Political Quotes

“I would like to address this issue because I think it is important that we explain where we are today and why we reached this point. I can recall when Senator Graham crossed the aisle a week or so ago, perhaps, and started talking about unemployment insurance and his goals for unemployment insurance. It sounded consistent with the language and conversation I heard on our own side of the aisle, our own caucus, to use the unemployment insurance system as a way to make sure that people were able to really weather the storm when it came to the public health crisis we face. The number of people who are filing for unemployment has gone up dramatically. There were 2 million new unemployment claims filed last week, compared to 218,000 nationwide in previous weeks. So we know that the number of people who have lost their jobs--laid off, furloughed, fired--is growing in a fashion we have never seen before. I have seen it reported in my State. I am sure each of you have seen the same. But let's get down to the bottom line. I ask my colleagues just to bear with me for a minute. What you were describing is what we initially set out to do. And then we met with the representatives of the U.S. Department of Labor. I was on one of the task forces for the Senate Finance Committee, and I sat there as a representative from the U.S. Department of Labor came in and said: Senators, you don't understand 50 different States' computer systems when it comes to unemployment benefits.…”