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American Recovery And Reinvestment Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

Date: Jan. 27, 2009
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Unemployed and Low-Income Entitlements and the Safety Net Taxes Budget, Spending and Taxes Agriculture and Food K-12 Education Infrastructure Government Budget and Spending Family

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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chairman, the American people have been paying for the Republicans' party for the last 8 years. It is time now to get back to America's middle class. I rise in support of this economic recovery plan. It is a bold plan. It creates jobs and moves to long-term growth. We must act now to help a middle class hit hard by job insecurity, stagnant wages, rising health care costs, and a financial market in crisis. We have an urgent responsibility to invest wisely, target limited resources to proven initiatives that we know will boost employment, support economic growth, and provide critical relief.

That means expanding eligibility of the child tax credit by reducing the threshold from $12,000 to zero. Over 16 million children would benefit. It means child care, Head Start, a serious infusion of resources to No Child Left Behind, and IDEA, investing in our long-term growth so future generations can compete. There is $40 billion for infrastructure funding, transit funding, additional billions for water, housing and school projects to put Americans back to work at a time when we are facing staggering unemployment.

We need to put the resources in the hands of people most likely to spend them quickly. There is $100 billion in unemployment benefits and job training, $27 billion for rural development through health care, public safety services, and an additional $150 million for the Emergency Food Assistance Program, supporting food banks stretched thin by rising food prices and surging demands.

Anyone looking for immediate and significant impact need look no further than Food Stamps, which generate $1.73 in new economic activity for every dollar invested.

This bill provides $20 billion to increase the Food Stamp benefit which could reach 14 million households less than a month after the bill is enacted. Leading economists have said that increasing Food Stamps is one of the most efficient ways to prime the economy's pump, and it also helps part-time workers.

No investments are more critical than those we have to make in human capital. I urge my colleagues to support the bill.

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