WASHINGTON, DC- Following Senate passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) released the following statement. The bill must be reconciled with the House before it can be sent to the President.
“I voted for the recovery package to help President Obama’s effort to get our economy out of the ditch, create jobs and aid those hardest hit by the economy. The package includes many components to accomplish these goals such as tax relief for working families, infrastructure investments, aid to states and additional unemployment insurance as well as other improvements like increased funding for law enforcement.
“The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, like most bills, is not perfect. There has rightly been a lot of debate about how to improve the bill. We can’t, however, forget why we are considering this bill in the first place: our economy is in a ditch, jobs numbers are at historic lows and Americans are struggling.
“We need fast action because the layoffs and the business collapses will not wait for lengthy deliberation. The American people overwhelmingly voted in November for action and new focus to fix our economic problems and the mess that was created through eight years of bad policies. We plan to deliver.
“You can’t turn on the TV or open a newspaper without hearing about another major layoff, another company going out of business or new bad economic numbers not seen in a generation.
“The number of new unemployment claims the week of January 26th was a quarter century high of 626,000 people. The 4.8 million people currently collecting unemployment is a high in the 40 years since such data was collected. Ten million Americans are out of work. The U.S. lost 598,000 jobs last month following a revised 577,000 jobs lost in December and the unemployment rate rose to 7.6%, the highest level in sixteen years. This sampling of bad economic data is only the news that has come out since the Senate has been debating this bill.
“Bipartisan governors from across the country, including Pennsylvania, warn of the dangers of not passing this legislation. Pennsylvania is facing a budget shortfall of almost $2.5 billion. The rainy day fund of almost three-quarters of a billion dollars has been decimated. If immediate and substantial action is not taken, it will most probably mean increases in state and local taxes.
“I cast a number of votes and offered amendments to improve the bill. Some of these efforts succeeded and some didn’t. And the version we passed today will likely not be the version that eventually goes to President Obama’s desk. But this bill represents a solid compromise effort that can address many of the challenges we face while also containing a refreshing measure of transparency and accountability.”
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