Washington, DC – The following is the statement of U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management Subcommittee Ranking Member, from today’s hearing on tracking stimulus funds of agencies and programs under the Subcommittee’s jurisdiction.
“In February, Congress enacted a bill that the Administration touted as necessary to create jobs and stimulate the economy. At that time, the Administration asserted that spending $787 billion of taxpayer funds would create an estimated 3 to 4 million jobs. Doing simple math, that works out to be nearly $200,000 per job created or saved.
“Since the Recovery Act passed in February, the national unemployment rate has increased to 9.8%. According to the Recovery.gov website, just over 30,000 jobs have been created or saved with $173 billion paid out, making the cost per job to be over $5.7 million. We must do better.
“As I have mentioned in previous hearings, the priority under this spending bill should be creating jobs. However, I have continually raised concerns that other issues have trumped the priority of job creation.
“For example, out of the $5.5 billion for GSA’s Federal Buildings Fund, not less then $4.5 billion was designated for converting Federal buildings to High-Performance Green Buildings. While energy efficiency and conservation is an important issue, creating jobs should be the primary concern.
“I understand that the Economic Development Administration has obligated all of its funds. We know EDA has a track record of leveraging taxpayer dollars to create jobs and spur investment by the private sector. For example, EDA investments in fiscal year 2007 created or retained American jobs at an average cost of $4,000 per job and EDA leveraged over $26 in private sector capital investment for every taxpayer dollar invested. That is an example of the type of return on investment we should insist upon from this enormous amount of spending.
“I hope as we move forward on these Recovery Act projects that we can see significantly more jobs created and a good return on investment for the American taxpayer.”
Watch Rep. Diaz-Balart’s statement on YouTube.
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