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Contact: Dan Weber
September 30, 2008
For Immediate Release
(202) 225-8699
 
Congresswoman Edwards Votes for Main Street - Jobs, Retirement Savings, Home Owners, and Small Businesses
Senator Barack Obama Salutes the Congresswoman´s Vote and Pledges Commitment to Provide Direct Relief to Homeowners

Washington D.C. - Congresswoman Donna F. Edwards (D-MD) today voted for the Emergency Economic Recovery Act. She had voted against the package that was defeated earlier in the week. Today´s bill passed the House 263-171.

"Today our country stands at an economic crossroads," said Rep. Edwards. My vote today was all about Main Street –jobs, retirement savings, home owners, and small businesses. While this legislation does not aggressively strengthen foreclosure mitigation efforts more directly for homeowners the ramifications of doing nothing impacts us all.

After speaking with Senator Barack Obama yesterday and with many of our retirees, workers, homeowners and small business owners, I am convinced today that even left with this imperfect product, the choice is this or nothing. For me, doing nothing was never an option. I appreciate the personal commitment that Senator Obama made to me that we will work to provide direct relief to homeowners facing foreclosure by enabling home mortgages to be dealt with in the context of personal bankruptcy and looking at a program such as one that existed in the 1930’s to 1950’s to work directly with homeowners to mitigate foreclosures. I look forward to working with the leadership and the President to protect homeowners and stabilize our economy. Finally, I understand that this is the beginning of our work to stabilize our economy and prepare for our future—creating jobs, rebuilding our infrastructure and setting important priorities for health care, energy independence, and prosperity for working families.

Senator Barack Obama said, Congresswoman Donna Edwards has demonstrated impressive leadership during this time of unparalleled economic uncertainty. Her passion for helping Maryland's working families, small businesses, and communities has been critical to ensuring that Main Street is the focus of this economic recovery strategy. Donna understood that putting aside partisanship to work with Republicans and Democrats was necessary to strengthen and pass this recovery package. I have assured her that our economic recovery policies will be well-managed and that we will work hard to get back taxpayer dollars when the economy recovers. As President, I will work with Donna to make important investments in our nation"s infrastructure and bring desperately-needed jobs to Maryland by passing an economic stimulus package, which is one of my top priorities.

"While it saddens me to know that this isn’t the best bill that we could have developed, I believe it is the first step on the road to economic recovery," continued Rep. Edwards. “Today’s vote is by no means the end of the story. I and my colleagues are committed to taking aggressive action to solve this economic crisis not for Wall Street, but for hard-working, families in my district and across the country."

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