Ron Estes: “I thank my good friend, Congressman Mike Bost, for hosting this very important Special Order hour. Today, we are more…”

“I thank my good friend, Congressman Mike Bost, for hosting this very important Special Order hour. Today, we are more than a year out from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we are also 5 months out from when the first dose of vaccine was administered. Defeating the virus through a safe and effective vaccine has been critical in reopening our country and our schools and getting Americans back to work. But the recent partisan policies of the left discourage work and create an employment gap in the country. I hear about this regularly in my district in Kansas. Small businesses, who were hit hard by the pandemic, were forced to shut down, had stay-at-home orders, and are now struggling to find workers to get back reopened. One of those small business owners, Jessie Sterling, shared with me her experience of struggling to have full employment while she raises her young children, something that was much more difficult when the schools were closed. While her business has seen customers return, many of her employees have not. Unfortunately, most of Jessie's employees opted to stay home and collect expanded unemployment benefits rather than return to the workforce. The additional $300 means that most of the part-time employees are now making more on unemployment than they were making at their job.…”