Jackson Free Press

In an email released today, North Mississippi Congressman Travis Childers pledged to bring his district "its fair share of stimulus funds":

As many of you have heard, while the 111th Congress gets underway, the House
of Representatives, along with the new administration, will begin crafting
economic stimulus legislation to assist communities throughout the United
States in confronting today's difficult economic climate.

In the past six months, the State of Mississippi has lost almost 30,000 jobs
and has reached an unemployment rate of 7.2%. Of all the state's counties,
those in North Mississippi are facing the highest unemployment.

As factories close and corporations leave our district, our communities have
been forced to shift their focus from creating jobs to holding onto the jobs
North Mississippi already has. However, concentrating only on maintaining
the jobs we still have does little to help the thousands of hard working
Mississippians who are currently out of work.

The goal of the upcoming stimulus legislation will be to jumpstart the
nation's economy and put as many people to work as quickly as possible while
upgrading the nation's critical infrastructure and injecting much-needed
money into local economies.

Last month, I held a "Road to Recovery" Economic Stimulus Forum to brief our
local leaders and project coordinators on potential funding for North
Mississippi projects through the economic stimulus package.

I have also joined a bipartisan group of my colleagues in sending a letter
urging leadership to support provisions in the stimulus package that ensure
rural communities receive their fair share of federal funds. As the majority
of First District counties are rural, these provisions will help guarantee
that North Mississippi's needs are not overlooked.

The First District has countless projects that are, or are on their way to
being, shovel ready, and are capable of immediately creating jobs right here
in North Mississippi. It is important that North Mississippi gets its fair
share of stimulus funds, and I will keep working hard to ensure that this
happens as the package continues to take shape.