Albert Russell Wynn: “Mr. Speaker, I rise to oppose, and strenuously oppose, this bill. It is fundamentally unfair. We talk in this body about…”

“Mr. Speaker, I rise to oppose, and strenuously oppose, this bill. It is fundamentally unfair. We talk in this body about the need for open and fair debate, but the Republicans have shut off the Democrats' ideas on this very important subject, how we can help those people who are unemployed. Years ago the legendary singer Marvin Gaye had a song out called ``What's Going On.'' Let me talk about what is going on. September 11 and its aftermath are going on, mergers, bankruptcy, failed dot-coms, closed plants, airline restructuring, corporate downsizing. That is what is going on in America. And the bottom line is people are unemployed. Now, today we could have a debate about two opposing views, the Democrats and the Republicans. Let us talk about what Democrats would do versus the Republicans' approach to Americans who are unemployed. First, those people we call exhaustees, those who have exhausted their benefits. There are 1 million Americans who have exhausted their benefits. The Democrats would give them 13 weeks of additional benefits. The Republican plan before us today gives them zero. That is unfair.”