Xavier Becerra: “Mr. Speaker, it is somewhat painful to say that we begin the 108th Congress today with new Members, a new majority in…”

“Mr. Speaker, it is somewhat painful to say that we begin the 108th Congress today with new Members, a new majority in the Senate under Republican control, a Republican-controlled House, a Republican in the White House, and the first order of legislative business in the 108th Congress in the year 2003 is a plan which gags the minority party in the greatest democracy in the world to discuss something very important to millions of Americans who are working and about to lose their jobs or who are trying to work but cannot find a job. It is difficult to believe that today, January 8 of 2003, that in the House of Representatives, the people's House, we will not have an opportunity to discuss how we can provide unemployment benefits, emergency unemployment benefits to a million Americans who are struggling to find work. In my State of California, over 100,000 Americans are out of a job and are trying to find ways to put food on the table.”