Political Quotes

“I want to thank the gentlelady for yielding and also for her tremendous leadership. Mr. Speaker, I rise to encourage all the conferees on H.R. 3630 to fully consider the chilling effect on the economy of any failure to fully extend unemployment benefits. While we are all pleased to see the economy slowly improving, unemployment rates continue to be unacceptably high; and, yes, there are four individuals looking for every one job. This job recovery still has not created enough jobs in our country. I have participated in many job fairs in my district, along with the Congressional Black Caucus; and we have witnessed thousands and thousands and thousands of people lining up for the jobs that existed. People want to work. It's not that people are sitting around waiting for their unemployment benefits. If there were jobs, people would work. So we need this bridge over troubled waters until we find out a way to create the jobs that people deserve. We must immediately extend all expiring unemployment benefits. The conferees should also strongly consider adding an additional 14 weeks of tier 1 unemployment benefits for the millions of 99ers who have completely exhausted their benefits. We don't remember that even with the extension of unemployment, there are between 2 and 3 million people who will not be eligible because 99 weeks is the limit. So we can't abandon those individuals. We have to pass, and we're asking for Congressman Scott's bill and my bill, H.R.…”