HJR 272

HJR272 192382-1 By Representatives Jackson and Chestnut RFD: Rules First Read: 01-MAR-18 192382-1:n:02/28/2018:KMS/bm LSA2018-1127 URGING CONGRESS TO ADOPT AN AMERICAN ECONOMIC RECOVERY PROGRAM. WHEREAS, the financial system in the United States is now holding over $275 trillion of contract derivatives on the books of the federally insured banks, according to the Comptroller of the Currency, and these derivatives now threaten a new financial disintegration like that of 2008; and WHEREAS, the collapse of prices of the commodities markets by 10-70 percent per commodity over the past year from oil to copper to coffee, as measured in the Dow Jones and Bloomberg Commodity Indices; (the price of oil alone has fallen 70 percent) may trigger a new crisis in the financial markets and the economy, just as the subprime mortgages triggered the 2008 debacle; and WHEREAS, a return to a durable economic recovery will require the adoption of national credit and national banking policies as done by Alexander Hamilton, John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy; this program of federal credit to industry, states, and cities built the industry and agriculture of our nation; and WHEREAS, national credit, under this constitutional program, can be made available for the creation of productive jobs in infrastructure, manufacturing, and high technology projects, thus creating mass employment for our now heavily unemployed and underemployed workforce, especially young people; now therefore, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA BOTH HOUSES THEREOF CONCURRING, That we hereby urge the United States Congress to immediately adopt an "American Recovery" program as follows: (1) Restore the provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act, and pass appropriate legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives and in the U.S. Senate, which aim to immediately restore the separation of investment and commercial banking, as was initiated by Alabama Congressman Henry Steagall in 1933. Glass-Steagall was law for 66 years and prevented banking crises like the one experienced in 2008, and opened the door for bank credit into the productive economy. (2) Return to a national banking and a federal credit system, modeled on the principles of Alexander Hamilton's First Bank of the United States which built all the infrastructure of the nation for the first 40 years; it was reinstituted as the Abraham Lincoln Greenback policy that built everything from railroads to steel mills, including the steel industry of Birmingham; Franklin Roosevelt's Reconstruction Finance Corporation, that financed gigantic New Deal infrastructure programs like the Tennessee Valley Authority here in Alabama and the WWII mobilization program that built nation-saving industries the industry that saved the nation; and the John Kennedy Space Program that landed a man on the moon and built the Marshall Space Flight Center among other great accomplishments. (3) Use the federal credit system to build a modern network of high speed rail, power generating systems, including nuclear power, water projects, such as those urgently needed in the Southwest, and other critical transportation, energy, and infrastructure programs. (4) Launch an immediate rebuild of our space program to explore the solar system and inspire future generations; and a program to develop nuclear fusion, to finally solve the energy needs of the nation and the planet. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be provided to each member of the Alabama Congressional Delegation and to the President of the United States.