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December 11, 2008
Obey HOLDS HEARING TO DETERMINE RECESSION'S IMPACT WASHINGTON, D.C. - In his capacity as Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Congressman Dave Obey (D-WI) held a hearing today to determine the impact of the recession on state and local government budgets and on individual Americans. Obey is working with Congressional leadership and the incoming administration to put together an economic stabilization and recovery package. "Before it's over, this recession seems destined to become the worst since the early 1980s, if not the 1930s," Obey said in his opening statement. "Even many conservative economists - who normally advise Congress to leave it to the Federal Reserve to respond to a recession - are now advising Congress to shore up the economy with more spending." "The downward momentum appears too strong to end this recession anytime soon. But a well-designed economic recovery program could help slow it," Obey noted. "It's already clear - with a broad bipartisan consensus - that we need a major infrastructure package to help create jobs and, literally, prepare the road for future growth. But we must also take steps to ensure that the most vulnerable in our society don't get left behind as we work our way through what's shaping up to be the worst economic recession of our generation." During the hearing a bipartisan panel of three governors - Jim Doyle (D-WI), Jon Corzine (D-NJ), and Jim Douglas (R-VT) - laid out the impact the recession is having on state budgets and their constituents and a non partisan panel including Julie Murray, the director of one of the nation's largest food banks, Dr. Sandy Baum, a professor of economics and a senior policy analyst at the College Board, and Marsha Kreucher, the CEO of a major Community Action Agency testified on the problems facing individual families across America. # # # * * See Obey's Opening Remarks * * |
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