Senator Bob Casey and Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney discusses Monthly Job Report and Unemployment Rate

Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) and Joint Economic Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y) attended a news conference today and discussed the increasing unemployment rate and the economic recovery package.

Senator Casey brought up figures from a new report regarding unemployment. Senator Casey described that almost 600,000 people lost their job over just one month and all States suffer from this crisis. Over three months almost 1.8 million people have lost their jobs and now is the time for action and to pass the economic recovery bill, Senator Casey said. "If their is any time for action, it is now. Not in two weeks from now, not two months from now, but now", Senator Casey stated.

Maloney argued that the report shows something all Americans already know. We are living in bad times. The job-loss has escalated over just months and every sector are affected, Maloney said. To recover from this economic crisis, the stimulus bill has to be passed.
Maloney also replied that to pass this bill successfully, the Senate need input from the House and also support from Republicans.

Speaker Pelosi says- No recess until the economic bill is done.

“The issues like food stamps, and unemployment insurance, which affect so many people in the states and are necessary at this time when funds are short, but the economy is down, actually have the most stimulative affect on the economy,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi during a conference call with Governors Ed Rendell (D-PA) and Jim Douglas (R-VT). The house will begin debating the 825 billion dollar economic recovery bill today, 2/3 of which will go towards job recovery while the rest is proposed to be used for tax cuts. Speaker Pelosi said that, “Tax cuts where we have them, to the middle class, we think will give us our biggest return.”

The aim of the new bill is to help the states as quickly as possible. “The best news for the local and county governments, because of what Speaker Pelosi and the President are doing, assuming it gets passed, is that the county governments and the city governments will be in much better shape in terms of the money that they get from the state,” said Governor Rendell.

“Does it create jobs, does it turn the economy around, does it lead to long term stabilization of the economy, does it do so in an apparent way and with great accountability to the American people,” said Speaker Pelosi. This bill is the first legislative step towards turning the economy around, and if it is not passed by the President’s day recess, Pelosi said that there will be no recess.

by Suzia van Swol, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) Criticizes FEMA Disaster Housing Strategy at Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery Hearing

Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) today chaired a Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery hearing criticizing the FEMA disaster housing strategy.

In the poverty and natural disaster stricken regions of the Gulf Coast, Landrieu was adamant about her disapproval with FEMA’s inability to help needy Americans. The panel of witnesses interrogated by Chairwoman Landrieu each took accountability for their respective lack of success in rebuilding the cities of the Gulf Coast decimated by Hurricane Katrina, their delayed responses to helping storm-torn victims, and the fast growing problem of abnormally high formaldehyde toxin levels in such communities.

Landrieu was particularly upset that reasonable deadlines to pass legislation and provide aid for families had not been met. Panel members such as Harvey Johnson, Deputy Administrator and Chief Executive Officer of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, answered her criticisms by explaining that the problems regarding government responses and aid were “complex” and not easily fixable. Johnson, along with Milan Ozdinec, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Public Housing and Voucher Programs in the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, insisted that the government is actually doing a respectable job in helping families, paying particular attention to the most needy and elderly families first.

Despite the positive aspects of governmental housing assistance highlighted by Johnson, Ozdinec, and Dr. Howard Frumpkin of the US Department of Health and Human Services, Landrieu remained emphatic in her insistence that FEMA make reforms in its disaster assistance, preparedness, and response methods.