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Rep. McDermott Votes for Stimulus Package
January 29, 2008
For Immediate Release

Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA), a senior Member of the House Ways and Means Committee, and Chairman of the Income Security and Family Support Subcommittee, voted in favor of the economic stimulus package today.

Before the vote, McDermott spoke on the floor and called for more work to be done, even as he urged lawmakers to pass the legislation. Here is the text of his remarks:

Mr. Speaker:

The stimulus package before us today is a call to arms for Congress to act on behalf of the American people.

The President waited too long and offered too little. While he spent months pretending the economy was just fine, Americans were losing their jobs, their homes and their confidence.

Today, we take the first step in responding to the needs of the American people and the economic challenges before us.

To her credit, Speaker Pelosi negotiated a stimulus package that for the first time in seven years recognizes our first responsibility to the Middle Class and America’s vulnerable families.

People earning $200,000 a year don’t need a rebate to weather the economic storm, but people earning $20,000 do need one.

For all that the stimulus package does, we must consider it a work in progress, because there is unfinished business that we must address in the coming months.

Two-Thirds of the people who lose their jobs cannot get unemployment benefits.
This package falls silent on the plight of Americans who have already lost their jobs in this economy. Nor does this package address the reforms needed to our safety net programs to deal with the reality of a modern day workforce competing in a global economy.

This is not a day for a victory lap; it is a day when we begin to restore the faith of the American people in the ability of their government to act as an agent of positive change.

I urge my colleagues to support the stimulus package but demand that we address the unfinished business of unemployment insurance.

This is the first day, but it must not be the last day or we will fail the American people when they need us most.

Thank you.