Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. As the gentleman knows, our number one priority has been and continues to be the progress on the creation of jobs. Last month's report was a positive report. We gained 162,000 jobs, and the economy is showing signs of very substantial improvement as a result of the Recovery Act and of other actions that we've taken to get Americans back to work. So that will continue to be our focus. Having said that, we also have passed already the HIRE Act, which we think will have a very substantial, positive effect, which includes payroll tax forgiveness for the hiring of new employees who have been unemployed for some period of time. If they are kept on for 52 weeks, there will be a $1,000 additional payment, which we hope will encourage employers to hire new people. Additionally in that bill, we gave an extension of the Highway Trust Fund to allow for continued and increased investment in infrastructure and the Build America Bonds legislation, as well as giving a boost to small business growth in terms of expensing. In addition, the House passed the Small Business and Infrastructure Jobs Act, which is pending in the Senate. We hope that it is coming back to us this work period. We would like to build on our record of job-creating legislation with additional relief to small businesses.”