U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE SUPPORTS COLLINS-NELSON AMENDMENT TO STIMULUS PACKAGE

The Chamber of Commerce of the United States today called on U.S. Senators to support the Collins-Nelson amendment to H.R. 1, the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009." Senator Collins worked with Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) to craft the amendment to reduce the total cost of the package to $780 billion-$110 billion less than the bill originally brought up in the Senate.

The Senate is scheduled to vote on the amendment later this afternoon.

A text of the letter follows:

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce urges you to support cloture on the Collins-Nelson amendment to H.R. 1, the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009." The Chamber also renews its call that the Senate approve H.R. 1 without delay so that the House and Senate can expeditiously complete work on a conference report that provides timely, targeted, and temporary economic stimulus.

The Chamber recognizes that the evolving legislation is not perfect, but believes that it is vital that Congress quickly approve legislation to assist the crumbling U.S. economy. The Chamber strongly supports cloture on the Collins-Nelson amendment, which will refine H.R. 1 and, most importantly, allow the legislative process to proceed. Overall, the Chamber supports many of the pro-growth tax initiatives in the bill, as well as spending-side provisions to provide stimulus, create jobs and to get Americans back to work.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the world's largest business federation representing more than three million businesses and organizations of every size, sector, and region, looks forward to working with the Senate, House and the Administration to accomplish meaningful economic stimulus legislation that can be signed into law in the coming days.