WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today the House of Representatives passed the Conference Report to H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the bill could be signed by President Obama as early as next week.  House Small Business Committee Ranking Member Graves issued the following statement in response to the bill’s passage:

“I am appalled that Congress has passed along billions of dollars of debt to our children in legislation that will have little to no effect on our economy,” said Graves.  “Small businesses are the greatest engine of creating new jobs in our economy.  Yet, this bill not only does not help small businesses, it hurts them by crowding out private investment.”

The House Republican substitute that was not included by House Democrats would have cost Americans significantly less, $477 billion, and concentrated on job growth and tax relief for small businesses. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) confirmed the ineffectiveness of the Democrats package by saying that, “the flood of spending will boost the economy in the short term…but over 10 years, extra debt will ‘crowd out’ private investment, leading to a lower gross domestic product, which would hurt workers' wages.”

# # #