 lenders to try to work out mortgage solutions. i hope everyone who shows up can save his or her home. i suspect that will not be the case as the unemployed still may not qualify for modifications. it will be impossible to modify alone when you do not have a job. i look forward to the testimony of dr. hall as we must understand exactly where we are in this crisis and just how far we have to go. with that i'll yield to mr. brady. >> thank you, mr. cummings. i join you in welcoming commissioner hall before the committee this morning. the increase in the unemployment rate to levels 9.4% is disturbing for several reasons. first, the higher unemployment

rate reflects greater hardship for american workers and families. second, along with other economic data, it reflects a continuing weakness in the economy. and third, the higher unemployment rate underscores the unrealistic nature of the administration's economic assumptions based on the idea that the stimulus spending would cap rising unemployment. the payroll report shows the economy continues to reextract. 345,000 job drop in may payroll employment is a significant monthly job loss. and is broadly based in many industries. although the overall pace of job loss was not as terrible as in recent months, manufacturing continues to suffer large employment declines. there's some tentative evidence suggesting the economy may bottom out in coming months. for example, financial market conditions have improved. some measures of manufacturing activity have stabilized.

and some data related to housing in construction are less negative. however, measures to prevent foreclosures are not working well. and redefault rates are very high with more loan losses to come. business investment has collapsed and the commercial real estate continues to be under stress. consumer spending is weak and exports are falling as many of our major trading partners are also experiencing recession. i continue to be concerned about the administration's unrealistic economic assumptions which were the basis for the president's proposal. the "economist" magazine called these dangerous because they understate the true cost of the administration's deficit spending and debt accumulation. unfortunately, according to the congressional budget office, administration policies will triple the national debt to a level of $17.3 trillion by 2019.

this avalanche of government deficits and debt is one reason long-term interest rates including mortgage rates are on the rise. a central problem is that the administration assumed that its stimulus spending spree would significantly improve the economy. as this poster show as we compare the projections by the white house versus the real economy, just in january, two top administration economists projected that the unemployment rate would not exceed 8% this year or next if the stimulus was enacted. the administration followed up by forecasting an average unemployment rate of 8.1% of all of 2009. however, as this poster shows, the current level of the unemployment rate well above 9% is enough to show that the administration's assumption about the positive impact of the stimulus was wrong. if the administration's forecast were internally consistent, this

would also indicate that the economy will be lower, the g.d.p. will be lowered than projected. an economic upturn should occur by next year. if only due to the huge amounts of money and credit injected into the economy by the federal reserve. however, the economic recovery probably will be quite weak and not consistent with the white house's rosy scenario for 2010. so what will be the sources of economic growth next year? with many households forced to pay down debt, a surge in consumption isn't likely. government spending levels and debt is already rattling financial markets so much more government stimulus spending is not a feasible option. u.s. exports may be constrained by weakness in other countries and by retaliation against our own trade policies. that leaves investment as a main source of growth but how many will undertake long-term investments when facing a tidal wave of new taxes, entitlement spending and inflation? future economic growth will rely

heavily on investment but more taxes, government borrowing, regulation and inflation all will hit investors very hard. government is not evil and up to a point provides more benefits than costs. but beyond this point it becomes counterproductive. policymakers should understand that excessive government does have the the potential to choke off healthy economic employment growth. if the long-term rate of economic growth is reduced from 3 to 2% or below, the result will be much slower job growth and higher levels of unemployment. congress should wake up to the damage that it is inflicting and stop can't enacting legislation that only increases the burden on the economy. with that i would yield back. >> thank you very much, mr. brady. now we're very pleased to --

mr. burgess, do you have an opening statement? >> mr. chairman, i do. >> thank you. >> i'll yield for five minutes. >> thank you. thanks for the indulgence. well, each month this committee receives the numbers from the bureau of labor statistics numbers and each month continue to feel the need for what president clinton used to call that laser-like focus on the economy. this month we see significant job losses without any focus on economic priorities. perhaps congress needs to appoint someone solely responsible for focusing the efforts on domestic economic issues. we could use someone in the room who will say, how exactly will this new initiative, this new czar, this new czarina, how will this great new jobs? two weeks ago in our -- in one of my other committees we heard

a lot of about cap and trade. i said cap and trade will lead to new jobs. a report that was released claims that the president's concept of healthcare reform will create 500,000 jobs a year. well, we can all look forward to those potential jobs in 2012, 2014, 2016 when these plans take effect. but where is the plan to build job growth this month or even this year? looking at the numbers released this morning, the only industry that appears to be on a hiring spree is us, the federal government. it only makes sense that at the rapid pace, the size and scope of the federal government has increased over the last four months, the federal government would need more employees to keep up. however, government spending is a boon for people living here but government hiring is not an effective method for aggregate job growth or industry-wide all states employment gains. to illustrate the real impact of the job losses we certainly

