By Chris Levister | SACOBSERVER.COM WIRE SERVICES

(NNPA) - In what is being portrayed as a direct rebuke of the White House's lack of response to the deepening unemployment meltdown, Rep. Maxine Waters D-California, ranking CBC member on the powerful Financial Services Committee killed a scheduled November 19 vote on President Barack Obama’s financial regulation reform bill.

Instead, the congresswoman from Los Angeles called on the administration to do more to put the nation’s most vulnerable workers back to work.

“The recession has created a unique systemic risk that threatens all parts of the African American community, including the poor and the middle class,” said Waters in a statement after shutting down the vote. I have always been committed to addressing that risk and I will continue to do so. This is a critical issue.”

Waters led a bloc of African American House Democrats angry and frustrated that the Obama administration is mired in heated partisan battles over healthcare reform, war troop levels and fixing Wall Street and is not doing enough to address the plight of Blacks and Browns on Main Street. The groups have been hit much harder than any other by unemployment.

The Black unemployment rate is officially 15.7 percent nationwide compared to 9.5 percent for whites. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are troubled by what they believe is the lack of response to the economic situation that is confronting them on the part of the administration and therefore do not feel that they could in deference to the various constituencies that they resent – vote for passage of Mr. Obama’s financial reforms. “This is an affront to the people we serve,” said one member.

"When it comes to addressing joblessness in our poorest neighborhoods, there are a lot of heads in the sand,” said another member.

Joblessness for 16-to-24-year old Black men has reached Great Depression proportions - 34.5 percent in October, more than three times the rate for the general U.S. population according to the Center for Labor Market Studies.

The CBC met before Thanksgiving with Treasury Secretary Geithner and expressed dissatisfaction with the administration’s response to the unemployment situation particularly in Black and Brown communities.

House Financial Services Commit tee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., said the full House will not vote on financial overhaul legislation until the second week of December at the earliest.

Frank originally wanted the House to vote on the bill when it reconvened after the Thanksgiving recess. The legislation is expected to focus on regulating systemic risk, winding down failing financial firms and creating a federal insurance office.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, construction, manufacturing and retail experienced the most severe job losses in this down economy, losses that are disproportionately affecting men and young people who populated those sectors.

Traditionally the last hired in general and first fired, young Black workers have taken the brunt of the difficult economy, with cost conscious employers eliminating the apprenticeship, internship and on the job training programs that gave thousands of minorities a nurturing environment and level playing field in the workplace.

Unemployment continued to climb in Inland Southern California last month, but some employers in Riverside and San Bernardino counties—and across the state—were hiring in October, according to a U.S. Labor Department report.

The jobless rate in the Inland counties increased to 14.6 percent in October from 14.3 percent in the previous month, the state Employment Development Department reported. It equaled the highest unemployment rate since the state began keeping county-by-county records in the 1970s, tying a record set in August.

California’s unemployment rate rose to 12.5 percent in October, also an all-time high. There were about 2.3 million people without work in California last month, out of a pool of about 18.4 million workers.

In the Inland Empire, there were more than 260,000 unemployed people out of a work force of 1,788,200. Unemployment among poor and young people is particularly troubling, economists say because the consequences can lead to a widespread desperation and long term generational poverty. A member of the Black Caucus put the problem of joblessness into perspective saying: “The heartbreaking images that gave the Great Depression its name are an unforgettable evocation of the need for people to be gainfully employed.”

This story comes special to NNPA from the Black Voice News.