Political Quotes

“Madam President, I wrote to him on February 26 ``On behalf of the 201,000 Californians who will see their unemployment insurance benefits expire'' and telling him that the benefits will expire on Sunday, which was 2 days ago; that unemployment insurance is a lifeline to the long-term unemployed whose families have been hit hard by this recession. I thanked him for his immediate attention, and I hope he did, in fact, read this letter. And I hope he read my letter of March 1. I wrote to him as chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee. I wanted to make sure he knew that he also objected to reauthorizing the highway trust fund expenditures, and that means the Department of Transportation is starting to lay off people. They laid off inspectors, furloughed them. They will go back to work when we fix this mess. But what a mess. Do you know what it is to shut down construction jobs midway? By the way, these are private sector employers, private sector workers who are doing this work. It is unacceptable. I told him, ``It is hurting people in your State, in my State and all across the country.'' These Federal inspectors will be removed from critical projects across the Nation. Work is shutting down. I attached the Department of Transportation's list of the affected projects. I said: We can't have an economic recovery if people can't make ends meet and if transportation projects grind to a halt. We all know the housing sector is so weak.…”