SHAWN ROCCO - srocco@newsobserver.com
Cree employee Dave Emerson directs Vice President Joe Biden on a tour of the company's facilities in Durham on Thursday, March 18, 2010.
Speaking at a company in Durham, Vice President Joe Biden touted the administration's recovery efforts today, saying it had helped create or save 62,000 jobs in North Carolina.
Biden appeared at Cree, a manufacturer of energy efficient LED lighting products that had received $39 million in tax credits through the federal stimulus act, Rob Christensen reports. The company has hired 375 workers in the past year.
Biden did not try to sugar coat the continued high unemployment rate, but said the economy was on the upswing.
"The Recovery Act is working," Biden told a crowd of 150 people that included Cree employees and public officials.
Biden said that the nation's 10,000th stimulus project, a bypass around Sanford, was scheduled to begin next month.
State and local officials in attendance included Democrats Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton, House Speaker Joe Hackney, former House Speaker and now Sen. Dan Blue, Senate Majority Leader Martin Nesbitt and Durham Mayor Bill Bell.
Although Biden made no mention of the administration's health care bill, the timing of the visit — days before a scheduled House vote — was likely to be seen as a signal that the administration has the backs of the Democrats who support the health care plan.
No members of the House Congressional Delegation accompanied Biden.
Biden and Energy Secretary Steven Chu toured a laboratory at Cree before Biden's 25-minute speech. He was accompanied by a film crew from ABC News which is working on a story about a day in the life of the vice president.
Throughout his speech, Biden repeatedly emphasized the administrations concerns about the need for an economic recovery and to get people back to work.
"We want to make sure that everyone who aspires to the middle class can get there," Biden said.
Biden was expected to make another stop in Durham today.
