Biden Touts Recovery Act Impact

Washington, Sept. 8 – Surveying the state of the economy 200 days after the enactment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Vice President Joe Biden told an audience of economists and journalists the law has “played a significant role in changing the trajectory of the economy,” and averted a downturn that he believed could have rivaled the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Speaking at an event hosted by the Brookings Institute, a liberal think tank in Washington, D.C., Biden described the progress the federal government has made to date in distributing the Recovery Act’s $787 billion in grants, loans and tax credits. Soon after passage of the law, President Obama charged the vice president with personally overseeing that process and ensuring a high degree of financial accountability and transparency.