Protest interrupts Las Vegas congressional hearing on unemployment

What appeared to be a small, organized protest briefly interrupted a congressional hearing on unemployment and federal job training Tuesday in Las Vegas.

"We need jobs," shouted Linda Overbey, who stood up from her chair in the audience. "I want to hear from Joe Heck what he intends to do about job training and jobs."

Outside, as she protested with about a dozen other union workers, Overbey, 54, said she was an unemployed painter.

She advocates a large expenditure of tax dollars on federal jobs programs as a solution to the nation's economic woes, as was done during the Great Depression.

Police officers removed her and two other people from the room after they, too, began shouting about jobs. They also joined the protest outside.

The hearing was led by U.S. House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., and Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., and Rep. Heck, R-Nev., joined the panel as well.

"I share the frustrations of those who voiced their concerns," Heck said. "I know we need jobs. It's affected my family."

He told the small crowd that his daughter, who graduated from UNLV's vaunted hotel college, left Nevada just last week because she couldn't find a job here.

He said later that she took a job with the Hilton corporation in Washington .

The hearing was held at Opportunity Village's campus on South Buffalo Drive. Its purpose was to examine "local solutions to strengthen federal job training programs."

Kline said it was the sixth such hearing held in various places as Congress prepares to reauthorize 1998's Workforce Investment Act, which funded job training programs. Heck touted data that showed there is overlap in federally funded job training programs, but there is little information on whether they work.

Las Vegas was chosen as a hearing site because of its unemployment rate, the nation's worst. Unemployment nationally is just about 9 percent, while it's nearly 13 percent in Nevada and 14 percent in Southern Nevada.

"People are really frustrated," McKeon said. "They want jobs."

Witnesses said the jobs picture in Southern Nevada is bleak but pointed to what they said were some bright spots.

Henderson Mayor Andy Hafen said his city has suffered a massive drop in tax revenue in the past three years. But, he said, the city has been trying to focus on drawing two industries to town: health care and education.

Jeremy Aguero, principal analyst with Applied Analysis, a local business advisory firm, said we have lost more than 140,000 jobs locally since the recession began in 2007.

He said, though, that not everything is terrible. Small improvements have been seen since 2009.

He blamed uncertainty and the lack of an educated workforce in Nevada for the lack of job creation locally.

"We have failed to educate our children, and now we're shocked and stunned that they're unemployable," he said.

He and other witnesses, including Rebecca Metty-Burns, head of workforce and economic development at the College of Southern Nevada, also said an overabundance of government regulations and red tape sometimes hampers job training programs.

Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.