American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan

In the next two weeks, the House will consider the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, working from priorities shared with President-elect Barack Obama. 

Job Creation:  The recovery package is the first crucial step in a concerted effort to create and save 3 to 4 million jobs, jumpstart our economy, and transform it for the 21st century. 

Transform our Economy with Science and Technology:  To secure America’s role as a world leader in a competitive global economy, we are renewing America’s investments in basic research and development, in training students for an innovation economy, and in deploying new technologies into the marketplace.  This will help businesses in every community succeed in a global economy.

Unprecedented Accountability:  An historic level of transparency, oversight and accountability will help guarantee taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and ensure that Americans can see the results of their investment.
  
Clean, Efficient, American Energy: To put people back to work today and reduce our dependence on foreign oil tomorrow, we will increase renewable energy production and renovate public buildings to make them more energy efficient. 

Modernize Roads, Bridges, Transit and Waterways:  To build a 21st century economy, we must create jobs rebuilding our crumbling roads, and bridges, modernize public buildings, and put people to work cleaning our air, water and land.

Education for the 21st Century:  We will enable students of all ages to learn in 21st century classrooms, labs, and libraries to help our students compete with any worker in the world.

Tax Cuts to Make Work Pay and Create Jobs:  We will provide direct tax relief to 95 percent of American workers, as President-elect Obama pledged, and spur investment and job growth for American businesses. 

Lower Health Care Costs: To save not only jobs, but money and lives, we will update and computerize our health care system to cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes, and help reduce health care costs by billions of dollars each year.

Help Workers Hurt by the Economy:  High unemployment and rising costs have outpaced Americans’ paychecks.  We will help workers train and find jobs, and help struggling families make ends meet.

Protect Vital Services: We will provide relief to states, so that they can continue to employ teachers, firefighters and police and provide vital services without having to unnecessarily raise middle class taxes.