YOUTH AID BILL

WHEREAS, our youth of today is our greatest resource and our purest hope for the future; and

WHEREAS, with unemployment, high tuition, and poor recreational facilities, the condition of young people in our country is steadily deteriorating; and

WHEREAS, compounding these concerns is the ever present threat of a nuclear war due to the massive arms build-up of the Reagan administration, which has shifted the funding from social programs to the military-industrial complex; and

WHEREAS, H.R. 1398, the Income and Jobs Action Act for 1985, sets us on a course of winning a secure future by advancing the cause of human freedom for all Americans; and

WHEREAS, H.R. 1398's policy is to recognize, at long last, the right to earn a decent living and the right to an adequate income for adults unable to earn a living through paid employment; and

WHEREAS, one element in the program would be incentives for planned conversion from areas of declining enrollment (civilian or military) to those where expansion is needed; and

WHEREAS, the bill mandates the submission of specific proposals to lower interest rates, shorten hours of work, improve education and training, and provide for needed public and private works; and

WHEREAS, a provision is made for short- and long-term implementation schedules that include educational activities; and

WHEREAS, the presentation of such a program would, by itself, give hope to our youth and to those in the country's many areas of local recession and depression. Action on this bill with whatever improvements the Congress may determine could be a major step toward reducing the federal deficit:

RESOLVED, that the AFT endorse and support H.R. 1398, which is to promote genuine and sustainable recovery and a full employment society by extending and fully implementing the Employment Act of 1946 and the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978; and

RESOLVED, that copies of this resolution be sent to the co-sponsors of H.R. 1398, Sens. Levin and Riegle, and the committees on Education and Labor, Armed Services, Government Operations, Banking Finance, and Urban Affairs, and Ways and Means.