110 HRES 977 IH: Expressing the sense of the House of U.S. House of Representatives 2008-02-12 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

110th CONGRESS 2d Session

H. RES. 977

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

February 12, 2008

Mr. Braley of Iowa (for himself, Mr. Sarbanes, Mr. Abercrombie, Ms. Sutton, Mr. Welch of Vermont, Mr. Boswell, Mrs. Boyda of Kansas, Mr. Altmire, Mr. Kagen, Mr. Walz of Minnesota, Ms. Kaptur, Mr. Arcuri, Mr. Hare, Mr. Loebsack, Mr. Wilson of Ohio, Mr. Obey, Mr. Michaud, Mr. DeFazio, Mr. Shuler, Mr. Klein of Florida, and Mr. Manzullo) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that rebate checks would better stimulate the economy if spent on American-made products and services from American-owned companies.

Whereas many economists believe the economy of the United States is entering a recession; Whereas the economy lost 17,000 jobs in January 2008 and 191,000 in 2007; Whereas the manufacturing sector lost 269,000 jobs over the past 12 months and 28,000 jobs in January 2008 alone; Whereas manufacturing employment now accounts for less than 10 percent of the job market for the first time since data began being collected in the 1930s; Whereas in January 2008, 18.3 percent of those unemployed had been out of work for 27 weeks or longer, up from 16.2 percent a year earlier; Whereas manufactured goods imported from developing countries have grown from just 2.5 percent of the gross domestic product in 1990 to 6 percent in 2006; Whereas annually, total housing starts decreased in 2007 to 1,353,700, which is a 24.8 percent decrease from the 2006 estimate of 1,800,900; Whereas Congress and the President responded to the potential recession by passing into law a bipartisan stimulus package that provides rebate checks of up to $600 per individual and $1,200 per married couple, plus an additional $300 per child; Whereas the stimulus legislation will put money back into the hands of low-income and middle-income Americans, those who need it most; Whereas the stimulus legislation will be most effective if the rebate checks are spent on American-made goods and services from American-owned companies; Whereas American-made goods are the best in the world; Whereas every dollar from the stimulus package spent on an American-made good or service, rather than a foreign-made good or service, will result in more than a dollar increase in the short-term gross domestic product; Whereas if rebate checks are spent on American-made products and services from American-owned companies, an additional $10,000,000,000 will be infused into the economy; Whereas the annual trade deficit has grown to the $700,000,000,000 range in the past decade, up from the $100,000,000,000 range in the early 1990s; Whereas buying American-made goods would not add to the size of the growing trade deficit, which many economists contend is unreasonably large; Whereas there have been concerns about the safety of imported goods, spurred by the fact that 60 percent of product recalls in the past year involved Chinese-made toys, food ingredients, and other products; and Whereas many countries do not follow the same environmental, labor, and human rights standards of the United States, putting American workers and companies at a competitive disadvantage: Now, therefore, be it

That the House of Representatives encourages Americans to use their rebate checks from the stimulus package to purchase American-made goods and services from American-owned companies.