Pelavin: "Investments in the package should be judged on whether they create jobs, provide relief to our most struggling communities and begin the effort for a cleaner, more innovative American economy."
Contact: Kate Bigam or Micaela Hellman-Tincher
202.387.2800 | news@rac.org
WASHINGTON, D.C., February 10, 2009 - In response to the Senates passage of an economic recovery package and as Senators and Representatives begin to work for a final bill, Mark Pelavin, Associate Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, issued the following statement:
As our members of Congress confer on the final recovery package, we urge them to take note of the urgent needs in communities around them and work to quickly pass a robust recovery package that makes the smart, just and effective investments needed to put our economy back on track. Investments in the package should be judged on whether they create jobs, provide relief to our most struggling communities and begin the effort for a cleaner, more innovative American economy.
Time and time again we have learned that by investing in our most vulnerable communities we can create jobs, revitalize blighted neighborhoods, provide basic needs to families and begin paving the way for Americas clean energy future. The inadequate funding of weatherization provisions, nutrition programs and school refurbishments in the Senates bill undermines the recovery packages ability to truly stimulate and reinvigorate our communities. We urgently call on Congress to pass a final recovery package that expands nutrition programs, increases access to health care, invests in decent shelter for all, stops states from cutting services and jobs, weatherizes our homes and schools, and begins investing in a renewable energy infrastructure_ providing jobs across many sectors and especially in our most low-income communities.