Top Dem Steny Hoyer Presses GOP to Vote on President's Jobs Bill

October 5, 2011 -- A top Congressional Democrat says he would vote for President Obama's jobs proposal in its current form, even as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid works today to tweak the bill by adding tax hikes on millionaires. But he admitted the package is likely to undergo some changes before it's eventually sent back to the president for his signature.

Appearing this afternoon on 'Top Line,' House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer told ABC's Amy Walter and Jonathan Karl that while he would vote for the American Jobs Act in the current form proposed by the president, Congress is a coequal branch of government that "is gonna have its own views" and he's open to some alterations.

"It won't be exactly what the president offered but very frankly, that's what the Congress is about," Hoyer, D-Md., said. "To expect that the Senate or the House would make zero changes is not very informed about the legislative process, but I think Senator Reid has every intention of bringing forward a jobs bill similar to the president's if not exactly like the president's, which will grow jobs, grow our economy and get our economy moving again."

"None of these programs will be sustainable over the long term unless the economy itself starts growing," he added. "But clearly in the short term, we need to give it … a shot in the arm, if you will, to create jobs and growth."

Asked about the widespread perception that Congress has been missing in action on job creation, Hoyer, the Democrat's No. 2 leader in the House and one of the most vocal advocates in Congress for American job creation, blamed House Republicans for failing to act.

"We haven't been doing anything on jobs. We've been here now for nine months, and very frankly, we haven't had any significant jobs legislation on the floor," Hoyer said. "There has been no bill on the floor that has dealt directly with job creation. We believe that the president has offered a program - his American Jobs Act - that in fact will do that."

Although House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor have announced they will not bring the president's proposal to the floor for a vote and will instead work to pass elements within the proposal identified by the leaders as common ground, Hoyer pressured the GOP leaders to reconsider and pass the whole package.

"Bring the president's bill to the floor," Hoyer urged, addressing the House GOP's leading duo. "If [Republicans] want to make amendments in order, if they have changes, if they have an alternative - fine. Let us vote on that, but the American people expect us to be taking actions to create jobs and growth in our economy. We ought to be doing it."

Hoyer also premiered a clip from a new documentary he and his Democratic colleagues will release later today that promotes their Make It in America jobs agenda.

"[Democrats] believe that focusing on making it in America so that the label will read 'made in America' is very, very important as we grow our economy but want to sustain that growth over time and provide the kind of good-paying jobs with good benefits that Americans need and want," Hoyer said. "Manufacture it in America, grow it in America, sell it here and around the world so that we can build our manufacturing sector, grow jobs in the manufacturing sector and make sure that our inventors, innovators and developers don't migrate, as some fear, overseas, where products are being taken to scale."

After releasing the short documentary to the press this afternoon, Hoyer will host a Twitter town hall at 4:00 p.m. to highlight the Democrats' continued focus on jobs.