Spratt's Opening Statement at Hearing on the Recovery Act

Seven months ago, when President Obama took office, the country was in a fiscal tailspin and on the brink of a financial meltdown: a financial crisis had frozen credit, homes were foreclosing at record levels, the economy was losing an average of 700,000 jobs per month, and the stock market had lost nearly $10 trillion in wealth and was heading further downward. Congress and the Obama Administration took quick action to address the crisis. In February, we enacted the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to create and save jobs through short-term investments that have both immediate and long-term economic impacts.

That action has gradually begun to bear fruit, although we still have a long way to go before we return to where we want to be. It took years for the problem to build, and it will take time to recover fully. But we are no longer dealing with as severe a financial and economic crisis as we faced at the beginning of the year. While the country has lost 6.5 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007 by far the worst postwar downturn in employment we have now slowed the rate of job loss. The housing market is picking up again. Retail sales are turning up, and the forecast is for the economy to grow in the third quarter.

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