[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 23344]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            ARRA IS WORKING

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, this week in Congress will be ending, and I 
have some interesting experiences to relate.
  In Transportation Committee today, we had a hearing, and one of our 
former Members is now the Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, a 
Republican member from Illinois. Secretary LaHood reported to the 
committee that the ARRA is working, that much of the money has been 
spent or utilized in plans by State governments and that lots of 
employment has been made on building of roads and bridges and airport 
improvements and on rail programs around the country, that people are 
going back to work.
  I also have an opportunity on Tuesday to attend the National 
Institutes of Health for a briefing, which I plan to do with other 
colleagues. President Obama announced that $5 billion has been spent on 
cancer research through NIH. I offered an amendment to the ARRA in the 
House for a $10 billion improvement. That didn't make it through the 
House, but a similar proposal made it through the Senate. It will be 
interesting to see where those moneys are creating jobs and finding 
cures for cancer and other catastrophic illnesses like Parkinson's, 
diabetes, and Alzheimer's.
  The ARRA is working.

                          ____________________