James Davis: “this bill tonight, while a welcome step, will leave by the end of the year 2 million Americans without the safety net…”

“this bill tonight, while a welcome step, will leave by the end of the year 2 million Americans without the safety net that they have contributed to when they were employed as far as the unemployment compensation tax, as a part of benefits. 1.4 million Federal workers have already exhausted their State and Federal benefits. 685,000 workers will exhaust their benefits and be left stranded under this bill, 58,000 in my home State of Florida. There is a simple reason for this. This Congress is refusing to do what Democrats and Republicans came to do in the early 1990s during the recession and that is to add an additional 13 weeks of coverage after 13 weeks have expired from the Federal Government on top of 26 weeks of the State. There is no defense on the other side of the aisle as to why we should not repeat what Democrats and Republicans did in the 1990s to preserve the safety net. Who is being affected out there tonight by this? There are more than three unemployed workers looking for every job opening in the country today. 341,000 people lost their jobs in April. The unemployment rate is 6 percent. There are 8.8 million people out of work right now. One out of every five unemployed workers have been out for 6 months right now. The unemployment compensation trust fund today has $20 billion in it that is designed to be used exactly for the benefits the Republicans are refusing to provide tonight to these people who are looking for work.”