I want to start by reading one of the 400-plus communications we received. This is from Jackie of Amherst, New Hampshire: ``Unemployment benefits helped me make ends meet while I was using my savings and 401(k) to keep up with everything…

Mr. President, Congress cannot absolve itself of the responsibility to balance the budget by passing a constitutional amendment. Congress has an existing constitutional duty to control the purse. If Congress has the will to balance the…

I yield 2 minutes to another member of our committee, a distinguished, active member indeed, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Crowley).

I demand a recorded vote. A recorded vote was ordered. The SPEAKER pro tempore. This is a 5-minute vote. The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 234, noes 193, not voting 6, as follows: [Roll No. 923] AYES--234 Adams…

It is my privilege to yield 1 minute to the very distinguished gentlelady from California, Lynn Woolsey.

You know, when there is an issue as serious as this, you would think that the majority would let us introduce a substitute. Instead, the answer is a stone wall. So I am going to explain what is in my substitute. I want the American public…

I will just say to the majority, get in the shoes of the unemployed. If you don't, I think those who deny it deserve their unemployment.

There are fewer than 3 weeks until the new year, and yet, here they go again. Republicans are seeking a path of confrontation instead of collaboration. If Republicans were serious, truly serious about trying to come together on behalf of…

I was looking through some of the letters. Let me just read a letter in which the author is a single parent from Geneva: ``I never thought that I would have to start all over again looking for work in my late forties. I hadn't even been 1…

I thank the gentleman from Texas for joining us and explaining what this means in his State and throughout the country. We're determined to tell the stories and, as I said, to put faces on these numbers. And to do that, I have joined with…

And I thank the gentleman from Illinois for your distinguished service and your passion that you bring to this and so many other issues. I want to yield to the gentleman from Texas, who's the lead sponsor and ranking member on the relevant…

Thank you. What we're trying to do, as you say, is to bring America into this debate because if the faces are shown and the voices heard, our faith is that somehow we'll act. And as you say, Republicans tend to blame the unemployed instead…