Zoe Lofgren: “this rule should be rejected because the bill is unfair. Under this bill, thousands of jobless Californians will get an…”

“this rule should be rejected because the bill is unfair. Under this bill, thousands of jobless Californians will get an additional 13 weeks of unemployment instead of the 26 weeks that other States will get because California is not considered a high-unemployment State. Well, tell that to the people of Santa Clara County. An editorial in today's San Jose Mercury News lays out the facts. Since President Bush took office in January of 2001, 2.6 million jobs have vanished in America, 239,000 of them in Santa Clara County gone. We have had a 42 percent decrease in venture capital. The unemployment rate in San Jose is now a whopping 8.5 percent, and San Jose has lost nearly 16 percent of its jobs. Yet this bill does not treat Santa Clara County as a high-unemployment area, even though my county has more population than many States, including North and South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Delaware and many others to name just a few. This rule does not even let us debate whether a 26-week extension is appropriate, not just for the 6 States the Republicans consider to be high unemployment, but for cities like San Jose who are well above the national unemployment rate.”