Sen. Mark Udall is passionate about Colorado's outdoors. (Photo by Troy Hooper)

The San Juan Mountains Wilderness Act would designate 33,000 acres as wilderness — mostly as expansions of the existing Lizard Head and Mount Sneffels wilderness areas — in addition to adding mid-elevation lands to the system with a new area around 7,933-foot McKenna Peak, where imposing sandstone cliffs jut out of the plain. The bill would additionally designate about 22,000 acres as a special management area allowing some outdoor recreation activities such as hiking, hunting and fishing. Over 6,000 acres within Naturita Canyon would also be withdrawn from oil and gas development under the legislation.

“The bill protects existing water rights, allows continued grazing, does not affect the continued operation of a hydroelectric plant, continues to allow established heli-skiing on Sheep Mountain, and does not interfere with an important and popular footrace, called the Hardrock 100. It does not affect any current legal motorized or mechanical access,” Udall said.

The San Juan Wilderness Act was first introduced in 2009 by former U.S. Rep. John Salazar, D-Colorado, and has since been championed by Udall and U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colorado, who co-sponsored its reintroduction last fall. U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Colorado, has discussed the bill with stakeholders in the area but he has not taken a clear position on the bill.

In the past, Tipton has favored rolling back wilderness protections for public lands.

Leslie Weldon, deputy chief of the national forest system, said her agency supports the proposal and recognized “the wide support in Colorado for this bill.” But she also recommended softening language in the bill that would limit water projects so that it wouldn’t contradict existing laws.

Supporters of the bill include Ouray, San Miguel and San Juan county commissions, the city of Ouray and the towns of Ophir, Ridgway, Mountain Village, Telluride and Norwood as well as a number of local homeowners’ associations and landowners. The Bull Moose Sportsmen’s Alliance, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, Trout Unlimited and many businesses also back it.

“Colorado’s population is expected to double by 2050, and we need to be proactive so that future generations can experience the beauty, clean air and water, and wildlife that we have today,” Udall said. “I’m proud of my successful past work to designate wilderness at James Peak and in Rocky Mountain National Park, and I look forward to this bill and to my new collaborative, community-driven processes that I hope will ultimately lead to additional legislation to protect two other very special places in my state — the Central Mountains and the Arkansas River and Browns Canyon.”

The San Juan Wilderness Act now awaits a committee markup where its fate could be determined. Udall maintains he will do whatever he can to get the legislation approved in this Congress.

The most succinct and uncontroversial explanation as to just how the recession began is that a massive surge in foreign capital in the early 2000s sent banks scrambling for investment opportunities and they found them by offering more loans to more people. This meant opening loans to consumers with a higher risk of not being able to pay them back — those being the sub-prime mortgages, which became a very familiar term in the early days of the recession. We’re still living through what happened next. And yet amazingly, data indicate that as corporations begin to recover, lenders in some markets are starting to return to the very pre-recession practices that created the crash in the first place.

Approvals for sub-prime car loans have risen steadily since 2009 and are now at their highest rate since the recession hit, when lenders instantly became warier about approving loans for people with less than ideal credit scores. New data from automotive market research firm CNW show that sub-prime approvals in March are up more than 28 percent over where they stood in March of last year. The average credit score of consumers approved for auto loans has been shrinking accordingly every month since the first quarter of 2010.

Of course, sub-prime loans are not an inherently bad thing. Many consumers, from college students with limited credit histories to people who fell behind on bills during the recession after losing their jobs, may have low credit scores without actually posing a risk of defaulting on loans. Indeed, sub-prime financing is the only path to car or home ownership for many people. The problem comes when banks are too loose about whom they offer credit to and consumers are too confident about their ability to repay loans. If the auto loan trend continues unabated, the country may just be headed for more economic fallout.

Looking back at the recession years offers the best view of the problems easy credit can create. At first glance, auto loan delinquency rates (PDF) of the last five years seem to point to better times ahead. The number of people past due on auto loans has dropped significantly since an all-time high at the end of 2009. But this doesn’t necessarily mean a healthier consumer.

