Lynn C. Woolsey: “As the co-Chairs of the Progressive Caucus, we write to you today to express our great concern about H.R. 1, the…”

“As the co-Chairs of the Progressive Caucus, we write to you today to express our great concern about H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009. And we would like our leadership in conference to pay attention to four major issues. The first one, investing in America's future. Our children. And then we went on to say that in the Senate bill, almost half of the funding cuts come from education. We consider this irresponsible, we consider it shortsighted. Eliminating funding for school construction not only hurts our Nation's children, but it also impedes job growth. What perfect growth for jobs is building schools for our kids that they need, and at the same time, providing jobs that pay a liveable wage. Additionally, the Senate cut funding for Head Start, Head Start and early Head Start, from 2.1 billion to 1.05 billion. And in our letter we said that this chips away at our Nation's future and places an overwhelming burden on families already feeling the strain of a bleak economy and that we requested that our leadership return the funding to the House-passed levels.”