On the recordMarch 9, 2010
I know you and I and others in this Chamber are focused like a laser beam on getting this economy turned around. Although we see some promising signs--for example, in my State of California it turns out that last month 32,000 new jobs were created--we still are not moving quickly enough on the jobs front. That is why I am particularly pleased that Leader Reid is focused on jobs, jobs, jobs, and we are going to finish, hopefully, the bill that is before us which is very critical to jobs. Then we are going to move on to the FAA reauthorization--the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization--which is going to create 160,000 new jobs as we modernize our Nation's airports. After that, we are going to stop for a brief moment and take up the HIRE Act that we passed over here, and it has been passed in the House with a couple of pay-go changes. That will extend the highway trust fund until the end of this year and will save 1 million jobs. Mr. President, we can't play politics with the highway trust fund. The Nation needs us to build our highways, our bridges, and our roads. So we are doing the right thing. There is one piece of unfinished business that is directly related to our economy. There is no question that health care is directly related to our economy, and we need to fix a health care system that is broken.