Those delinquency rates — at an all-time high in 2009, followed by a sharp drop — are just a part of the auto financing picture, which is further explained by more of CNW’s research on sub-prime auto loans. Using CNW data, the New York Times reported last month on sub-prime loans dating back to before the recession. As with mortgages, sub-prime financing for cars reached historical peaks in 2006 and 2007. Then the American economy started to tumble, and by the end of 2008, not only had car sales overall taken a huge hit, but sub-prime financing was being extended to virtually no one.

Meanwhile, a Ford Motor Company credit bureau report (PDF) states that repossessions on outstanding loans reached an all-time high of 2.12 percent in 2009 — an increase of more than 60 percent from the 2006 rate.

What to make of all this? Transunion Credit Bureau’s loan delinquency rates follow CNW’s sub-prime rates, on about a two-year delay. Sub-prime credit saw a massive increase leading up to 2006, then a huge cutback between mid-2007 and late 2008, before slowly crawling back up. Loan delinquencies saw a steady increase leading up to 2008 before tumbling in 2009. By the second half of 2010, they were on the rise again. And then there are the repossessions. After reaching their all-time high in 2009, they’ve started to drop down.

It seems, then, that there’s a correlation between sub-prime credit and, a year or two later, people falling behind on their loans. When they fall behind enough, they default and their cars get repossessed — an echo of the sub-prime mortgage bubble burst. Restrictions on sub-prime credit and terminations of outstanding loans may simply mean that the people who still have loans to pay are already financially more stable consumers — and that making credit easier to obtain will just start the cycle all over again.

While lenders and consumers alike have hailed the loosening of credit restrictions as a “return to normal,” only time will tell if “normal” is just a prologue to another sub-prime crash.

Representative Pete Sessions, a Republican in leadership, said he could back extending jobless benefits, favored by Democrats like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in exchange for an extension of all Bush-era tax cuts, including for the wealthiest groups.

“What we’re going to do is sit down and talk with Mrs. Pelosi,” Sessions told Reuters as he left a meeting of House Republicans. “I see nothing wrong with her winning as long as the American people do.” [...]

“It really strikes me as hard to explain why we would give charity to the richest people in America with additional tax cuts of $100,000 a year and deny the basic necessities of life to people who are out of work through no fault of their own,” said Richard Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate.

Obviously, no deal is yet in sight, but the comments above indicate that a link between the two concepts is becoming increasingly likely — and it’s doubtless a good messaging strategy for Democrats. As a lobbyist pushing for a year-long unemployment benefits extension told the Huffington Post, “Leadership is very aware of the beautiful symmetry of tax cuts for millionaires doesn’t need to be offset but $293 a week for the long-term unemployed does.”

Neither the Senate nor the House plans to be in session next week, however, meaning an extension of unemployment benefits would have to pass this week for nearly 2 million Americans to avoid losing their benefits come December. Linking the extension to the tax cut debate might give it a greater chance of passing, but it also seems destined to drag out the debate and virtually ensure that Congress will allow the crucial benefits to lapse one again. With Republican leadership rescheduling its much anticipated meeting with President Obama until after Thanksgiving, don’t look for any major deals to occur in the meantime.

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Federal Center solar installation, Bill Brunner (GSA)

The governor’s office says the Act has resulted in $7.3 billion in federal spending in Colorado, saving or creating 50,000 jobs, according to The White House Council of Economic Advisors (pdf). Projects range from loan guarantees that help Colorado businesses grow to grants awarded to small non-profits. The claim of 50,000 jobs is hard to prove and has been disputed, with some estimates saying fewer than 10,000 jobs have been created, many of them short-term.

Ritter spokeswoman Myung Oak Kim said it is impossible to know how many jobs have been saved or created. She said the White House number also includes jobs “induced,” which she defined as created indirectly, i.e. service sector jobs that exist because other jobs exist.

