Political Quotes

“this rule brings to the floor a bill to reauthorize the National Transportation Safety Board, which is perfectly fine, but I must tell my colleagues that it is in no danger. It is funded through the end of this fiscal year, so there is no rush to reauthorize this program. On the other hand, unemployment insurance will expire at the end of this month. We only have 6 legislative days left before millions of Americans will no longer qualify for Federal unemployment insurance benefits. For that reason I urge my colleagues to reject the previous question so that we can bring up today the extension of Federal unemployment insurance. Mr. Speaker, extended benefits for unemployed workers have been less generous during this economic downturn compared to the last recession. Republicans have been very reluctant to extend unemployment insurance benefits to unemployed workers. During the last recession, in the 1990s, Congress kept an extended benefit program in place for 27 months and generally guaranteed benefits for 20 to 26 weeks. Today's program is scheduled to expire after only 15 months and providing only 13 weeks of benefits. The economy has lost twice as many private sector jobs as we lost in the 1990s, with 2.7 million private sector jobs having been lost in the last 2 years. That is a 2.3 percent decline in private employment. In the 1990s, we lost 1.5 percent.”