About time

From Senator Franken's website:

National League of Cities: Local Jobs for America Act Introduced in the Senate
Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Mark Begich (D-Alaska) introduced the Local Jobs for America Act (S. 3500), last week, a companion to legislation that was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives (H.R. 4812) earlier this year.

Both the House and Senate bills call for much-needed assistance to cities and towns as they seek to protect essential services and avoid additional layoffs of municipal workers — a harsh reality many local governments are now facing as they enter the 2011 fiscal cycle.

“Cities and municipalities are faced with a terrible dilemma: how to balance budgets while providing critical public services,” Brown said. “While we are seeing the economy slowly recover, local communities cannot afford to do without essential services and further job loss threatens the fragile economic progress we’ve made. … The Local Jobs for America Act would help cities and municipalities save or create jobs even as they face budget crises.”