Lawmakers look at U.P. concerns

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BARK RIVER - Sen. Debbie Stabenow addressed issues ranging from the current financial meltdown to Michigan benefiting from a newly passed farm bill during the Upper Peninsula Association of County Commissioners annual fall conference held in Bark River Friday.

Stabenow also addressed issues dealing with unemployment and the need for job creation in Michigan, and how rural development could play a major role in reducing unemployment in Michigan.

"The current financial crisis is the result of policy failures and inaction taken by the present administration," said Stabenow, who also said she voted against the $700 billion Emergency Economic Stabilization Act.

Stabenow also said it was maddening being that Michigan has been in a state of financial crisis for a long time and not one effort was offered from Washington to "bail out" the state. According to Stabenow, there were 3.8 million manufacturing jobs lost nationwide over the past eight years. The financial crisis all goes back to the loss of jobs due to outsourcing, she said.

"Part of the financial meltdown was the result of the housing crisis, with homes going into foreclosure due in part to unemployment. People who lost their jobs couldn't pay their mortgages," she said. "I would have preferred a targeted approach to the current financial crisis with the focus being on employment and keeping people in their homes."

She said while she was hopeful the Emergency Economic Stabilization package would work, she felt too much money contained in the package was not targeted properly.

Stabenow also spoke on the importance of rural development. An aggressive approach from Michigan concerning rural development will have a positive impact for the state through the production of bio-mass and bio-fuel production, she said.

"In addition to the farm bill, there is more funding being made available for nutrition and food programs, which are more important now than ever," she said.

Stabenow said she was fighting to keep Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) funding in place, saying Michigan was the third largest recipient of CDBG and HUD funding.

"I am also working with others in the Senate to maintain funding for the Burns Grant which is used to provide additional law enforcement," she said. "Every year the president zeroes out the grant funding and every year we in the Senate puts it back. This fiscal year, however, there may not be enough votes in the Senate to pass a bill with funding for the Burns Grant available."

She also spoke of the recently passed Great Lakes Compact, and also how she was working with Sen. Carl Levin and Congressman Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, to maintain the Great Lakes for commercial and tourism, along with preservation of the states 120 lighthouses.