Lucas Sends Letter to Pelosi, Boehner Requesting Unnecessary Spending in Stimulus Be Removed

Today, I joined my fellow Financial Services Committee members in a letter to Speaker Pelosi and Leader Boehner to request that some of the unnecessary and duplicative spending programs relating to housing be removed from the economic stimulus package.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), also known as the economic stimulus package, provides an additional $15 billion to existing housing programs while many of these programs already have large amounts of unspent money from previous appropriation packages.  Some of this money would go to ACORN, an organization that has a proven track record of voter tampering and other dishonest activities. 

An economic stimulus package should do exactly what its name says- stimulate the economy.  And an overwhelming majority of Americans agree that this most recent stimulus package should work quickly.  However, there are many provisions in the recent stimulus package that would only increase our already burgeoning deficit while doing very little to stimulate the economy, especially in the short-term.  I hope that Speaker Pelosi will keep these thoughts in mind while putting together the final draft of this package.