Providing For Consideration Of Senate Amendment To H.R. 3326, Department Of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010; For Consideration Of House Joint Resolution 64, Further Continuing Appropriations, Fiscal Year 2010; For Consideration Of H.R. 4314, Permitting C

Floor Speech

Providing For Consideration Of Senate Amendment To H.R. 3326, Department Of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010; For Consideration Of House Joint Resolution 64, Further Continuing Appropriations, Fiscal Year 2010; For Consideration Of H.R. 4314, Permitting Continued Financing Of Government Operations; For Consideration Of Senate Amendment To H.R. 2847, Jobs For Main Street Act, 2010

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Mr. McGOVERN. I thank my colleague for yielding.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of this rule, and specifically, I rise in support of the Jobs for Main Street Act, which we made in order under this rule. This important bill will provide the following:

$48 billion for highways, transit, and other infrastructure projects; $27 billion to hire teachers, police, firefighters, and for other job training programs. That's $75 billion for job-creating programs that are proven successes and that will help put Americans back to work. On top of that, the Jobs for Main Street Act provides $79 billion in emergency relief funding that will go to critical safety net programs like unemployment benefits, health insurance for unemployed workers, Federal matching funds for Medicaid, and funding for the child tax credit.

All told, Madam Speaker, the Jobs for Main Street Act is a good bill, one that will build on the success of the Recovery Act, which was signed into law earlier this year and which is one that will put people back to work. We know that these are difficult economic times, and we recognize that the American public is hurting. With the Jobs for Main Street Act, we will continue to stimulate the economy, to shrink the unemployment rate, and, more importantly, to create new jobs.

Ten months after President Obama signed the Recovery Act into law, we are seeing real results across the country. According to the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, real jobs are being created by the Recovery Act, and we are seeing the impact of these jobs in the unemployment figures. Look at the results:

Because of the Recovery Act, we have seen the creation of almost 630,000 direct and indirect jobs in the transportation industry alone. That's 210,000 direct hires alone. The result of these direct hires is a $1.1 billion payroll. It is $179 million in unemployment compensation not spent. It is people's insurance restored, health insurance restored, and it is $230 million in paid Federal taxes. Additional jobs have been created because of the clean water and high-speed rail projects.

All told, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee estimates that the Recovery Act has created or has sustained approximately 857,000 jobs. All of this underscores the importance of public infrastructure programs. These aren't projects just for the safety and well-being of our friends and neighbors; they are also projects that put these friends and neighbors back to work.

Madam Speaker, this Congress is acting. This House will pass the Jobs for Main Street Act and even more jobs will be created.

Earlier this year, my Republican friends chose politics over the needs of the American people, and every single one of them opposed the Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

They liked the same old, same old. Well, that was their way of thinking. That's the old way of thinking. That way of thinking took Bill Clinton's accomplishments in creating a record number of jobs and eliminating our deficits and paying down the debt and turned it into George Bush's recession, a recession that cost millions of Americans jobs, a recession that added billions and billions to our debt and added that debt on the backs of our children and our grandchildren.

Madam Speaker, people in this country want us to act. People want us to create jobs, and that's what we are going to do.

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