On the recordMay 21, 2013
Mr. Speaker, it's now been 870 days since I arrived in Congress, and the Republican leadership has still not allowed a single vote on serious legislation to address our unemployment crisis. Mr. Speaker, this is not an exaggeration to say that unemployment is a matter of life and death. In a new study, researchers at Oxford and Stanford found that approximately 4,750 suicides in the United States between 2007 and 2010 were attributed to unemployment. Now here in America, the sequester is slated to cut billions in nutrition subsidies, medical research, cancer clinics, low-income heating, and other lifesaving services. If we continue to cut jobs because of the sequester, Mr. Speaker, the facts are clear: the sequester kills. Mr. Speaker, it's time to bring H.R. 900, the Cancel the Sequester Act, to the floor for a vote. It is time to turn our attention back to jobs with the President's American Jobs Act. Our mantra, Mr. Speaker, should be: job, jobs, jobs. ____________________





