Soaring Unemployment in Rhode Island Calls for a New Stimulus Bill to Create Jobs (Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse)
Rhode Island’s unemployment rate in September was 8.8 percent, the highest in the nation. People are suffering, and we understand that Congress must act to stimulate the sagging economy. I believe that the best way to energize the economy is to create jobs, with a particular emphasis on transportation and water infrastructure projects. For example, the Federal Highway Administration has estimated that every $1 billion of federal spending on infrastructure creates 35,000 new jobs, and according to a survey of state agencies, construction on up to $18 billion of transportation projects is ‘ready to go.’ Funding these projects could create 630,000 jobs nationwide.
New stimulus legislation would also provide an opportunity to promote ‘green’ rehabilitation for schools with maintenance or structural needs, as well as increase funding for the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) to help families weather-proof their homes for winter.
Transportation and water projects for big contractors, school improvement projects for medium-sized contractors, and weatherization for small local contractors can provide a blanket of valuable employment across the nation at a critical time.
I hope that any new economic stimulus plan will contain provisions to fund these projects and put people back to work.
By R.I. Dem. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse
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