Date: 2009-02-13
Speaker: GENE GREEN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. I rise in strong support of H.R. 1. the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. When we return home for our district work period. we do not have to look far to see the impact this recession has hadworkers are being laid off. consumer confidence is down. and people are spending less because they have less to spend. Despite my opposition. we voted last year to give $750 billion to Wall Street to try to slow this recession. that did not work. I supported the House version of the American Recovery and Investment Act. and I am supporting the Conference Report. because it is time we invest in Main Street. rit just Wall Street. The White House Council of Economic Advisers. along with the Departments of Labor and Commerce have estimated this bill will create nearly 270.000 jobs in my home state of Texasmore than in any other state besides Californiaand 7.400 of those jobs will be in our 29th Congressional District. Unlike the $750 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. this isnt just a bill for white collar workers--the H.R. 1 is a bill for teachers. construction workers. medical professionals. electrical workers and engineers. police and firefighters. as well as those who may not be working because of the dire state of our economy. This bill will create and save jobs by reinvesting in roads. highways. public transportation. schools. education. the electrical grid. health technology and services. communications infrastructure. and numerous other areas of our economy. For the last eight years. too many of these areas have been neglected. Today. we have the opportunity to invest in these areas to stimulate the economy and create jobs to get our economy started back in the right direction. The bedrock of Americas competitiveness is a welleducated and skilled workforce and we must prepare our students for our globalized economy. This bill takes key steps towards ensuring that we do just that. Starting with our youngest generation. H.R. 1 provides $2.1 billion for Head Start and Early Head Start to allow an additional 124.000 children to participate in these programs. Harris County. where our district lies. serves a combined total of 6.649 Head Start children per year through four direct. Head Start grantees. In fact. Houston in 2003 served the lowest percentage of eligible children compared to other cities in Texas. Harris County is the third most populous county in the nation and in review of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Biennial Reports to Congress on Head Start. Los. Angeles County served 29.703 eligible children. Cook Countyserved 20.406 children. and the New York boroughs served 24.260. Funding Head Start grantees is based on the number of children under the age of 5 years whose family income is below the federal poverty line. According to U.S. Census figures for 2005. not only is the poverty rate for Harris Countys population under age 5 higher than the national average in 2005 of 21 percent. but Harris County represented the highest percentage of children below the poverty line for all above listed counties. The poverty rates for 2005 are: Los Angeles County 23.8 percent. Cook County 22.5 percent. NYC boroughs 27.3 percent and Harris County 28.7 percent. I look forward to working with the Department of Health and Human Services to address this disparity in funding now that new monies will be available to serve more eligible children. Additionally. this bill will provide muchneeded investments in our elementary and secondary schools including $13 billion for Title I grants to help disadvantaged kids reach high academic standards and $39.5 billion to local school districts that can be used for preventing teacher cutbacks and layoffs and make keyinvestments in things like modernizing our schools. Finally. this bill will invest in preparing our younger generations for our globalized economy by providing $15.6 billion to increase the maximum Pell Grant by $500. By doing this. we will help seven million students pursue postsecondary education and take the steps they need to get the certification or degree necessary to pursue and keep a job in these difficult times. Additionally. H.R. 1 provides students with a new "American Opportunity" tax credit of up to $2.500 of the cost of tuition and related expenses paid during the taxable year. Combined with the increase in the Pell Grant. this tax credit will give our lower and middle income students additional peace of mind in taking on the financial costs of pursuing a college degree or certificate. Another way to build a 21st century economy is to engage contractors across the nation to create jobs rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges and building transit and rail lines. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will do this by providing funds to modernize our roads and bridges and invest in transit and rail projects to reduce traffic congestion and gas consumption. I strongly supported the inclusion of these funds as this investment would create or sustain more than 2.4 million jobs and $439 billion of economic activity. I am pleased to see that H.R. 1 provides for $1.5 billion in supplemental discretionary grants that will be awarded to state or local governments or transit agencies on a competitive basis for projects that will have a significant impact on the country. metropolitan area. or region. This bill reads that this money includes in investing in projects already participating in New Starts or those ready for entry into revenue service. While I would like to have seen a lot more money dedicated to these type projects. I am glad that transit agencies will be able to compete for entry into revenue service. We have two critical transit projects in the greater Houston area. the North and Southeast light rail corridors. Both projects are near completion of the New Starts process in the Federal Transit Administration. While the final details on the projects are being addressed to prepare the projects for entry into Final Design and for Full Funding Grant Agreements. the projects are ready to begin construction in less than 90 days. have environmental clearances. and have received favorable cost effectiveness ratings. By investing in these two projects. work can begin quickly. creating thousands of jobs in a region that suffers not only from the current economic conditions but also from the lasting effects of Hurricane Ike. I look forward to working with the Department of Transportation to see that these two projects receive the attention they deserve. I am also pleased H.R. 1 includes valuable health related provisions including COBRA subsidies. health IT funding. an FMAP increase. temporary DSH allotments. a temporary extension of transitional Medical Assistance. and funding for community health centers. However. the final version of the bill does not include the temporary option for states to procide Medicaid coverage to unemployed or uninsured individuals. Instead. H.R. 1 relies on COBRA subsidies to provide health insurance coverage to the unemployed. The House passed version of H.R. 1 gave states the option to provide Medicaid coverage to the unemployed or uninsured and this provision should be in the final version of the bill. In our district. most individuals work low wage jobs that often do not provide health insurance and therefore they are not eligible for COBRA coverage. This leaves a large portion of individuals without health insurance or access to Medicaid. More and more lower wage individuals. who never had health insurance. are losing their jobs. They are delaying their health care because they cannot afford to go to the doctor and often end up in the emergency room with more costly medical problems because they delay medical care. It makes sense to give states the option to extend Medicaid coverage to these. individuals because it saves money in the long run and provides these individuals with health care coverage. The legislation also makes critical improvements to the smart grid provisions established in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 by eliminating the cap on the allowable number of smart grid demonstration projects and increasing the grant funding available for these efforts. Houston is a leader in moving toward smart grid solutions. Center Point Energy. a leading energy delivery company in Texas. will invest over $600 million in automatic metering systems. or AMS. over the next five years to support smart grid infrastructure. AMS technology is the first step in moving towards an automatic grid which will allow consumers to manage and monitor the electric use in realtime. reduce energy consumption. and improve grid reliability. I am also pleased with the changes to the Weatherization Assistance Program which will help lowincome families make their homes more energy efficient. This will decrease the amount of fossil fuels needed to heat and cool homes. reduce home energy bills and create jobs in the home weatherization industry: a winwin for everyone. It creates a temporary $6 billion Department of Energy loan guarantee program for renewable energy and electric transmission projects. up to $500 million of which can be used for the development of leading edge biofuels. including biodiesel. I applaud the inclusion of $4.6 billion in funding for the Army Corps of Engineers. although the Corps needs much more funding to address its backlog of critical projects. While the funding is not distributed to specific projects. it is my hope the Corps will fund worthy projects by the Port of Houston and the Harris County Flood Control District. I also support the $1.2 billion for EPAs nationwide environmental cleanup programs. including Superfund. which I hope can be utilized to clean up the San Jacinto River Waste Pits. Mr. Speaker. our economy is crumbling. workers are being laid off. people are losing their health insurance. and families are finding it harder and harder to make ends meet. This legislation will start us back on the right track by looking out for those who have been most affected. and by broadly investing is multiple sectors of our economy. We cannot stand by and do nothing. and for those reasons. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation.