Dear Friends,
Greetings! It’s been a very productive and busy week. I had the pleasure of flying to Savannah this week on Air Force One with President Obama to see firsthand the benefits the Recovery Act in Georgia. Let history judge us not by the ups and downs of the partisan fray, but by the long-term effects of our policies. The Recovery Act has stabilized a crisis and laid the foundations for growth. I am proud to be President Obama’s partner in this historic effort to revitalize the economy.
INVESTMENT IN THE FOURTH – While more than $200 million in American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds have been invested in the Fourth District, much work remains. There are encouraging signs that we’re making progress – manufacturing grew for the 7th straight month, growth in the service sector accelerated to its fastest rate in more than two years and consumer spending rose a half percent and is up for a fourth straight month.
Here at home, it’s reflected in the fact that stimulus funds are being used so DeKalb Technical College can train and employ more than 220 first responders and Goodwill Industries can train more than 200 residents for green jobs. It shows up in the hundreds of jobs created by the Recovery Act for road, bridge and intersection improvement projects throughout the district and the fact that the ARRA is also putting more than 5,000 Georgians back to work through the Georgia Department of Human Services (DHS). Employers can receive an 80 percent wage subsidy for hiring workers under the program using funds from Recovery Act. Click here for more information about job openings.
HEALTH CARE REFORM AND SENIORS – I was pleased this week to sign a letter urging House leadership to protect Medicare in a stand-alone bill. Last week, the House took an important step in reforming the health insurance industry by removing the industry’s longstanding anti-trust exemption. Our letter urges Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer to follow that effort by passing the following provisions in H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act:
● Closing the Medicare Part D Donut Hole
● Drug Price Negotiation
● No-Cost Preventative Care
These provisions will strengthen and protect Medicare for our nation’s seniors, and will provide them with real financial relief during these difficult economic times. Regardless of our efforts to pass comprehensive health care reform, we should come together in a bipartisan way and pass these provisions to ensure that seniors get the relief they deserve.
PRESIDENT OBAMA’S WAY FORWARD ON HEALTH CARE – President Obama’s proposal includes the best ideas from across the political spectrum. Now it is time for Congress to unite and pass reform once and for all. This is about lowering premiums, reducing the deficit and covering the uninsured. By expanding coverage and providing subsidies for low-and-middle income Americans, we will make our system fairer and spread risk so the poor and sick get the care they need. By rewarding care that makes Americans healthier, not care that maximizes profits, we will control premium costs.
JOBS FOR TEENS – Recovery funds are also being used by Georgia DHS to employ youth aged 14-18 for summer jobs that pay $8.50 an hour. The program, Georgia TeenWork, not only help teach our kids valuable job skills, but help jump-start the state economy as well. For more, click here or call 1-888-884-4712. Also, I signed a letter this week urging more funding for Jobs Corps, which for 45 years has employed nearly 3 million of the nation’s most vulnerable youth who have turned to Job Corps to secure the job skills they need to start a bright career.
SAVING OUR HOMES, NEIGHBORHOODS – The R.O.C. (Revitalization of Communities) initiative is offering free seminars March 8-11 to individuals and families interested in becoming a homeowner through the Rockdale County Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP). For more details regarding the seminars, click here. You can also contact Rockdale County NSP Coordinator Tanesha Lanier by phone at 770-278-7141 through e-mail. The seminars are free and open to the public and do not require pre-registration. And please don’t forget a similar effort in DeKalb on March 27 and April 17 at the Porter Sanford Center. To register for these seminars, click here.
RACE TO THE TOP – The President has launched the 2010 Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge that invites the nation’s public schools to compete for the opportunity to welcome President Obama as their 2010 commencement speaker. The challenge is designed to recognize high schools with effective strategies for reducing the number of dropouts, promoting college and career readiness and encouraging college enrollment in support of meeting the President’s goal of producing the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020. For more details, click here. Good luck!
GEORGIA PUBLIC BROADCASTING AWARD – I was pleased to see that Georgia Public Broadcasting was recognized by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for its innovative Project ExPreSS (Exam Preparation for Science and Social Studies), which brings together the Georgia Department of Education and Georgia Public Broadcasting to assist high school students with their summer remediation classes. Congratulations to GPB, which has demonstrated a great dedication to meeting the educational needs of its local community.
