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The plan calls for investments in both human and physical capital with the aim to make all Americans more competitive in the workforce. Increases in education, skills and employment

training, and infrastructure investments were urged to increase national productivity.

Mr. Jacob emphasized that the Marshall Plan for America is based on three fundamental assumptions:

First: America's economic future can be secured only if African Americans and other minorities play a more productive role.

Second: to be competitive in a global economy, America must fully develop its human and physical capital.

Third: America's economic growth depends on improving the productivity of its workforce.

"A major component of those infrastructure programs must be aggressive hiring and skills training programs targeted to the disadvantaged," said Mr. Jacob.

Founded in 1910, the National Urban League is the premier social service and civil rights organization in America. The League is a nonprofit organization headquartered in New York City, with affiliates in 114 cities across America. Its principal objective is to secure social and economic equality for African Americans.

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PLAYING TO WIN: A MARSHALL PLAN FOR AMERICA

A NATIONAL INVESTMENT PROGRAM BY THE NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE

The National Urban League has taken the concrete stap of developing a bold new initiative for investing in this Nation's human and physical infrastructure through a specific proposal, Playing to Win: A Marshall Plan for America. Implementing this Plan would move this Nation forward towards meeting the challenges of global competitiveness, strengthen our security and improve our quality of life.

SUMMARY OF KEY PROPOSALS

Human Resource Initiatives

In human resource development, the Marshall Plan for America combines expansion of existing programs of proven

effectiveness with new investment initiatives believed to have high potential for success, with a heavy emphasis on youth. The Plan proposes:

1. That all disadvantaged children be provided quality preschool learning opportunities.

o The Head Start program must be expanded to include all eligible children and made available on a full-time basis year-round. Head Start should be an entitlement.

2. That all disadvantaged elementary and secondary students be provided the supports they need to ensure the acquisition of a sound basic education in the public schools.

o Make Chapter 1 assistance available to all who need it, expand the scope of supplementary instruction, and maintain the support over time.

3. That the nation's employment and training system be expanded and restructured to deliver more relevant and viable job skills to today's youth.

o Extend the Job Training Partnership Act's (JTPA) coverage to at least 50 percent of all eligibles, targeting those with the most severe barriers to employment, and emphasizing basic and occupational skills training over job placement activity.

o Increase Job Corps enrollments to at least 400,000 new participants per year.

o Adopt as national policy the recommendations of the Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce.

Marshall Plan Proposals

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Physical Infrastructure Initiatives

Initiatives to rebuild and upgrade our physical infrastructure promise to bring greater efficiencies to business and industry as well as to further public safety interests and our overall quality of life. Infrastructure projects create jobs, providing well-paying employment for workers at all skills levels. Such projects also offer opportunities for apprentice-type skills training in a wide range of areas. The Plan proposes:

1. That the nation invest in the development of a world-class transportation system.

o Repair or replace the approximately 240,000 unsound or obsolete bridges around the country, beginning with the 77,000 structures on the federal aid system.

o Repair, refurbish and upgrade existing highways.

o Reassess the pattern of federal assistance for mass transit and make adjustments where necessary to ensure that systems in older, heavily populated metropolitan areas are able to achieve and/or maintain a viable level of operational efficiency both inside and outside of the urban centers.

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o Develop new types of transportation technologies, such as the high speed magnetically levitated ("Maglev") train systems now operating in prototype in Germany.

o Accelerate spending on new airports, airport capital improvements and modernized air traffic control systems so as to reduce air travel delays by 75 percent over the next 10 years.

2. That major investments be made to improve the nation's water supply and treatment facilities as well as to relieve the crisis in solid waste disposal.

o Repair or replace decayed sewer lines as well as upgrade existing sewer plants and build new ones.

o Upgrade existing landfills and invest more in the development of modern resource recovery facilities.

Marshall Plan Proposals
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3. That the nation pursue more aggressively the development and application of advanced telecommunications technology.

o Install avant garde voice, video and information processing systems. The substitution and diffusion of modern fiber-optics technology as the chief

communications medium of the future should be paramount.

Financing and Administering the Marshall Plan

1. A base allotment of $50 billion per year, above monies normally allocated to human resource and physical infrastructure purposes, would be set aside to fund the program over a 10-year period (a total investment of $500 billion).

o Financing options for consideration could include diversion of planned cuts in defense spending, transfers from existing programs, taxes, debt financing, or some combination of these and other revenue alternatives. The Plan also provides for public-private partnerships in financing as well as implementation of the investment initiatives.

2. To ensure the structural integrity of the Marshall Plan for America over time, the President would be authorized to:

o Appoint a Marshall Plan Administrator having Cabinet status.

o Establish an Interagency Council dedicated to executing the multifaceted programmatic components of the Plan. The Council would be comprised of the secretaries of the Department of Labor, the Department of Education, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Department of Health and Human Services.

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