Press Release
For Immediate Release
10/03/08

Contact: Ricci Graham
(510) 763-0370

Washington D.C. – Congresswoman Lee (CA-09), who voted against the financial bailout package on Monday, delivered the following statement on the House floor during consideration of the revised Senate package today.

“Thank you for the time and for your leadership.

“Madame Speaker, I think we need to be honest about the bill before us. “We should start by calling it what it is: a bailout.

“We should be honest about how we got here: this administration’s reckless deregulation policies and greed.

“We should be honest about the fact that we don’t know whether or not this bill will work.

“And we must be honest about the fact that we can’t afford to risk the potential consequences of inaction. Based on what I know today.

“I spoke with our CA State Treasurer this week and he assured me that people will suffer greater pain, including cuts to critical state funded social services, county services and schools if we don’t do something to stop the hemorrhaging.

“That is why I will support this bill today.

“As a former small business owner, I understand that access to credit will make or break your business and without it people will lose jobs.

“We will not magically turn the economy around, reverse the rise in unemployment or end the recession.

“We must be honest about that.

“But I must err on the side of caution so our seniors can have some confidence that their pensions are safe. And I hope that we will help prevent this financial crisis from exacting an even bigger toll on the everyday lives of our constituents.

“I am going to continue to keep fighting for meaningful foreclosure relief and the type of direct economic stimulus that we fought to include in this bill and that people need during these very difficult times. We must have bankruptcy reform.

“And I have to say that I’m glad our fight helped slow this bill down. Because the bill before us today is a better bill. And thanks to our Speaker’s leadership, we have a bill to extend Unemployment Insurance on the floor today. That is the least we can do to help those in need and I urge the Senate to take it up immediately.

“As Senator Obama said, “There will be time to punish those who set this fire, but now is the moment for us to come together and put the fire out.”

“I join him in that effort and will vote for this flawed, but necessary legislation to address this pressing financial crisis.

“It’s a very difficult vote, but I must do everything that I can to stop this bleeding in the lives of people living from pay check-to-paycheck, that is if they have a paycheck.

“I’m really confident that this is the right vote, but I know that it’s not the popular vote.”

# # #

Lee says it is better to err on the side of caution to prevent this financial crisis from exacting an even bigger toll on the lives of her constituents