could look at the home foreclosure numbers. nationally foreclosures -- the foreclosure stated rate the homes that are starting to enter the foreclosure process is 1.4% compared to just 1% a year earlier. the foreclosure inventory stands at 3.9% compared to 2.5% a year earlier while 7.2% of mortgages are are delinquent compared to 4% earlier. in texas the inventory of foreclosed mortgages is 1.7% compared to 1.5 the prior quarter and 1.45% for all of the past year. needless to say, these trends are troubling. what is most troubling is the fact that these are not foreclosures due to an unexpected uptick on the adjustable rate mortgage or the result of some subprime mortgage swindle. these problems have for the most part been purged from the financial system. these foreclosure numbers represent homes in trouble or lost due to loss of family income related to loss of a job.

we can take away the bank's ability to foreclose or force bankruptcy judges to modify mortgages but these actions ignore the source of the problem. the downward trends in foclosures need to be addressed and they need to be addressed before major social initiatives like environmental reform through cap and trade legislation and certainly before congress undertakes to name an additional 50 post offices. again, i call for all hands on deck and all efforts to focus on improving the domestic economy. i would like to point out that where we are going to continue to see job losses is if the government is allowed to close 789 chrysler dealerships, 1100 gm dealerships as part of the administration's auto industry restructuring plan. it's interesting that all of these decisions are made by someone in the west wing of the white house who's never even held a private sector job. if these dealerships are comfortable staying open and the banks in the community can

continue to provide the capital, i frankly cannot see a reason why these dealerships should be forced to close. who else is going to sell these little green cars if we don't have the dealerships there to provide the services. well, i would like to thank dr. hall for testifying before the committee and for his team's important work at the bureau of labor and statistics. i will yield back the balance of my time. >> thank you very much, mr. burgess. i'm very pleased, again, to welcome commissioner keith hall of the labor and statistics for the united states department of labor. thank you very much for being with us. i yield to you, sir. >> mr. chairman, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to discuss the employment and unemployment data that we released this morning. nonforeign payroll employment declined by 345,000 in may. job losses averaged 643,000 per month during the prior six months. in may, the unemployment rate

rose from 8.9 to 9.4%. since the recession began in december of 2007, payroll employment has fallen by 6 million and the unemployment rate has increased by 4.5 percentage points. job losses continue to be widespread in may but the rate of decline moderated in construction and several service-providing industries. large job losses continued in the manufacturing sector with employment declines in nearly all component industries. employment fell sharply in motor vehicles and parts, machinery and fabricated metals. since the start of the recession, manufacturing employment has decreased by 1.8 million accounting for 30% of the job loss during this downturn. construction employment declined by 59,000 in may, half the average of the previous six months. job losses moderated in the private service providing industries with employment falling by 113,000 in may compared with an average monthly decline of 356,000 in the prior six months.

employment was little changed in temporary help, retail trade, leisure and hospitality and the healthcare industry added jobs in may this is about in line with a trend thus as far in 2009. in may, average hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory workers in the private sector were up by 2 cents to $18.54. over the past 12 months average hourly earnings have risen by 3.1%. from april 2008 to april 2009, the consumer price index for urban wage earners and clerical workers declined by 1.2%. turning to measures from your survey of households the unemployment rate increased from 8.9 to 9.4% over the month. the number of unemployed rose by 787,000 to 14.5 million. since the recession began, the jobless rate has increased by 4.5 percentage points and the

number of unemployed persons has grown by 7 million. among the unemployed the number who have been out of work 27 weeks or more increased by 268,000 to 3.9 million. these long-term unemployed represent 2.5% of the labor force, the highest proportion since 1983. over the month the employment of population ratio edged down to 59.7% the lowest levels since october, 1984. since the recession began, the employment to population ratio has fallen by 3 percentage points. among the employed the number of persons working part-time would prefer full-time work was little change for the second conservative month. at 9.1 million in may involuntary part-time employment was 4.5 million higher than at the start of the recession. among those outside the labor force, that is persons neither working nor looking for work, the number of discouraged workers was 792,000 in may up from 400,000 a year earlier.

these individuals are not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available to them. in summary, nonforeign employment payroll fell compared with the average monthly decline of 643,000 for the previous six months. while job losses continue to be widespread declines moderated in construction and in a number of service providing industries that that employment rose by 2.9%. my colleagues and i would be glad to answer your questions. >> thank you very much, commissioner hall. commissioner, i think we had a loss of about 652,000 jobs in march. is that right? is that the estimate. >> yes, that's correct. >> and we had a loss of about 504,000 in april; is that correct? >> yes, that's correct. >> and this month we're talking about