Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.) said Wednesday that the primary test of whether the $787 billion economic recovery package is working will be its long-term effectiveness in curtailing the staggering rate of job loss in the current economy.
    
"I think, looking ahead, two years from now we'll be able to look at [whether] the initial investment in the stimulus money paid off," the California congresswoman said in an interview with Neon Tommy. "You should be able to gauge in two years' time whether or not those job losses were stemmed, whether or not we were able to grow them."
    
With 20,000 Americans losing their jobs each day, President Obama has made job creation a centerpiece of the landmark tax-and-spending plan he signed into law earlier this week.
    
Some lawmakers have criticized Obama's assertion that the stimulus will save and create 3.5 million jobs as too lofty. A Congressional Budget Office analysis of one of the early versions of the legislation found that while the plan could be effective in the short-term, creating 1.3 to 3.9 million jobs in 2010, its effects could begin to fade by 2011.
    
But Sánchez, who voted for the plan, said the combination of "ready to go" projects that put people to work and investments in the health care, technology and renewable energy infrastructure will continue to create jobs help stabilize the faltering economy.
    
"The purpose of the stimulus is to get projects that are ready to go, start to put people to work as soon as possible, to help preserve jobs and to help create jobs," she said. "Some of the pieces of the stimulus also will have pieces of job creation benefits later down the line."
    
The Obama administration has been hesitant to set a precise timeline for measuring the success of the stimulus plan, but many officials and economic experts have estimated it will take 18 to 20 months for the economy to reflect the effects of the bill.

Speaking at a Feb. 8 press conference, Obama cited increased consumer spending, expanded credit lines for businesses and a stabilized housing market as anticipated signs the stimulus works, but did not directly mention long-term job creation and retention as a barometer for measuring the success of the plan.
    
Speaking to a group of college and middle school school students at USC, Sánchez chided her colleagues on Capitol Hill for failing to focus on the long-term health of the country, looking instead for instant gratification and political power points by pushing easy, fast-acting legislation.
    
"Oftentimes because of that pressure [to be reelected every two years], the solutions that tend to be chosen are vert short-term solutions, they're not well thought out and 5 years down the line, and we get rewarded for that," she said. "We do need to think a lot more about the long term view and what we want the future of this country to look like."
    
Sánchez, who represents Southern California's 39th District, was visiting USC's campus to discuss "Dream in Color: How the Sánchez Sisters are Making History in Congress," memoir she co-authored with her sister, Rep. Loretta Sánchez (D-Calif.).
    
The Sánchez sisters are the first related women to serve in Congress, and Linda Sánchez has broken racial and gender barriers in becoming the first Latina woman to serve on the high-profile House Judiciary and Ways and Means committees.
    
Though she applauded significant strides in increasing the representation of traditionally underrepresented demographic groups on Capitol Hill, Sánchez said there is still much work to be done before the composition of Congress reflects the diversity of the American public. Women, for example, make up about 50 percent of the American public but female Members comprise just 16 percent of Congress.
    
"Women are still grossly underrepresented," she said. "Congress has a long way to go before it looks like the America it's elected to represent."
    
Sánchez also spoke extensively about the challenges of being a member of not one, but two minority groups in Congress.
    
"You can't stop a colleague who just ignored you and say, 'Did you blow me off because I'm young, I'm a woman or I'm Hispanic?" she said. "You still feel like the old school, back-room cigar-smoking boy's club hasn't fully embraced you yet."