LEWISTON — Brenda Akers of Lewiston says all she wants is a job. But after seeking employment for the past year, she hasn't found a full-time position.

Using Akers as an example of the growing unemployment problem plaguing the nation, local officials called on Congress to draft job creation legislation.

The news conference at the Lewiston Public Library on Thursday coincided with a White House job summit in Washington, D.C., where President Barack Obama gathered more than 100 business owners, scholars and federal officials to discuss ideas for lowering the unemployment rate, which has topped 10 percent nationwide. In Maine, the most recent unemployment rate is about 8 percent, according to the Maine Department of Labor.

"The need for jobs is immediate and urgent," said state Sen. Margaret Craven, D-Lewiston.

Craven, along with state Rep. Brian Bolduc, D-Auburn, and Lewiston Mayor Larry Gilbert, called on Congress to pass a job-creation bill focused on establishing job-creation tax credits and public sector jobs.

"There are roads that need paving, schools that need painting and parks in public spaces that need renovating," Gilbert said. He said the unemployment rate in Lewiston-Auburn, which is about 8 percent, exceeds that of the state's other metropolitan areas of Portland and Bangor, which have rates of about 6.5 percent.

U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, a Democrat who represents Maine's 2nd District, said he agrees that Congress should do more to increase employment.

"When you look at creating the immediate jobs, the quickest and fastest way to deal with it is through infrastructure," he said in an interview. "Unfortunately, in the stimulus bill that passed, the amount of money that went to infrastructure was extremely small."

About 5 percent of the $787 billion stimulus bill enacted earlier this year was marked for transportation infrastructure spending, Michaud said.

"It did not have the firepower in infrastructure funding that was needed, but if you look at the different areas where that money went, the Department of Transportation funding is the only funding that actually really got out there, and you are seeing some results," he said.

Michaud said he has met with House members from both sides of the aisle to work on coming up with a job-creation bill as an alternative to whatever package House democratic leadership puts together.

"Unfortunately, leadership tends to put forward their proposal and expects us to follow suit and that's when we get into a lot of partisan bickering," he said. "We had a bipartisan jobs caucus (Wednesday) night and we're starting to have discussions about what we as rank and file members of the Democratic and Republican caucuses would want in a jobs bill."

Michaud said votes on most of the recently passed bills, including major legislation on energy and health care, have fallen along party lines, but job creation shouldn't be a partisan issue for Congress.

"Whether you live in a Republican, Democratic or independent district, people want jobs," he said.

Michaud suggested using the more than $200 billion in unused Wall Street bailout funding, passed by Congress earlier this year, to help pay for the jobs legislation.

rmetzler@sunjournal.com