PRESS RELEASE
`Save and Retool Auto' Policy
Passed by National Black Legislators' Group
Dec. 9, 2005 (EIRNS)—The National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL), at its annual confernce in Washington, D.C., adopted a resolution calling for a Congressional intervention to save the auto industry, by credit and retooling for economic infrastructure construction.
State Representative LaMar Lemmons III presented the resolution, which was identical to the one that he filed in the Michigan State Legislature on May 18, 2005. The resolution was presented before the Business and Finance Committee and endorsed by Chairman Juanita Head Walton of Missouri. It was voted on by the body of the NBCSL, and passed unanimously. Half a dozen other state representatives in attendance had also filed similar resolutions in their own states.
The NBCSL represents 600 legislators, and over 2 million people nationwide. Resolution 06-61, the Resolution To Promote and Diversify the Automotive and Machine-Tool Sectors of Our National Economy states, in part:
Whereas Government has an obligation to promote the economy through the creation of new capital investment, which will result in the expansion of employment opportunities and help jump-start long-term capital investment by private investors; We must ensure the continued viability of our automotive and machine-tool industries. The loss of these vital anchors or our economy would be a strategic disaster with incalculable chain-reaction consequences for our nation and the world; and
Whereas one of the key options is Federal capital investment in diversification of the productive potential of the automotive and machine-tools industries into a broader mixture of production. Our nation needs to shift into the domain of essential capital goods and economic infrastructure, such as the repair, expansion, and improvement of our national railway systems; maintenance and improvement of water-management systems; and the development of other urgently needed infrastructure projects. The result of this will be to save existing manufacturing jobs and create large new areas of employment in infrastructure and manufacturing for our citizenry, in a manner comparable to the best of the New Deal programs that rescued the nation and the world from the ravages of the Great Depression;
Now therefore be it resolved by the 29th Annual Legislative Conference of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, assembled in Washington, D.C., December 7-11, 2005, that we urge the Congress of the United States to take every possible action to promote and diversify the automotive and machine-tool sectors of our national economy.
Ratified in Plenary Session, December 9, 2005.
