Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Annie Berman – Talk Radio News Service

It is still unclear if the American Recovery Reinvestment Act (ARRA), also known as the stimulus bill, is helping states create and retain jobs, despite the current 9.5 percent unemployment rate.

This is the third in a series of hearings the Oversight and Government Reform Committee has held to discuss the ARRA, specifically to review the state and local uses of Recovery Act funds and the Government Accountability Office’s second bi-monthly report of those allocations.

According to Robert Nabors, Deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, the stimulus bill is having a positive impact.

“The Recovery Act is making significant resources available to states that are struggling…funding has relieved pressure on state budgets, allowing them to provide better service and avoid job cuts,” Nabors said.

Nabors also stressed that states should not rely on stimulus money in
the long term.

“We always view the Recovery Act as a short term effort. The President has been very clear that we need to get the economy jump started. We need to expend resources now to actually get them started. But over the long term, the funding levels that are contained within the Recovery Act should not be thought of as permanent,” said Nabors.

The three governors that testified at today’s hearing maintained that direct aid to states provided by the stimulus plan has greatly helped their states’ economies through job creation and projects such as highway restorations and solar energy panels for buildings.

“Things are happening,” said Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell (D). “Construction and manufacturing. It’s working. And the good news is it’s going to get better…you are going to see a huge impact. I think the stimulus is going to work. Any judgment on it is premature. Let’s see how it works. I’d like to see a second stimulus dedicated solely to infrastructure.”

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif) voiced strong opposition to the possibility of a second stimulus bill, even though he voted in favor of the first.

“The U.S. economy lost 433 net jobs in June bringing the unemployment rate to 9.5%,” said Issa. “These job losses pump on the heels of other declining economic indicators that bring total American job losses since President Obama took office to 2.6 million…fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.”