The Obama administration is manipulating how it reports and provides information about U.S jobs — in some cases for “clearly political reasons” — the chairman of the GOP-led House oversight committee said Wednesday.
GOP Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, made the assertion during a hearing on how the administration counts so-called “green jobs” and the Labor Department’s recent, unannounced change on how reporters can access key unemployment reports and other information.
“The Labor Department “has jeopardized the integrity of employment data in some cases for clearly political reasons,” he said.
Issa said the administration is reclassifying such jobs as welder, college professor and diesel mechanic as “green jobs” to prove that billions of taxpayer dollars, through the federal stimulus program, has created alternative-energy jobs – a major initiative for President Obama.
“It’s about politics. It’s always been about politics,” said Issa, R-Calif. “If you work at the Salvation Army, that’s a green job.”
Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and contributing editor of RealClearMarkets.com, said the administration should be focuses on simply creating jobs, not classifying them.
She cited the administration putting $3.5 million into the failed Solyndra solar-energy company as an example of the administration appearing to misleadingly or incorrectly tout green-job creation.
Rep. Elijah Cummings, the committee’s ranking Democrat, said the number of green jobs created under the administration is even higher than the 3 million reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“Unfortunately, this committee seems more intent on challenging the methodologies used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics rather than helping put people back to work,” said Cummings, D-Md.
The second concern is the Labor Department recently ordering reporters to use government-issues software and other equipment to access Bureau of Labor Statistics reports perhaps a violation of free speech laws.
“This proposal threatens to the First Amendment, said Daniel Moss, a Bloomberg News executive editor, testifying at the hearing.
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