Brown (FL03) - Press Releases - Congresswoman Brown Votes in Favor of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act yet Urges for a Dramatic Increase for Transportation Funding

	FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 28th, 2009		CONTACT: David Simon (202) 225-0123

Congresswoman Brown Votes in Favor of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act yet Urges for a Dramatic Increase for Transportation Funding

(Washington, DC) - Congresswoman Corrine Brown joined a majority of her colleagues in the House of Representatives to support critical legislation to create and save three to four million American jobs. This job creation package should rebuild America, making the nation more globally competitive and energy independent, while transforming the economy for long-term growth; and give 95 percent of our American workers an immediate tax break to quickly invest back into the economy.

"Today, the House has taken the first step in delivering a plan to get the economy back on track. Action on this economic recovery package will create American jobs now, lay a foundation for long-term growth through clean energy, innovation and education, with strict accountability measures to ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and effectively," said the Congresswoman. "Passage of this economic package will mean real change by rebuilding America’s roads and bridges and providing a tax cut to 95 percent of American workers. Indeed, our nation is facing an economic crisis greater than any since the Great Depression, with a staggering 2.6 million American jobs lost in the last year and an unemployment rate here in Florida that has climbed to above 7%," said the Congresswoman.

This jobs and economic recovery plan contains targeted efforts in:

Transforming Our Economy With Clean, Efficient, American Energy and Innovation and Technology that will create more than 1 million jobs;

Lowering Health Care Costs by funding aggressive adoption of health information technology, which will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and Broadening Coverage by helping those who cannot afford health care in these tough times.;

Modernizing Roads, Bridges, Transit and Waterways to create 1.5 million American jobs;

Education for the 21st Century, including an increased Pell Grant for nearly 400,000 students here in Florida, and a higher education tax credit for an additional 200,000 students in our state so that they can stay in college despite these tough times;

Tax Cuts of up to $1,000 to Make Work Pay for families here in Florida and more than $20 billion for American businesses, large and small, to spur job creation;

Helping Workers Hurt by the Economy, including 330,000 in Florida that are out of work, those who have lost their health care, and seniors; and

Saving the Jobs of Teachers and Police Officers.

The Congresswoman continued:

"However, I was disappointed in the lack of proper funding for transportation and infrastructure, as well as for Rail. In fact, in December of 2008, the House Transportation Committee, under the fine leadership of Rep. James Oberstar, proposed that the economic recovery and jobs creation legislation include at a minimum, and we repeat, minimum, at least $85 billion for infrastructure investment. Specifically, we wanted to see $30 billion for highways and bridges; $12 billion for transit; $5 billion for rail (for which I attempted to offer an amendment to bring Amtrak funding to this level in the bill); $5 billion for aviation; $14 billion for environmental infrastructure; $7 billion for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; and $10 billion for Federal buildings included in the final bill.

The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee submitted a proposal last December to be included into the economic plan to stimulate the economy and create jobs. The Members on the committee strongly believe that the best way to fulfill President Obama’s promise to create or save 3 million jobs and augment our nation’s infrastructure is through investing in, and building up our nation’s infrastructure and putting people to work.

Certainly, Transportation and Infrastructure funding is absolutely critical to the nation, and will serve as a tremendous economic and job creating boost at a time when we desperately need to rebuild our country. My state of Florida for example, like all states nationwide, will benefit from increased transportation funding by receiving an improved transportation infrastructure, which in turn, will create economic development and put 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 $6.2 billion in economic activity. And based on figures from the Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration studies, the proposed $85 billion of federal infrastructure investment would create or sustain more than 2.4 million jobs and $439 billion in economic activity.

I will continue to advocate staunchly for an increase in transportation and rail funding during upcoming the conference committee with the Senate."

###