UPDATE: AFL-CIO: Send TARP Funds To Small, Medium Businesses
(Adds comments from Economic Policy Institute president, starting in sixth
graph.)
By Kristina Peterson
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The head of the country's largest trade union pressed
the U.S. Congress on Tuesday to send bailout funds to small and medium-sized
businesses.
Rich Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO trade union, said Congress should
authorize community banks to lend funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program
to small businesses in order to create new jobs.
"Banks aren't lending to small businesses," Trumka said at a press conference
Tuesday. "If small businesses can get credit, they will create jobs."
Trumka also urged the government to extend unemployment benefits and renew
federal assistance for services including Medicare and food stamps. States and
local governments are in dire need of more federal relief as they face gaping
budget deficits, Trumka said.
He proposed creating new jobs by hiring Americans to rebuild aging schools and
improve the transportation infrastructure. This would "employ workers all down
the supply chain," Trumka said, noting that $10 billion in funding for school
repairs was cut from this year's stimulus package.
Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan
Washington think tank, said a second stimulus package should be in the "hundreds
of billions" of dollars. Reducing the budget deficit should come second to
boosting employment, he said.
"There's no way to do this on the cheap," he said. "To create jobs, you have
to spend money."
Community groups underscored the importance of job creation.
The high unemployment rate, which recently reached 10.2% is undermining the
stability of communities, said Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership
Conference on Civil Rights.
"Until we solve the job crisis, we will continue to have high foreclosure
rates," Henderson said. "This is the civil rights issue of our time."
-By Kristina Peterson, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6619; kristina.peterson@
dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
11-17-091037ET
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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