Political Quotes

“I hope for and expect a strong bipartisan vote today for legislation to extend emergency unemployment benefits through the end of May and applies retroactively from the point emergency benefits expired in December. This is an important victory I wish had come much sooner--sooner for the 80,000 Michiganians who already have gone without unemployment benefits and for the thousands more who stand to lose them if Congress fails to act. These benefits keep food on the table and a roof overhead for families affected by job loss through no fault of their own. The idea that some of our colleagues have advanced--that unemployment insurance gives workers an excuse not to find a job--is as inaccurate as it is insulting. For all but a handful of recipients, unemployment benefits are not a free pass from working but the economic lifeline that keeps them going while searching for the job they so desperately want and need. I wish to commend Senators on both sides of the aisle who have not given up on this issue and who worked so hard to forge a compromise, led by Senators Jack Reed and Dean Heller. Republicans have joined with Democrats on the procedural votes necessary to move this bill forward, and I hope the bipartisan support for this measure in the Senate will prompt Speaker Boehner to bring it to a vote in the House. There is a strong bipartisan majority for passage in the House.…”