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Loss of stimulus funding will cost jobs

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour speaks at the National Rifle Association's Leadership Forum in Charlotte, North Carolina on May 14, 2010. UPI/Nell Redmond .
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour speaks at the National Rifle Association's Leadership Forum in Charlotte, North Carolina on May 14, 2010. UPI/Nell Redmond . | License Photo

WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 (UPI) -- Unless Congress extends a $1 billion New Deal-style stimulus program next week, tens of thousands of people will be out of work again, officials said.

The program is part of the Obama administration's $787 billion stimulus act, and will expire next week unless Congress decides to keep it alive, the New York Times reported.

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The program has employed people across the United States, and has paid rent and kept food on the table in communities like Perry County, Tenn., where it helped pay for about 400 new jobs. It reduced the county's unemployment rate from 25 percent to 14 percent, the report said.

"It's very scary, because there's just no work," said Brian Davis, a 36-year-old father of four, who got a stimulus-subsidized job with the city of Lobelville. He lost his job of 17 years at an auto parts plant.

Extending the stimulus funding has drawn hostility from Republicans on Capitol Hill, but some Republican governors said it has benefited their states, the newspaper said.

Haley Barbour, the Republican governor of Mississippi, said the funding allowed private companies there to hire almost 3,200 workers.

An analysis by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal policy institute in Washington, said about 130,000 adults were able to get jobs because of the stimulus program.

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