Frank Pallone: “during the Thanksgiving recess or break, I had a longer period of time to talk to my constituents about many issues that…”

“during the Thanksgiving recess or break, I had a longer period of time to talk to my constituents about many issues that they are concerned about, and I was particularly concerned about the state of the economy, and about so many people now that continue to lose jobs who have been displaced because of the events on September 11, in particular. I have to say, Mr. Speaker, that my district, being so close to New York and to the World Trade Center, we did have many people, maybe almost 200 people in the two counties that I represent, who died in the World Trade Center tragedy. So people are still concerned about terrorism. A lot of attention is focused on the war on terrorism overseas, certainly, as well as security issues here at home. But I also noticed that although people still focus primarily on those security issues, that many of them are suffering. The economy is not what it used to be. Of course, this past Monday we had the official economic experts who proclaimed that we do in fact officially have a recession; that the recession in fact began last March and was accelerated by the tragic events on September 11. So I come here tonight urging my colleagues to pass an economic stimulus package.”