Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), chairman of the congressional Joint Economic Committee, called today’s announcement by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) that the economy contracted in the 1st-quarter 2014 “deeply disturbing.” According to BEA, real gross domestic product (GDP) declined during the 1st-quarter 2014 at an annualized rate of -1.0%. In its prior estimate, BEA estimated that real GDP has increased at an annualized rate of 0.1%.

“Private business investment drives job creation. When businesses invest, they hire new workers. Plain and simple. Later today, the House Committee on Ways and Means will take up legislation to make bonus depreciation permanent. This legislation is critical to increasing business investment, quickening economic growth, and igniting job creation in the private sector,” Brady said.

“Our economy has a real GDP growth gap of $1.5 trillion in this recovery compared with the average of other post-1960 recoveries. And that has left us with a private-sector jobs gap from the end of the recession of 5.7 million. We need action now to reverse the adverse effects of the Obama Administration’s policies of big government, higher taxes, and excessive regulation. Reducing the tax burden on new private business investment is a good place to start,” Brady concluded.

Brady also noted that yesterday, he released a Joint Economic Committee Republican Staff Analysis that supported making bonus depreciation permanent. A copy of the analysis entitled “Bonus Depreciation—Closing the Growth Gap” is attached and can be accessed on the Joint Economic Committee Republicans website.