As of today, Moving Up USA will be suspended as I have taken a new job for the U.S. House of Representatives. I have really enjoyed this opportunity and want to thank all of you who read and comment on this blog. Keep up the good fight.

President Obama was on this Hill this morning lobbying members of Congress on the stimulus bill. The House is voting on its version today and members expect to have legislation on the President’s desk by February 13. For the next couple days we are going to highlight some of the items that may be contained in the package. First up: education.

The House bill would include $150 billion of new federal spending for education — doubling the Dept. of Educations current budget. According to the New York Times:

The proposed emergency expenditures on nearly every realm of education, including school renovation, special education, Head Start and grants to needy college students, would amount to the largest increase in federal aid since Washington began to spend significantly on education after World War II.

Other proposals include:

• $79 billion to states to help them maintain services and avoid cuts to schools and pre-k programs
• $20 billion for school renovations
• $6 billion more for Pell Grants, increasing the budget for the aid program to $27 billion from $19 billion.

Critics of the bill are concerned about wasteful spending, but if the alternative is collapsing schools and a mass lay off of teachers, then we cannot let our education system crumble with the economy.

Happy new year. Now that the holidays are over, Moving Up USA is back in full swing with regular postings. It looks like 2009 should be a busy year for those of us who are interested in social mobility. This month we will swear in a new president who has vowed to create jobs, improve education, and take a new look at work-family balance. In fact, president-elect Obama is currently meeting with members of Congress, to promote his economic recovery package. (More on that later this week)

Today, however, let’s focus on some good news from Vermont. As of January 1, the Green Mountain State will no longer give “food stamps” but instead will enroll families in the “3Squares VT” program - think three square meals a day. This is much more than a name change. The new program will:

• Raise the eligibility ceiling from 130 percent of the federal poverty level to 185 percent of the federal poverty level, making more families and individuals able to qualify for the benefit;
• Remove the asset test so that families are no no longer discouraged from saving for college and retirement; and will
• Automatically enroll those who qualify for 3Squares VT in other programs such as free school and day care meals, and discount phone services.

Often people do not participate in food stamps because of the stigma it creates. According to Renee Richardson, director of the new program, raising the income limit will increase eligibility and reduce this stigma:

“That’s still lower income, but when you take away the onus of being the poorest of the poor, people realize, ‘This is for me!’”

Not only will this help more Vermont families in this economic crisis, but Vermont leaders believe that the new program can stimulate the state’s economy. 3Squares VT — and other state food stamp programs — are paid for completely with federal dollars. The governor’s office estimates that the expansion will bring an extra $12 million per year in food assistance and could infuse up to $22 million into the states economy.

Congressional leaders and President-elect Obama have said they want to include up to $200 billion in the Economic Recovery Package to assist revenue-strapped states. As states decide what to do with this money, they should consider follwoing Vermont’s lead.

Many folks here in DC are still basking in the afterglow of Obama’s big victory. Now granted this is a city that went 93 percent for Obama, so the warm fuzzies probably aren’t as strong everywhere. However, even in the most conservative parts of our country, Obama’s campaign resonated with many people who had a longing for something more.

How does a President Obama keep this momentum going now that the campaign is over? It’s hard to imagine that he can move people to tears about tax policy or trade negotiations, but he has an unprecedented amount of energy behind him that could be tapped to bring change beyond one election.

The reality is that an Obama administration can’t fulfill all of his campaign promises. President elect Obama began tempering expectations during his speech on Tuesday night:

The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.

He will inherit an unthinkable slate of problems: the biggest deficit in history, two wars, energy crisis, and a financial meltdown, just to name a few. With this tight financial squeeze, there is only so much the federal government can do to help struggling families. We can’t expect new programs, or even full funding for existing social service programs.

But Obama has an asset that few — if any — elected officials have ever had: an energized group of supporters who are more connected and better organized than ever before. The next administration would be wise to keep us energized and ask us to sacrifice as much for our communities as we did for his campaign. We as a country may never agree on marginal tax rates or when life begins, however, we all can agree that we need to help our neighbors and better our communities. The federal government can’t solve all of our problems, but we as a collective body can. President elect Obama, please call us to do more.

I can’t think of anything more fitting for the “What Works Wednesday” series on this day after the election. Yesterday, 136.6 million people came together in one common act: to peacefully cast their ballots for the next president of the United States. More than 64 percent of registered voters participated - the highest turnout rate since 1908. Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne said it best:

Above all, it is time to celebrate the country’s wholehearted embrace of democracy, reflected in the intense engagement of Americans in this campaign and the outpouring to the polls all over the nation. For years, we have spoken of bringing free elections to the rest of the world even as we cynically mocked our own ways of conducting politics. Yesterday, we chose to practice what we have been preaching.

There were numerous reasons why people voted yesterday and we didn’t all pick the same candidate. Many people woke up this morning excited, some disappointed, but we all agree on what happens next: in January President George W. Bush will hand over power to the new President Barack Obama. There will still be some wounds that need to be healed, but the transfer of power will happen peacefully and gracefully.

Last night John McCain urged his supporters to:

join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited.

Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans. And please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that.

And Barack Obama reached out to those who didn’t support him:

And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too.

Now we as a nation collectively move forward. Let’s get to work.

I just watched the House pass the historic bailout bill and was struck by the stark change in tone of the floor speeches, compared to Monday’s rhetoric. There was less talk of Wall Street fat cats, and more talk about regular Americans suffering from the credit crisis.  Majority Leader Steny Hoyer made a particularly compelling case for the bill part of which was echoed in his Op/Ed in today’s Wall Street Journal:

Few of us, if any, are happy with every change. But Rep. Frank put it well: “If we aren’t prepared to accept some of the things we don’t like, we will not have the power to deliver for the people we care about.”

For me, those people are families unable to take out a loan to buy an appliance or pay for college; Americans who have worked their whole lives, only to see their retirement accounts threatened; and millions of workers fearing a pink slip they did nothing to earn.

In the long run, the only way to prevent a crisis like this from recurring is to look to the crisis’s roots. Because a failure of responsible regulation got us into this mess, we will work to restore sensible and effective oversight to our financial markets. And because record foreign borrowing and massive debt has shaken the world’s confidence in our financial system, we will put America back on the path of financial responsibility.

The connection between the failures of Wall Street and the pocket books of regular Americans were cited numerously by the media this week: limited access to student loans, the steepest job loss in five years, and the largest decrease in factory orders in two years…just to name a few.

The fact of the matter is, this bill wasn’t perfect, and alone it will not completely fix the economy. But the American people are facing real economic problems and needed action from Congress. As Hoyer noted in his floor speech and op/ed:

One senator spoke last weekend about a car dealer in small-town Utah who called his office to say, “I’m not going to be able to pay my employees next week. I can’t get the kind of credit line from the bank that I’ve had through my entire career unless you do something.”

The House should be applauded for its turnaround. Let’s hope this is just the first of new legislation that helps this man from Utah and the thousands of Americans in the same situation.