Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker, at a recent hearing of the Joint Economic Committee, the Director of the Congressional Budget Office, Douglas Elmendorf, testified that CBO's latest assessment of the Recovery Act found that it had increased our real GDP by as much as 3.5 percentage points, increased the number of people employed by between 1 million and 2.1 million people, and lowered the unemployment rate by as much as 1.1 percent. In short, the stimulus spending bill worked, but we need to do more to grow jobs now.
He also testified that one of the most powerful generators of job growth would be an employer tax credit for businesses that increased their payrolls similar to one I proposed in H.R. 4585 and to one Congress intends to send to the President. These historically difficult times and this growing, but fragile, economy cry out for us to take action, help create more private sector jobs, and get our economy working again for everyone.