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Economic Recovery Package on the Side of Michigan Families
(Washington D.C.)- Speaking in favor of the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment package, Rep. Sander Levin made the following statement on the Floor of the U.S. House this morning.
“Families are Fearful for their jobs, their health care, education and the stability of their local community.
For the [Republican] Minority, they say they acknowledge the pain but they have no prescription. Only worn out ideology.
“I will head home and look families straight in the eye and say the Federal Government is on your side providing support during this downturn and making key investments for the future.”
You can view Mr. Levin’s entire floor statement below:
Summary of Some Key Provisions for Workers and Individuals
Provides 95% of working families with tax relief through a Making Work Pay tax credit of up to $400 per individual ($800 for couples). An estimated 3.9 million Michigan families will receive the credit. Provides a payment of $250 to Social Security beneficiaries, SSI recipients, and veterans receiving disability compensation and pension benefits from the VA.
Summary of Some Key Job Creation Provisions
Provides $27.5 billion for modernizing roads and bridges and requires states to obligate at least half of the highway/bridge funding within 120 days.
Provides $6 billion to states and localities for Clean Water infrastructure and safe drinking water.
For Michigan, this results in $847.2 million for roads and highways and 169.8 million in water and sewer infrastructure.
Provides $5 billion to create jobs by improving the energy efficiency of more than one million modest-income homes through weatherization.
For Michigan, this results in 124.7 million in weatherization.
Extending and Improving Unemployment Benefits
Continues through December 2009 the extended unemployment benefits program which will enable 161,870 additional jobless workers in Michigan to qualify for extended benefits.
Temporarily suspends the taxation of some unemployment benefits for individuals.
Increases unemployment benefits for 20 million jobless workers by $25 per week. 1 million individuals will receive this increase and it is estimated to equal $536 million.
Encourages states to modernize their UI systems to keep up with the changing workforce with expanded coverage. The State of Michigan will immediately receive $16 million in Administrative funding, plus $77 million because it already qualifies for one of the modernization standards.
Waives the interest on the money states have borrowed from the federal government for the UI programs. This saves the State of Michigan $40 million.
Provides the full 100% of the extended benefit program to states that qualify and implement this program. The Extended Benefit program is a permanent part of the law (different from the above temporary extension) that allows States to fund additional weeks of unemployment. The permanent law is usually paid for 50/50 federal/state. Michigan entered the EB program during the last week of January 2009 and could provide to unemployed workers who have exhausted all UI benefits an additional 13 weeks of assistance.
Provides Health Insurance for Unemployed Workers for the first time. Currently, laid-off workers, under the COBRA program, can buy into their former employer’s health insurance. But the premiums are often prohibitively expensive. In order to help people maintain their health coverage, the bill provides a 60% subsidy for COBRA premiums for up to 9 months.
Historic Expansion of Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program to cover many more workers over the next two years who lose their jobs because of increased imports or factory shifts and to increase the training funds and improve health care coverage. In Michigan, this expanded TAA program is estimated to cover 6,500 additional workers.
Summary of Key Provisions for Advanced Technologies in Automotive and Manufacturing Sectors
Provides $2 billion in grants to support U.S. development of advanced vehicle batteries and battery systems so that America can lead the world in transforming the way automobiles are powered.
Provides incentives to buy new cars with a tax deduction for State and local sales taxes paid on the purchase.
Provides a tax credit for families that purchase plug-in hybrid vehicles to spur the next generation of American cars with a 200,000 per manufacturer cap that sets us on a path of reaching President Obama’s goal of a million plug-ins by 2015.
Establishes a new manufacturing investment tax credit for investment in advanced energy facilities, such as facilities that manufacture components for the production of renewable energy, advanced battery technology, and other innovative next-generation green technologies.
Summary of Key Stablization and Investment Provisions
Establishes a $53.6 billion State Fiscal Stabilization Fund to help prevent job losses and cutbacks in education and other key services.
For Michigan, this is estimated to result in $1.3 billion for education and 293 million for general stabilization purposes.
Provides $13 billion for Title I education and $12.2 billion for Special Education/IDEA.
For Michigan, this is estimated to result in $2 Billion for our school.
Provides $4 billion for State and local law enforcement efforts.
Provides $1 billion for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program for community and economic development projects.
Importantly for the State of Michigan, the Recovery package also provides Michigan with an additional $2.2 billion over three years in additional federal contributions to the state’s Medicaid program
Importantly for General Motors, the Recovery package also clarifies that they will not suffer a tax liability under Section 382 because of restructuring they are doing under the federal bridge loans.
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To Contact Congressman Levin: - Email Congressman Levin In Michigan: 27085 Gratiot Ave, Roseville, MI 48066 | (586) 498-7122 | (248) 968-2025 In Washington: 1236 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515 | (202) 225-4961
