Washington - Congressman Tim Bishop applauded the President for signing the bipartisan Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act into law. The HIRE Act will create hundreds of thousands of new small business and construction jobs this year, spur private sector hiring, and help rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. It is part of the larger Congressional agenda to create jobs and strengthen our economy.

"My number one priority is creating jobs on Long Island," said Bishop. "We need to get as many Long Islanders back to work as quickly as possible. This new legislation, which builds on the successes of the Recovery Act, is an important step in our efforts to rebuild our economy."

The HIRE Act includes a payroll tax holiday for businesses that hire unemployed workers, to create some 300,000 jobs, and an income tax credit of $1,000 for businesses that retain these employees. It also includes tax cuts to help small businesses invest, expand, and hire more workers, provisions to make it easier for states to take up infrastructure projects such as school construction and energy retrofitting, and an extension of the Highway Trust Fund that allows for billions of dollars in infrastructure development around the country and saves American jobs.

The Recovery Act has already saved or created an estimated two million jobs – rebuilding our infrastructure and economy for global competitiveness. Through the Recovery Act, 95 percent of working Americans continue to see the benefit of one of the largest tax cuts in history in every paycheck. The House also passed the comprehensive Jobs for Main Street Act to make targeted investments in areas that will grow our economy over the long term – including highways, public transit, construction, small businesses, job training, and hiring and retaining teachers, police officers, and firefighters.