WASHINGTON, D.C. - Montana's Congressman, Denny Rehberg, released the following transcript of a speech he delivered to the House of Representatives on Tuesday.  His remarks address recently released figures on the website recovery.gov which is being roundly criticized for claiming the so-called stimulus created jobs in non-existent Congressional Districts.

When Congress passed the trillion dollar "so called" stimulus, the national unemployment rate was 7.6 percent.  Some politicians warned that without the stimulus unemployment could pass 8 percent.  This month, unemployment blew past 10 percent, and like you, I'm wondering where the jobs are.

In the infinite wisdom of government, $18 million was spent on a website to tracks jobs.  The just-released job figures for Montana are listed by Congressional District.  Montana, of course, has only one district.  Yet, the federal government spent $372 thousand to create one single job in Montana's nonexistent 8th  Congressional  District.  Our imaginary 16th District did better with 32.5 jobs.  Only a bureaucrat would count half a job  in a district that does not exist.

The government spent a trillion dollars to save and create jobs, and the opposite has happened.  Millions more Americans have lost their jobs , and now, they want to fix health care like they fixed the economy.

The site, which Rehberg has previously criticized for its $18 million price tag and biased perspective on stimulus spending listed jobs in several Montana Congressional Districts.  Montana has only one At-Large district.

The $18 million website lists stimulus money spent and jobs created in the following Montana Congressional Districts: 00, 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 12, 14 and 16.  It also identifies money spent in the following districts without creating jobs: 6, 11, 30 and 87.

The Montana section of recovery.gov can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/yzvtmjk (visited 11/17/09).