Cummings calls for hearings on White House jobs proposal

The top Democrat on the House's main investigative panel is calling for a series of hearings on President Obama's jobs-creation proposal. 

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), ranking member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter on Friday to panel Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) requesting hearings on the jobs plans unveiled Thursday night.

“I am writing today to request that the committee hold a series of six hearings over the next two weeks focusing in detail on proposals in the American Jobs Act,” Cummings wrote. “We should launch this series of hearings on a bipartisan basis to examine carefully each component of the President’s proposal in detail.”

Ahead of the president's speech on Thursday, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) urged all ranking members to request hearings from committee chairman. 

On Friday, she sent a letter today to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) requesting that he urge Republican House committee chairmen to “move expeditiously to pass” the a jobs package. 

House Democratic leaders on Friday said they're pushing for Obama's jobs plan to be taken up in one, huge package.

 House Republicans — and even some Senate Democrats — have warned there's not enough time left in the year to consider such a comprehensive and controversial package. 

They're suggesting congressional leaders isolate the less contentious parts of the plan that lawmakers could pass quickly for the sake of creating jobs and bolstering the public's confidence in Congress's competence.

The six hearings Cummings has requested are on infrastructure, foreclosures, extending payroll tax cuts, job training and workplace transition for the unemployment, tax incentives to spur hiring, supporting veterans, teachers, police and firefighters.