Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.J. Res. 42, and I thank Chairman Smith for taking the lead in fighting for American workers with this commonsense piece of legislation. I believe there has been a misconception about the intent of this CRA. Congress is not acting because we have a malicious intent to punish American workers. We are not even trying to disincentivize them from participating in the program. My colleague, Mr. Davis, said we should strengthen our programs, and what we are attempting to do is exactly that: strengthen the system that is intended to help unemployed Americans and allow them to prepare to reenter the workforce. The 2012 Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act made commonsense reforms to the unemployment insurance system with the goal of assisting Americans in returning to gainful employment. Yes, this included allowing States, like my own of Florida, to determine whether or not they wanted to include drug screening and test unemployment insurance applicants. And, yes, the law specifically stated two conditions: if the applicant had lost their job due to drug use and if they were seeking a new job that regularly required new employees to pass a drug test. Now, when the Department of Labor drafted the rule, they clearly went beyond the intent of Congress and tailored it too narrowly. This will only hurt prospective employees in the long term.…”