(Washington, DC) - Congresswoman Corrine Brown made the following statement:

"I am more than looking forward to be working with the incoming Obama administration to get our nation's economy back on track.  Although there has been some criticism lodged at the Obama transition team for installing former Clinton administration economic advisors in his administration, I would like to remind these detractors that when President Clinton left office in January, 2000, our country had a budget surplus of $236 billion.  At this time, eight years later, the Bush administration is leaving our country with over a half a trillion dollar budget deficit!

I am certain that key Members of the new administration, such as the incoming Treasury Secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, who served as the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers, as director of the National Economic Council in the White House, Peter R. Orszag, who will take over as the new White House Budget Director (and currently serves as the Congressional Budget Office head), and Christina Romer, the new head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, will provide outstanding advice and direction to lead our nation out of its current economic debacle.

From what I have read thus far, I am extremely impressed with their economic plan, particularly the stimulus plan put forward in recent days. In the Democratic Party’s weekly radio address, incoming President Obama said he would direct his economic team to craft a two-year stimulus plan, with the goal of saving or creating 2.5 million jobs, and that he hopes to sign the stimulus package into law soon after taking office on January 20th.

As an integral part of their economic plan, the new administration intends to ‘address neglected public infrastructure projects like roads and schools.’ I strongly believe that this is a step in the right direction.  As the subcommittee Chairwoman of the Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials subcommittee of the Committee on Transportation, I have been advocating for rail and infrastructure funding to be included in any economic stimulus package for quite some time.  In fact, the plan we worked on in the Transportation Committee, which provided $15 billion in infrastructure investment to enhance the safety, security and efficiency of our highway, transit, rail and environmental infrastructure, was incorporated into the House bill passed in late September, yet which unfortunately fell through in the Senate.

Transportation and Infrastructure funding is absolutely necessary, and would be a tremendous economic and job creating boost for our nation at this time.  Individual states benefit by receiving an improved transportation infrastructure, which in turn creates economic development and puts people to work.  In fact, Department of Transportation (DOT) statistics show that for every $1 billion invested in transportation infrastructure, 42,000 jobs are created, as is $2.1 billion in economic activity.

Again, I am very much looking forward to a working with the Obama administration to reignite our nation’s economic engine and get our country and our economy back on the right track."

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