Dan Burton: “In February 1997 the Legal Aid Society of Mercer County tried to win unemployment benefits for a man who lost his job…”

“In February 1997 the Legal Aid Society of Mercer County tried to win unemployment benefits for a man who lost his job because he was in jail. The man in question worked as a housekeeper at the Mercer Medical Center until he was arrested for aggravated assault and other charges. He spent 9 months in jail, and after his release the medical center refused to rehire him; they were afraid of this guy. Legal Services then filed suit seeking unemployment benefits for the guy. Legal Services claimed that he was owed unemployment because it was not his fault he lost the job. Can my colleagues believe that? That was done with taxpayers' dollars. All I can say is I can go into example after example after example of where the Legal Services Corporation has deliberately circumvented the will of the people and the will of the Congress of the United States, and they are doing it with taxpayers' dollars. We need to get a grip on this organization. We need to rein in the Legal Services Corporation, not give them more money as the gentleman from West Virginia wants to do or the gentleman from Pennsylvania wants to do. We need to put some constraints on them.”