On the recordJanuary 25, 2011
from the Recovery Act to the Small Business Jobs Act, in the previous Congress we passed a number of substantial pieces of legislation to preserve, protect, and create American jobs. The Recovery Act alone has supported between 2.7 and 3.7 million jobs, including 12,000 jobs in my home State of Rhode Island. This was vital in stemming the 700,000-per-month job loss rate we faced when the previous administration left office. Without the Recovery Act and the other fiscal stimulus we passed over the past 2 years, the economy would have been much worse. While the Recovery Act protected our country from what would have been a far worse economic meltdown, the employment market is still weak and families are still hurting. Our national unemployment rate was 9.4 percent in December--an unacceptably high level. And it was higher still in harder hit States such as Rhode Island, where we have had an 11.5-percent unemployment rate in December. As we begin this new Congress, our No. 1 priority must remain job retention and creation.
