Posted on 09/02/2002 6:08:38 PM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
Speaking at a Labor Day picnic outside a union hall in Neville Island, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Penn., President Bush pledged to fight recession and terrorism on behalf of American workers. Bush urged action on his terrorism insurance, energy, retirement protection and tax-cutting policies. "What I worry about is when I hear stories about people who can't find work," Bush said to members of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, a union that broke away last year from the AFL-CIO. Bush demanded that the Democrat-led Senate pass legislation on energy exploration and terrorism insurance, which he believes will release $8 billion in construction projects. "Congress needs to get moving," Bush said. The President also urged action on his energy bill. "The energy bill that we're talking about is a jobs bill," he said. in the war on terrorism, Bush is seeking to implement the largest government reorganization since World War II by creating a new Department of Homeland Security that would have about 170,000 employees, mostly from existing federal agencies, and a budget of around $38 billion. Bush has threatened to veto the Senate version of the bill and on Monday made a case for the House version, which would give him more control on the agency's makeup. The trip was Bush's 13th as president to Pennsylvania, which he lost to Democrat Al Gore in 2000. Labor groups are key donors and organizers for Democrats. Of an estimated $90 million collected in contributions by unions and their members in the 2000 election cycle, more than 90 percent wound up in Democrats' war chests.
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