Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, it has been 1 month since the Senate acted in a bipartisan fashion to pass emergency unemployment extension. Just hours after the Senate acted, I introduced a bill, H.R. 4415, the same language passed by the Senate. It is fully paid for, would not increase the deficit, unlike the hundreds of billions of dollars in permanent tax breaks that the Republican leadership intends to bring to the floor this week. A month later, we still have no vote scheduled for extending unemployment insurance for millions of Americans--no vote, despite the fact that over 150 Members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, have cosponsored H.R. 4415; no vote, despite the fact that 2.6 million Americans have already lost this important benefit and 2.8 million will have lost that benefit by the end of the month, almost 3 million Americans; no vote, with 72,000 individuals, hardworking Americans, every week at risk of losing their unemployment insurance if we don't act. Helping jobless Americans who are actively looking for work is not only the right thing to do, but we have done this before. We have done this under Democratic administrations and Republican administrations. It is not a handout. It is simply a lifeline to help those folks who have lost their job stay above ground, above water, before they get their next job. This should not be a partisan issue; yet, yesterday, the Republican leadership said no to letting some of these jobless Americans testify at a Capitol Hill hearing.…”