Background on Economic Stimulus Package:

America is entering what could turn into the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression. Working families are struggling to make it from paycheck to paycheck, layoffs are mounting each month, and millions more are in danger of losing their homes. Americans deserve not just an economic stimulus package, but also a thoughtful economic strategy to jumpstart our economy.

Congress is expected to take swift action on an economic stimulus package estimated at more than 800 billion when they return in the New Year. We anticipate that the House Appropriations and Ways and Means Committees will release this package sometime in the first week of January 2009.

Given the severity of our recession, we expect this will be the first package, and perhaps the most critical, in a series of stimulus packages to resuscitate our economy. Reports indicate that the new economic stimulus package will take a comprehensive approach to addressing the root causes of our economic crisis to bring much needed relief to working families as well as state economies.

We believe that the following priorities are paramount to America's economic recovery, and should be included in the proposed stimulus plan:

- Increased funding to state Medicaid programs to stabilize state budgets, maintain the essential services of our healthcare system, and keep healthcare workers on the job caring for their patients, residents, and consumers.

- Targeted block grant investments to support existing childcare and pre- K educational programs that millions of working parents and families depend upon.

- An immediate investment that will generate 21st century jobs in healthcare. This would mean bringing healthcare IT to communities at high risk for chronic disease, and investing in education and training for jobs that would provide healthcare services to a growing aging population, and help to prevent and address urban and rural healthcare disparities.