She said every recipient of stimulus money has to report to the government how many jobs were created or saved. That number, she said, is about 18,000 FTEs (full-time equivalents). She noted, though, that only about a third of the money goes toward projects that come under that reporting, with the rest going to tax cuts, extended unemployment, etc.

About 50 percent of the money allocated for Colorado has been spent so far, she said. “As more money is spent, employment will continue to go up because of this.”

Many of the jobs that have been created tie in with Gov. Bill Ritter’s agenda of creating a green energy hub in Colorado. Abound Solar, in Longmont, received $400 million in loan guarantees that enabled the company to expand production of thin-film photovoltaic modules. While Democrats tout the $400 million number, probably only about $100 million of it will be invested in Colorado, the rest being invested in expanding operations in Indiana.

“The DOE loan guarantee is essential to helping companies like Abound Solar scale up innovations in photovoltaic manufacturing that are critical to reducing the cost of alternative energy,” said Abound President and CEO Tom Tiller.

The governor’s office says a large majority of the funds are going for such things as tax cuts and tax credits for individuals and businesses as opposed to large bricks and mortar projects. A lot of it is also going to social service type programs (pdf) such as increased food stamp benefits and additional unemployment insurance payments.

“The Recovery Act has been a lifeline for Colorado,” said Ritter said through a spokesperson. “It is providing a sensible balance of tax relief, increased safety net benefits for struggling families and investment in important infrastructure projects that will have lasting benefits for communities across Colorado. The Recovery Act has saved or created tens of thousands of jobs.”

Jon Caldera, president of the Independence Institute, is one of the people not that happy about the stimulus. “It’s a terrific thing,” he said with his trademark sarcastic chuckle. “It has taught me how to use my children’s credit cards more effectively. Each of my children is already in debt $44,000 dollars on the federal side alone, so what’s a little more?

“There is no way that running up our debt is a good thing,” he said. “This is inter-generational theft, and it is reprehensible. Anyone caught within a mile of the stimulus bill should be publicly flogged,” he said.

The Colorado Independent called or emailed all three candidates for governor, but none responded to a request for comment. American Constitution Party candidate Tom Tancredo has been an outspoken critic of the spending bill.

Crossroads Safehouse is a good example of how money is being used to expand or strengthen the social safety net. The 30-year-old Larimer County non-profit, which provides housing and other services for victims of domestic violence, received a $500,000 grant spread over three years. The money has allowed the safe house to provide more services to more people for longer periods of time.

Prior to receiving the funds, Crossroads had funds for 15 transitional living units for women or families that were able to leave the safe house and begin transitioning back into mainstream society. Now they have money for 25 such units.

Executive Director Vicky Lutz explained that Crossroads does not own living units but helps women pay their rent as they get back on their feet, going to school or looking for work. The additional money has helped with bilingual services, education and childcare as well. She said the center had 436 residents last year and served a total of 2,600 people.

Another social services recipient of funds was the Denver Housing Authority, which received $10 million toward the construction of a $21 million, 100-unit public housing facility at 1099 Osage. The city will break ground on the building Sept. 27. It will be built with geothermal heating and cooling as well as active and passive solar.

Even when it does come to construction projects, many of them are small, impacting small communities and small businesses that receive contracts, often for infrastructure improvements.

One such project was in Hot Sulphur Springs, which — without much money — was in hot water. Two years ago the state issued a “boil water” order in the small Grand County town. The town’s water fund contained just over $160,000 at the time. The work needed was in the millions. Because of the stimulus, Hot Sulphur got the money. “It was a godsend to us,” Mayor Hershal Deputy told the local Ski Hi Daily News (pdf).

The $3.3 million loan, $2 million of which was forgiven and the rest of which was loaned without interest, was a godsend to more than the town.

Self-employed Littleton engineer Ed Duerr told the Colorado Independent the recession had hit him very hard. The Hot Sulphur project did more than keep his business above water. He says it provided him with the opportunity to work on an innovative project that will help people for many years.

