After attending his first State of the Union address, U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer said he was encouraged by President Obama’s push for a balanced approach to deficit reduction and his call for job creation and protecting the middle class.

Kilmer, a 6th District Democrat from Gig Harbor, was elected to Congress in November.

In a statement after attending President Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday, Kilmer noted the recent postponement of a job fair at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard brought on by budget uncertainty, and the impact of a drop in military spending at the end of 2012.

“Job growth doesn’t happen in the halls of the Capitol, it happens at home on Main Street,” Kilmer said.

“As the president pointed out, Congress should be working to improve our economy and helping small businesses in our region create good, high-paying jobs,” he said.

“The postponement of the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard career fair and the latest dip in the economy show that congressional inaction is making it harder to move our nation forward. That’s why we need to stop these nonstrategic, across-the-board cuts and replace them with a smart, balanced approach to reduce our deficit and get our economy growing,” Kilmer said.

Kilmer’s invited guest to the State of the Union was Bruce Kendall, president and CEO of the Economic Development Board of Tacoma-Pierce County.

Kendall is also a member of the board of the University of Washington-Tacoma Institute of Technology, and serves on the board of the Central Puget Sound Economic Development District, the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce, the Tacoma-Pierce County Workforce Development Council and the World Trade Center Tacoma.