Jared Huffman: “I want to thank the gentleman from Wisconsin for your leadership in organizing this hour of debate on such an important…”

“I want to thank the gentleman from Wisconsin for your leadership in organizing this hour of debate on such an important subject. I certainly want to lend my voice to the voices of my colleagues on this important matter. What we are asking for is very simple. We simply want an immediate ``up-or-down'' vote on whether to extend these Federal long-term unemployment insurance benefits. We are asking that because I think in all of our districts we see that too many of our constituents are unnecessarily suffering from Congress' failure to act. We owe it to our neighbors and their families--people who lost their jobs through no fault of their own, people who want to work, who continually are searching for work--we owe it to them to provide the support they need to get back on their feet. In my own home State of California, we have got over 339,000 Californians who have lost unemployment benefits. The number continues to grow the longer Congress waits, the longer we fail to act. California's currently got an unemployment rate of about 8.3 percent, but in many parts of my district--I include some rural areas--that rate is much higher. In fact, in Trinity County we have an unemployment rate that is over 11 percent. It is very important to remember that this is not an abstract issue. This is an immediate and deeply personal issue about real people and real struggles.…”