“I wasn’t sure what I was going to be doing at the time, and my usual business partners had been hit hard as well. We were all scrambling. I know that a lot of people on this project were very glad when funding came through. There are a number of people, including myself, who have been working either part-time or full-time for over a year on this one project. At the end of the day, the stimulus was a very real deal for me and my business,” Duerr said.

He said the other companies he worked with — Merrick and Company and Garney Companies — were from Colorado as well. A “buy American” clause in the contract, he says, meant lots of business for other companies as well, including Siemans, which manufactured components for the project in Colorado Springs.

“A lot of folks in Colorado got a nice share of this one small stimulus project,” he said.

Lots of people have probably driven 6th Avenue between Kipling and Simms and wondered about all the solar panels going up on previously vacant land to the north. Bingo, it’s stimulus money, this time being spent at the Denver Federal Center. The $39.4 million project currently employs 39 people from seven contractors, five of which are small businesses or disadvantaged small businesses.

Altogether, this solar installation will save the federal government between $600,000 and $700,000 a year in energy costs.

The Denver solar project is the largest single part of GSA’s effort to add 12 megawatts of solar power generation capacity at federal buildings nationwide — increasing solar power capacity by nearly 600 percent while generating enough renewable electricity to power 1,600 homes — the equivalent of removing 2,500 cars from the road, according to a spokesperson at GSA.

UQM Technologies, in Frederick, received $45 million in stimulus funding to expand its facilities and ramp up production of electric vehicle propulsion systems. The company expects to grow from 70 jobs to 230, all in Colorado.

The $500 million redevelopment of Denver’s Union Station has been boosted by a $28 million grant from ARRA. That project will be complete in 2014.

Without those extraordinary measures, they say, the United States’ GDP would be 6.5 percent lower, the unemployment rate would be 3 percentage points higher, there would be 8.5 million fewer jobs and the economy would be experiencing deflation. Blinder is a professor at Princeton and a former Fed official. Zandi is the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics and a former adviser to U.S. Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign.

The economists also note that the stimulus — the $787 billion American Reinvestment and Recovery Act — had less impact and proved less important than the government’s monetary policy and financial-market stabilization measures, like the Fed buy-up of mortgage-backed securities.

Zandi and Blinder write:

It is understandable that the still-fragile economy and the massive budget deficits have fueled criticism of the government’s response. No one can know for sure what the world would look like today if policymakers had not acted as they did — our estimates are just that, estimates. It is also not difficult to find fault with isolated aspects of the policy response. [...]

While all of these questions deserve careful consideration, it is clear that laissez faire was not an option; policymakers had to act. Not responding would have left both the economy and the government’s fiscal situation in far graver condition. We conclude that [Federal Reserve Chairman] Ben Bernanke was probably right when he said that “We came very close in October [2008] to Depression 2.0.”

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The legislation retroactively grants extended benefits — additional weeks of unemployment, tacked on to state benefits where the unemployment rate is higher than 8 percent, and maxing out at 99 weeks — to June 2. (States are overloaded dealing with the backlog of recipients, but expect benefit checks to start rolling out in two weeks or so.) The extension lasts through Nov. 30. It does not create any new benefits, and does not extend the $25-a-week Federal Additional Compensation benefit.

Senate Republicans had held up the extension for more than two months, causing benefits to lapse for approximately 300,000 workers a day nationally. Senate Democrats failed to overcome a GOP filibuster numerous times — first via the tax extenders legislation closing a series of tax loopholes and providing aid to states, and then via a standalone bill.

Ultimately, the dispute came down to dollars. Republicans insisted that the unemployment extension not add to the deficit. Wanting the benefits to have a stimulative effect on the lagging economy, and considering them emergency spending, Democrats wanted to be able to increase the deficit. Ultimately, after the standoff, Democrats won — losing Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) in the cloture vote on Tuesday, but gaining Maine Republicans Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, as well as Sen. Robert Byrd’s (D-W.Va.) temporary replacement, Sen. Carte Goodwin (D).

