Beyond the Stimulus: Shoring up the Safety Net, Securing the American Dream: center for Law and social policy.

The Center for Law and Social Policy recently published Beyond the Stimulus: Shoring up the Safety Net, Securing the American Dream, a set of policy recommendations that would ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to share in the benefits of an economic recovery. CLASP recommends that the recovery package extend and expand unemployment insurance, provide state fiscal relief, increase energy assistance, boost food stamp benefits, restore child support enforcement funds, and expand the availability of cash assistance and child care subsidies. Such measures are necessary to help families who have lost jobs meet basic household needs, according to CLASP.

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President Obama's recovery proposal would invest billions to improve roads and rails, modernize schools, child care centers, and other public buildings, and develop "green" energy sources, according to CLASP. The recovery legislation should ensure that low-income and disadvantaged workers--whose unemployment rate is generally 50 percent higher than average--have access to these jobs, including a set aside for job training activities.

Center for Law and Social Policy