HARMAN STATEMENT ON THE AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT

Lawmaker says “it may not be the only step we must take to revitalize our economy, but it is a necessary one”

Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Jane Harman (D-Venice) released the following statement after the House passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act:

The American economy is foundering in some very troubled waters.

Business after business – including some of the biggest names in corporate America – is collapsing.  Hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost their jobs in the last few months alone – more than 55,000 in the just the last few days.  The unemployment rate is skyrocketing, approaching levels not seen in generations.

Millions of Americans have lost their homes, and millions more may lose theirs as adjustable rate mortgages reset and the foreclosure crisis spreads.  Lending has barely improved since the credit markets froze last fall, despite a $350 million (and soon to be $700 million) infusion of taxpayer funds.

California has been particularly hard hit.  523,624 Californians lost their homes last year – a five-fold increase from 2006 levels.  The state is running a $42 billion budget deficit, and may have little alternative but to cut health and education funding to the bone.  Los Angeles County alone is looking at a $173 million shortfall in health care funding next year – the amount it takes to keep the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center operating.

My constituents are hurting.  Credit unions and small banks, which do much of the day-to-day lending that keeps communities functioning, have laid off hundreds of workers.  Car dealerships that have been pillars of the community for decades are closing.  Reductions in state funding are forcing school districts to consider drastic staff reductions. 

In times like these, the federal government has an obligation to take swift, decisive action.  The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes the stimulus needed at this perilous moment, and I intend to support it.

A few provisions of the bill stand out as particularly crucial.

This legislation includes nearly $200 billion to help states maintain essential health care and education programs.   In California, these funds could be the vital lifeline that keeps hospitals operating, avoids the layoffs of thousands of teachers, and helps the state stave off bankruptcy.  

The bill includes a $20 billion investment in the development of health information technology systems.  Health IT will not only generate thousands of new high-paying jobs, it will reduce costs of providing care, help reduce errors, and provide a down-payment on the development of a universal health care system.

The bill includes $30 billion to help build a new clean energy infrastructure that will grow green jobs now and lay the foundation for long-term energy independence.  The $11 billion investment to upgrade our electric grid is an especially crucial first step toward the deployment of energy efficiency programs, the widespread adoption of electric vehicles, and the transmission of energy produced by renewable sources. 

The bill also makes a long-overdue investment in our nation’s education system, with more than $150 billion going to Head Start, kindergarten, public elementary and secondary schools, and college programs.  This spending – along with a renewed focus on performance standards and new, creative approaches to teaching – will help ensure that our children have the skills to compete in the global economy in the years to come.

This is not a perfect bill.  One can question whether some of this spending would be more appropriately considered in an ordinary appropriations bill, and whether a small uptick in paychecks caused by tax cuts will lead to much new spending.  I hope that the bill can be improved as it moves through the legislative process.
 
But the package is, on the whole, worthy of support.  It may not be the only step we must take to revitalize our economy, but it is a necessary one.  I urge its swift passage.   

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