Today, Democrats repeatedly berated Republicans for holding up the legislation. Once the Senate gained cloture on Tuesday, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) requested that Republicans agree to waive the 30-hour waiting period until a final majority-rules vote, as is customary. Republicans refused.

On the Senate floor, Reid blasted them. “The Republican leadership, supported by the overwhelming majority of its caucus, has stood in front of the burning house and said: Everyone wants us to put out the fire, but we’re going to sit back and wait a while before we turn on the hoses. That is a disgrace that brings shame to this institution. But more than that, it hurts the very people we were sent here to help. Why would someone in public service do such a thing? Why would they be so callous? … I simply don’t know. I am at a loss.”

But Republicans continue to see the fight in terms of the budget. “Hard times require hard decisions,” Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said on the floor. “What we are seeing is the easy way out.”

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Analyzing the jobs report for 2009, Moore predicted with job losses primarily in the urban centers of the district, U.S. Rep. Betsy Markey, a Democrat, could see those numbers chained to her by opponent Republican state Rep. Cory Gardner. Moore said with Republicans working to link congressional candidates to Barack Obama and the state of the economy, Markey will struggle to contrast herself with Gardner.

Pointing to Wednesday’s Department of Labor and Statistics release of 2009′s Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages report, the Coloradoan extrapolated job loss numbers for the district, finding that non-farm jobs decreased in 16 counties 3.7 percent between 2008 and 2009. That is in comparison to job losses across the nation of 4.6 percent and 4.7 percent in the state over the same period of time.

The data showed that more urbanized Weld and Larimer counties lost 4.2 percent of jobs between 2008 and 2009, while the rural parts of the district lost only 1.2 percent of their jobs.

Whether the loss of 9,500 jobs is still being felt in the district in 2010, and whether Markey is tied to Obama’s White House, may provide an indication as to how voters will place their allegiances in the urban centers that largely were Markey’s stronghold come Nov. 2.

Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Al Franken (Minn.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) are cosponsors. The Colorado Independent’s sister site in Washington spoke with Stabenow and Brown on the issue last week.

The new bill will include a $25-a-week supplement that was dropped as Democrats pared the jobs bill back to meet the requirements of moderate deficit hawks, none of whom ultimately voted for the bill. The new bill does not create any new tiers of unemployment benefits, instead restoring Tier IV benefits to the jobless. Congress added or expanded Tiers I through IV last year, as part of its stimulus plan.

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), who refused to cross the aisle for the jobs bill — objecting to, among other things, the closing of a tax loophole for “S corporations” — has said she will vote for a standalone UI bill. She urged Senate Democrats to take one up last week.

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But Republicans, who a month ago were saying that they’d recognize progress when the jobless rate fell, aren’t impressed. Indeed, Republican House Whip Eric Cantor (Va.) just issued a statement blasting the stimulus programs that are propping the numbers up.

[M]uch of what the Administration touts as a ‘jobs recovery’ has caused – and will continue to cause — the deficit to soar. Let me be clear – during challenging times, a job is a job. Yet government jobs that are paid for by taxing small business people and borrowing from the Chinese are not signs of a healthy economic recovery.

He has a point: 411,000 of those 431,000 new jobs are related to the 2010 Census and therefore temporary. Still, any new job creation is good news relative to the hundreds of thousands of jobs the economy was shedding a year ago. And, of course, the idea behind stimulus spending all along has been that the short-term hit to the deficit will be a tiny cost relative to the consequences of federal inaction.

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“Americans have demanded a real fence to combat the very real problems of illegal immigration that have led to human trafficking, drug trafficking, kidnapping and violence on our border,” DeMint said in a statement. “Congress will never be able to achieve long-term reform to create a legal immigration system that works until we secure our borders.”

The amendment will require the support of 60 senators to pass. Last year’s version attracted only 54.

h/t: The Hill.

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