Come Saturday or Sunday, thousands of people in my State and literally more than 1 million Americans will see their unemployment benefits stop; 65,000 people in Illinois will lose their unemployment insurance benefits if we do not extend this; 1.2 million Americans nationwide will lose their unemployment benefits. It is all right for us to debate. It is certainly our job to offer amendments if we believe something should be amended. But at the end of the day I think we have to be sensitive and conscious of the fact that a lot of people will start to suffer in ways that most of us cannot imagine. When they lose their unemployment benefits and their savings are exhausted, they are about to lose their homes. I have seen that happen, and it is going to continue to happen.
Editor's note · Context
Senator Durbin addresses the urgent need to extend unemployment benefits for millions of Americans facing financial hardship.
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